SUNRAYSIA shoppers have been urged to “buy local” as small businesses do it tough amid a perfect storm of turnover softening and overheads only going up.
Ahead of Mildura Rural City Council’s mid-year release of a new tourism strategy to help attract more visitors to the region, a local business owner and a councillor have encouraged shoppers to “keep their money as local as possible”.
Surf Crew Langtree Mall store manager Kate O’Brien, who has been running her business for 18 years, said this was “a quieter period than normal” as sales dipped following the popular Easter power-sports weekend.
“I know plenty of other business owners in town and they’re feeling the pinch, too,” Ms O’Brien said.
“Over Easter, when events were happening, it was above average. But a time like now, when there aren’t events to bring visitors to town, it’s tough for all businesses.”
Attracting more events to Mildura was expected to be a key focus of the council’s revamped tourism vision.
However, this was cold comfort for businesses about to enter an expected gloomy winter for sales.
“This clearly isn’t just a Mildura problem, though – it’s a reflection of what’s happening across the country,” Ms O’Brien said.
“People don’t have as much disposable income due to things like inflation, bill increases and other cost-of-living pressures, and the government doesn’t seem to have any money left to help like they did coming out of the pandemic.
“It’s important for locals to think about where they are spending their money, especially if they want Mildura to flourish again.
“I understand how easy it is to shop online, but the thing is, a lot of local businesses are selling the same things.
“Our stores mightn’t stand out as much with our online store on a Google search, because it’s hard to compete against the big chains.
“But now more than ever, you can shop online and still support local.
“Most of us do same-day deliveries and do in-store click-and-collects.”
Mildura councillor Glenn Milne said “across the board, businesses here are telling me it’s quiet and numbers are down”.
“A few local businesses have closed recently, including Fossey’s Distillery,” Cr Milne said.
“We recovered reasonably well out of the COVID pandemic, but with all the extra cost-of-living pressures, turnover has quietened down.”
Cr Milne said events were not the only silver bullet to lift Mildura’s local economy out of the doldrums.
“This is a national issue. There are so many factors now in play to bring back the confidence for people to travel again,” he said.
“We’ve got such a strong community that looks after itself because we’re often overlooked by everyone else.
“I work at the Salvation Army and I see the generosity of the local community, and we have a good business community that supports locals in need and sporting teams.
“But we do need to do as much as we can to buy local and show our support for them.
“We should be looking to buy our clothes, cars and many other things locally.
“We need to support local businesses and local jobs.”
