Does Te Awamutu’s new retail development affect main street businesses?

Worldwide evidence suggest this is the case. America has lead the Mall phenomena and are already re-inventing the malls as the next trend is being developed by the ever cycle of keeping the shopping experience fresh and exciting.

So the simple answer is yes, Te Awamutu city centre retailers are wise to be concerned and sit up. What is the difference between the new shopping centres and the traditional town centre shops? The obvious differences are national branded shops with slick marketing and displays, utilise every opportunity to maximise profit.

Shadow of former selves

According to James Bacos, an American retail expert at a German branch of Mercer Management Consulting, it took two decades for the centres to recover but only as a shadow of their formers selves, reduced to specialty shops, boutiques and restaurants.

History tells us that the chamber of commerce is ineffective as an association to band retailers together only a handful of retail outlets have the foresight and recognise this but are unable to come up with anything to combat the competition.

The need to increase marketing requires a larger budget, but a lot of smaller shops don’t want to foot the bill, nor want to put in the extra effort. Most bought a business as a lifestyle investment and would never have contemplated the energy needed to run in this new competitive market.  

Winning formula

‘Price, range and quality’ is the winning formula of shopping malls and is hard to beat.

There are no features in the main CBD to bring in either tourists or outside shoppers.

Parking is one major consideration as we all know and want to drive to the shop.

The novelty factor may in time develop permanent habits. Main street retailers should have been working hard to maintain their share of the retailing dollar. And with the current economic climate the competition just got harder.