By Patrick Avenell
WAUCHOPE, NSW: The Retravision store in Wauchope, northern New South Wales, is experiencing an uplift in sales after moving to bigger premises, but the focus remains on promoting local shopping in the town.
Proprietor Rod Newman told Current.com.au that since moving to bigger premises on High Street, business has been good. Especially popular at the moment are set top boxes and high definition televisions, with local consumers taking advantage of new channels from the digital TV switchover.
Newman explained that although he hadn’t been thinking of moving, when the opportunity to relocate to a bigger store on the main road came up, he moved swiftly to capitalise.
“There was a carpet shop in here, and I heard they were moving, I know the owner of the building, so I rang him up, I hadn’t even thought about it till then,” said Newman.
When asked what the big issue was for regional retailing, Newman said that encouraging consumers to shop locally was the biggest challenge. As he explained, Port Macquarie is only 15 minutes away, so the temptation to drive into the nearest regional centre, with its Radio Rentals, Good Guys and Harvey Norman stores, is alluring to some residents.
We asked Newman whether encouraging local shopping was in his mind when he moved the store.
“That’s what I’m trying to do. I’ve just painted the building up, I’m on the main road where they’ve got to drive past, [continue to] do what we do best: local good service.”