shopping nightmare

I've decided to stay well away from Sylvia Park this weekend - preferring hell to be involved chaos similar to Thursday's opening. Picked up a few stories from people working there on the day, including hair pulling, fisticuffs and people stealing hot deals from other customer's trolleys. And that was all before the $49 TV's sold out 7 minutes after opening the doors. Even more bizarre than Nat MP Maurice Williamson blaming the traffic chaos on Labour, was a very senior Progressive Enterprises (Owner of Foodtown) employee vandalising a display in the front of the Warehouse and having to be calmed down by Warehouse founder Steven Tindall. Foodtown, apparently, wasn't doing very well during the morning in comparison to the Warehouse.

sylvia nearly here

On Thursday, Stage 1 Sylvia Park opens to the public. It will be, most likely, the most exciting thing to happen in NZ retail this decade (for retailers at least). While it may be eclipsed in size by future developments, it's scope and location will make it a winner, at least in the long run.

In the lead-up to the grand opening, retailers will be finialising the setup of their store interiors, and the developers will be rushing to complete the internal roads and carparks. With the next stages still under construction, shopping at Sylvia may be a bit of a chore for a while. Expect dust on your car until it's finished.

There's no doubt we'll be spending more and more time in malls, which hopefully won't lead to the death of current suburbs of character. I'd be a shame to wake up one day, suddenly realising that Kingsland has turned into Albany. I'm still looking forward to seeing the doors open at Sylvia.

In related rants, my local supermarket has decided to move all their wines into new fangled fridges. Which is fine, they needed more space for the chilled beer and wine. But they've messed it up completely. Firstly, they're horrible fridges with doors, so I see more fridge than I do wine. Secondly they've laid out the fridges by supplier - judging by the Montana logo, Pernod Ricard (NZ's largest wine supplier) has paid for the fridges.

This is wrong on many levels.
1. I don't shop for wine by supplier. The fact I happen to know who supplies what wine in the NZ marketplace is, frankly, an odd thing for a person to know. I'd imagine most don't. I - and everyone else - shops by the type of grape it was made with. Now I have a hell of a time finding a Sauv Blanc I want.
2. They've profiled sparkling in between the still wines. That's just stupid. Plus, they've given Lindauer prime position, so unless Pernod is going to ignore the Commerce Commission, they have given the best space to a future competitor.
3. The space on the shelf doesn't belong to suppliers, it belongs to me - the customer.

So, grow come balls Foodtown, and give your space back to the customer. And grow up Pernod, you'll sell more if you make it easier for me to shop.

Who's got the biggest box?

Very big-box retail weekend. Saw Botany Downs, got scared. Left. Ventured, out of necessicity into The Warehouse, Farmers, Briscoes and Arbuckles, all in the quest for a blanket to enjoy long winters nights in front of TV. I didn't want a throw. I didn't want something that would grate against my skin. I most certainly didn't want everything in pastel or loafer-tan colours. Erugh.

I just wanted a bloody blanket.

To cap it all off, all the above source from the same suppliers. Same colours, same designs, just different packaging. All ugly ugly ugly. Looks like two suppliers dominate the NZ manchester scene. (In its defence, The Warehouse did have some nice throws, but lost points for pushing hideous snuggle sacks). It took the global giant, K-Mart (Categories managed out of Oz) to prodivde something unique and interesting in the NZ retail blanket scene. A different choice.

If you driven on the southern past Mt Wellington in the past year, you'll have seen the newest big box rising. Well, more a collection of them. Sylvia Park will be mamoth. Just huge. The fact it's opening in stages will give you that. The fact there will be three players desperate for your weekly grocery shop (Progs, Foodies and -if you havn't heard, where have you been - The Warehouse.

But if you're looking for hope to find something unique and interesting - like a blanket- you won't. It'll be the same thing, really. These blokes have signed up. So have these. A few new aussie retailers are all over it, including Howard's Storage World and Secrets, the diamond-in-a-lab company (also opening in Newmarket). And despite being a construction site still, the carparks are already: a. in the plural, b. large and c. full.

But look down the aisles at these stores. Match them up. Same old stuff. Foodtown will certainly have the best food offer, but it wont be different to Greenlane Foodtown. Dollars though volume. Foodstuffs teaming up with Metcash, Progressive's recent supplier stouch, twisting the arms of suppliers on both sides of the tasman, will mean less choice for the consumer. A jetset marketing adviser told The Sydney Morning Herald that

"My experience of this happening in the UK is there's very little manufacturers can do but roll over. It's standard operating procedure for retailers. The first thing they do is look at the price book of the company they've acquired and drive down prices. When Wal-Mart took over ASDA in the UK, the instructions were to do exactly that."

He went on to say,

"Sympathetic to the plight of small manufacturers" but they would disappear in the Woolworth's takeover of Progressive [and that]"Inevitably a lot of small manufacturers will fall by the wayside."

Much the same point, less callously told, from Rod Oram in the Sunday Star Times.

But, until we see what the lastest oversized ticky-tacky will bring, I now can enjoy those winter nights, in front of the box, warm and comfy with my blanket.