Core Retail Trading Hours should maximise sales not add unnecessary trading costs to consumers
and be Sustainable Retailing sensible!
State governments such as NSW pandering to giant retailer and shopping centre vested funding and influence interests.
Ignoring their small high employing retail sector – dumb retail trading hours’ policy?
 

The RETAiL Alert Group is in favour of retail trading hours maximising sales with minimum wage costs not adding unnecessary trading costs with no bottom line return  - also retail trading hours being Sustainable Retailing sensible.
 

·         Extending trading hours without addressing relevant retail award restructuring and the effects on the environment is plain dumb retail trading hours’ policy.
 

·         State governments are pandering to giant retailer and shopping centre vested funding and influence interests ignoring their large number small high employing retail sector in their push for more market share and more market control – the NSW government is being conned.
 

·         Retail wages as a % of sales has grown faster than sales generated by current extended trading hours for the vast majority of Australian retailers – any further increase in trading hours will simply mean extra costs being passed onto consumers – plain unthought through dumb retail trading hours policy.

State governments such as NSW who are proposing to advance retail trading into established national religious and nationally important holidays such as ANZAC Day are also ignoring a massive voting block backlash.
 

The NSW Government’s Better Regulation Office has naively ‘bought’ the major retailer and shopping centre extended trading hours line hook line and sinker – something wrong here; what consultations were there with the massive number of NSW small trading retailers already at a rent disadvantage in NSW Shopping Centres?
 

More importantly more retail trading hours is not commercially necessary – it will add to retail costs paid for ultimately by NSW and Australian consumers.
 

·         Extending hours into established holidays such as Christmas Day, Boxing Day, Good Friday, Easter Sunday and ANZAC Day morning is not sensible – the costs of trading particularly and sales made other than maybe Boxing Day not justified – the environmental costs of all these hours of trading again not justified.

There are more than enough retail trading hours already geared to support prime retail trading periods such as Christmas and New Year – there is already seven day trading and late night trading in NSW.
 

·         If any extension to trading hours is considered these should not be enforced as core trading hours within Shopping Centre Leases – retailers able to opt out when trading costs are greater than profits generated.

Retail Shopping Centres and major supermarkets are massive users of power and energy resources – extended trading hours increases car traffic and therefore pollution substantially.
 

·         Shopping Centre owners do not care about retailers or the environment – the costs of extended trading is passed directly onto retailers and therefore consumers – pure greed created by political and market power.

Major retailers spread service thin to cover extended trading – objective to profit crunch and sales strip smaller efficient retailers who have to have at least one sales team member employed during end of trading ‘fringe’ non profitable shopping centre trading hours.
 

Our push is for National Retail Trading Hours and Awards which sensibly provide maximum profitable trading hours for all retailers and therefore consumers with minimum wage and operating costs.
 

Retail wages as a % of sales has grown faster than sales generated by current extended trading hours for the vast majority of Australian retailers – any further increase in trading hours will simply mean extra costs being passed onto consumers – plain unthought through dumb retail trading hours policy.
 

·         State governments such as NSW should stop pandering and being seduced by major retailers and powerful shopping centre owners stopping further extension of retail trading hours until such time a thorough overhaul of Australia’s trading hours and retail award takes place under the guidance of COAG.

We recommend NSW Retailers or specialty chains trading in NSW contact the NSW Rees government lobbying for no change to NSW retail trading hours until such time COAG has had a thorough review of National Retail Trading Hours and National retail Awards.

To comment on Extended Retail Trading Hours email Extended Retail Trading Hours For or Against.
 

Tony Standley
Principal
The RETAiL Alert Group (Australia)
Mobile +61 (0)41 924 0497
e-mail info@adsass.com.au
Fax +61 (0)2 9987 0633
Website http://www.retailalert.com.au
 
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