Editorial Tuesday October 28, 2014

Peter Jackson, editor, The Northland Age

Shop till they drop

SMALL towns don't like seeing businesses close, so it is hardly surprising that one Northland Age reader (so far) has taken exception to seeing time called for Kaitaia's Specsavers. Kaitaia has had a resident optometrist for donkey's years, but as of the end of this week customers will be expected to travel to Kerikeri or Whangarei.

That's not good for anyone. Travelling to Kerikeri from Kaitaia will mean the best part of half a day off work for many, while those who can't afford the drive might well decide they can get by without having their eyes checked and glasses changed. That doesn't represent good business for Specsavers, and at worst could cost some people their sight.

However, one can hardly criticise the owner for reaching the age of retirement. Michael Barradell has owned and operated the business for some years, and cannot be expected to carry on into his dotage as the provider of some sort of public service. The best Kaitaia can hope for perhaps is that another optometrist will see an opening in the town and move in, although that's probably a long shot.

It should also be remembered that businesses have always come and gone. There was a time when almost every small rural community had its own general store, often with a Post Office attached. Peria has its Bush Fairy Dairy, but most of those small communities, many of which hardly even warrant the term community any more, particularly if they have lost their school, now depend upon a larger centre some distance away.

That is simply the nature of progress, for want of a better word, and, like climate change, will continue despite the wishes of a dwindling number of potential customers. And it has to be said that some people are their own worst enemies when it comes to nurturing the businesses that serve them.

That has long been demonstrated by the enthusiasm with which big box stores have been patronised. Before KFC made the decision to open in Kaitaia the company carried out market research to establish the size of its potential customer base.

That research revealed that the residents of Far North towns - Kaitaia, Doubtless Bay, Kaikohe, Kerikeri, Paihia and Kawakawa, if memory serves - displayed wildly differing levels of loyalty to their local businesses, but whatever the experts say it is clear that many people are interested only in range and price.

Hardly surprising, really. Take range and price away and there isn't much left, but it is difficult to understand how some people are happy to patronise big box stores, like The Warehouse and Farmers, or shop out of town, but complain when local shops give up the ghost. They can't have it both ways.

This newspaper has suggested before that people might give some thought to who sponsors their kids' Saturday sports gear, who provides raffle prizes for community fundraisers, and who supports their community in so many other ways before they spend their money.

That is not to say that in Kaitaia at least the big box stores don't show some degree of community spirit. They do. And they employ local people, but every dollar spent there is a dollar that doesn't support a local business owner who helps keep the main street alive. That's a reality that some people just don't see.

For many years Kaitaia had a shoe shop, but the time came when the ability of The Warehouse to slash prices really began to bite. The end came when it obtained a container or two of school shoes, which sold like hot cakes. The school shoe market had been the one bright spot on the shoe shop's calendar, and when those customers deserted it the owner closed her doors. The following year The Warehouse in Kaitaia didn't have school shoes, and parents found themselves going to Kerikeri, more than one being heard to bemoan the absence of a local store, as though the decision to close had been made out of spite.

Kaitaia's locally-owned stores seem to have adapted to life alongside The Warehouse and Farmers, and other big franchises that for some are within relatively easy driving distance; it might have escaped the fate of many small towns in the United States, which by all accounts are home to Walmart and bugger all else. But now there is a new enemy at the gates, the internet.

The motivations for shopping online are the same as those that surfaced when The Warehouse arrived - range and price. And some spend their money online as a matter of convenience. That's understandable perhaps when the alternative is to enter the human maelstrom at a city mall, which for many makes shopping something to endure rather than enjoy, or if it means avoiding the need to drive to a town some distance away, but price, range and convenience could come at a huge cost to towns like Kaitaia. And people need to understand what it is that they are potentially risking.

We cannot take it for granted that the main street shops will always be there when we need them, and that they can survive when we don't. Every small town resident, and those who depend upon them from a distance, has a part to play in maintaining the commercial heart of those towns, and the only way they can do that is by patronising them. Even if it might cost a bit more than an internet supplier can offer, even if the range isn't what it might be, and even if purchases don't arrive at the door by courier.

The danger is twofold. Firstly, a town without shops is hardly a town at all. Apart from the more immediate loss of employment, a lack of locally-owned businesses will eventually tear the heart out of a town, something that Kaitaia should have been addressing for some time now. Its local business community might be resilient, but the last census showed that Kaitaia's population had begun falling, and that could well become a trend.

Secondly, like big box stores, the internet doesn't set out to provide goods that people might need. It offers what it chooses to offer, and customers who want something else can whistle. The perils of shopping online without access to pre-sale expertise, or after sales service, hardly need explaining.

At the end of the day, saving a few dollars by shopping online does no one any favours, including the customer who scores a supposed bargain. A cheap pair of shoes or a book becomes very expensive when it tips the balance for a local retailer, who lays off staff, shuts his doors and moves out of town. Not that everyone will worry about that.

Kaitaia, like every small town no doubt, is home to some who appeal to local businesses for sponsorship in cash or kind and then patronise the opposition, because it is in their immediate financial interests to do so. How anyone could justify that beggars belief, but it happens.

Some people seem to think that locally-owned businesses operate as a public service, to be there when they are wanted and not to complain when they are not. As the song says, 'You don't know what you've lost 'til it's gone,' in small town New Zealand's case seemingly to be succeeded by $2 shops and yet more eateries.

Then there's the saying, 'Use it or lose it.' Perhaps that should be every small town's motto.