Retail therapy

Peter Switzer

Does your business rely on the unique character of your locality? Small businesses in retail precincts known for their individuality are battling the chain store behemoth as shopping malls loom over traditional shopping strips.

Retailers in a slower economy have been doing it tough. Even one of Australia's most famous shopping strips, Sydney's Oxford Street in Paddington, has a battle on its hands.

Mary Read, proprietor of Cambodia House, is working toward recapturing shoppers’ interest in this unique retail district. Cambodia House is a not-for-profit upmarket homewares and gifts retail business where the profits are used to source products from Cambodia so that the locals can develop businesses and earn export income. “When Westfield's Bondi Junction opened, initially they captured 25–35 per cent of our market. Those chain shops which were in both areas found they were doing old Paddo turnovers in Bondi Junction while their Paddo turnovers were halved.”
 

Responding to her difficult situation in which sales have fallen but rent remains high, Read has reviewed her whole business. “We've turned to research, upped our marketing through emails and worked harder with our shop window to improve trade”, she says.

Standing out from the crowd

Read also had Sydney-based retail consultant, Louise Targett of Target Retail Training, run her objective eye over the operation. “Mary's message to the public needs to be clearer about what she is selling and the window is the place to make that statement”, Targett says. “The Cambodian theme of authenticity should be strongly seen in the props used — it has to be mind-blowingly Cambodian.”
 

Targett says retailers have to create an experience for customers so that they will want to come and come again. She says retail has to be like theatre. Smaller retailers have to tap into their uniqueness compared to well-known chain stores. She also advises that retailers such as Read should play to their emotional strengths. “This is a great story and every product that leaves the store should be branded with the story”, she says. “I know when I buy Christmas cards from charities I am proud to send them to friends.”

Keeping a unique retail precinct alive

Read is hoping the Paddington Chamber of Commerce can help breathe life back into the precinct: “They are approaching local councils for funding to re-market Oxford Street. The intention is to promote the uniqueness and quality of the shops in the area.”
 

The Chamber represents 300 businesses in the battle with Westfield. “At one stage we had around 20 shops for lease but we're now down to about three or four, so things are improving. The big chain stores stayed but some of the medium-size chain stores went to Bondi Junction”, the Chamber president said.

Negativity can be infectious, with Read believing that the empty shop syndrome compounded on the general tough times for retailers. “I had an empty shop beside me for one year and another that has oscillated from being empty to having temporary shops”, Read says. “Even Paddo markets have been hit hard.”

Targett thinks Oxford Street has become confused and does not communicate clear messages to consumers about what it stands for. “It seems confused with well-known chains and unique stores”, she says. “Newtown has a vast array of restaurants from all over the world which clearly defines it. And even Woollahra, just beside Paddington, has galleries, antique stores and wonderful food outlets to define it clearly.” Like Read, the Paddington Chamber of Commerce is turning to experts to lift the precinct's draw power through a public relations strategy to advertise its uniqueness.

Clone town syndrome

As Westfield looms over Paddington, shopkeepers are concerned they are being threatened by a “clone town” situation that has been raising the ire of shoppers in the United Kingdom. A clone town is where the individuality of high street shops is replaced by a “monochrome strip of global and national chains”. Shopping strips become predictable with the same stores dominating the precinct. A survey released in late 2005, entitled Clone Town Britain, found 42% of British towns were clone towns, and a further 26% were under threat of becoming a clone town.
 

On the other hand, a hometown has a high street that has a unique character and is instantly recognisable and distinctive to the people who live there, as well as to those who visit.

In the US, which is credited as being the home of clone towns, there have been some local backlashes. A Keep Louisville Weird campaign was launched to assist American Midwest local stores. Meanwhile, in New York, laws could be passed to evaluate the impact on the community of big retailers muscling into local shopping areas.

Paddington is a long way from being a clone town, and the chain stores leaving to go to Westfield Bondi Junction may well have helped keep it that way. Targett says retailers and retail precincts have to play up their uniqueness — it's great retail therapy.

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