Holding a referendum on the subject and having it rejected should be enough to stop all nonsensical talk of shopping hours deregulation for the next decade. However, here we are, not even three years later and not only has the government allowed freestanding liquor stores to open on Sundays but they are still considering forcing changes through parliament, going against the public's wishes.
Surely this is a crime of democracy!
There a three pathetic arguments 'for' deregulating shopping hours.
1. Nobody else in the world has such restrictions.
2. Creates 'thousands of new jobs' and gives workers greater flexibility in the hours they work.
3. I can do my shopping after work or whenever I want.
Why are these arguments pathetic you ask?
1. If everyone else jumped off a bridge and fell to their death would you do it to? I doubt it. Now, thats a pretty extreme example but the reality is just because everyone else does it, doesn't mean its a good thing.
Perth is consistently ranked as one of the most livable cities in the world and has a booming economy. Have you ever heard the saying 'If it ain't broke, don't fix it'? We don't need to make changes to our shopping hours, we already have amazing lifestyles and our way of living is well above the rest of the world. Considering all the other problems this state faces, let alone the world as a whole, extending trading hours is the lowest of the low in terms of priority.
Now a lot of the pro-deregulation idiots just say not changing is 'just so conservative' and start going on about Perth being a backwater as if using Perth's remoteness as an excuse for them being losers. This is incredibly short sighted. Its not a case at all! Leaving trading regulations intact is not just a case of the 'fear of change' its because regulated trading hours is something that makes this city better and special.
I was inspired to write this blog entry after going into the city yesterday to do my Christmas shopping. It was a Thursday and it's the week before Christmas. Christmas is obviously the busiest shopping period of the year and in the lead up to the big day all shops in the Perth CBD are allowed to trade till 9pm. Since it was a Thursday and all shops outside of the Perth and Fremantle CBDs are allowed to open till 9pm as well, essentially every shop in Perth was allowed to open till 9pm. This happens every year and its fairly well known.
So its on this day that we can kind of get an idea of what impact having all shops open at all times has on our shopping culture. I'll come back to this, but lets get an idea for what it is like for the rest of the year.
For some perspective, let's remember that Perth is a 1st world city the size of London, but with a population of just 1.5 million people.
Usually, due to retail trading hours restrictions, Friday nights and Sunday afternoons are reserved exclusively for the shops in the CBDs of Perth and Fremantle. This encourages all citizens who wish to do their shopping at these times to head into the CBDs because the stores closest to them are closed. For fat lazy people, this may be a hassle, but for everyone else, its not a problem. People converge on mass to the shopping districts. Competition for parking is intense, but thankfully the CBDs are easily the most well serviced regions of Perth via public transport. As you can imagine, public transport is a far more attractive option for many people, whereas, if they were going to a suburban shoppping centre to do their shopping, a huge majority would almost certainly drive their own cars. The benefit this has for the Perth environment, and probably the world as whole is probably unmeasured but I imagine it is immense.
There are many other advantages as well. Since all shops in the CBDs know that they have exclusive access to Perth's shoppers on these time periods, you can pretty much guarantee that the shop you want will be open. Less worrying about the opening hours of the stores you want to go to is always less stressful.
Having so many people flock into the cities at these specific times also creates an amazing atmosphere. Lots of people mean more buskers and artists are out and about entertaining and displaying their art. The weekend markets are also set up to catch the hordes. In all my travels I have never seen anything like it, and certainly nothing remotely similar to it in a city of under 2 million people. I love it, I always run into people I know and have a chat. People then start talking about 'how small perth is' but its probably just because everyone is coming to the same place to shop. It's amazing.
Now, what was it like in the city this particular Thursday night? I took a photo (Note, despite being night time it is still very bright because the government has introduced daylight saving despite the people of WA rejecting it at three referendums!):
There are still people there, but not even a 1/4 as many. Half of the shops had closed early, despite the eased trading restrictions. With the foot traffic heavily reduced by competition from the suburban malls, it wasn't worth most of the shops paying employees to keep the shops open. There was only one busker, I saw him arrive and I could see he was clearly disappointed by the turn out and it was Christmas too!
With deregulated shopping hours, Perth will be catapulted towards being yet another soulless inner-city like Brisbane. Perhaps one day when we reach a population of over 3 million like Sydney or Melbourne, it might work, but that is still a long way away. Decentralization is a bad bad thing. We must protect our CBDs.
3. Pro-deregulation argument three is so bad that I now use it to judge personality. If someone uses this argument when discussing trading hours, I can instantly tell that they are ignorant, selfish, small minded people who aren't worth the time of day.
If sacrificing all that I have outlined already just so that you can 'shop when you want' is your argument, then you are a pathetic piece of flesh.
Need some bread and milk? Go support your local deli!
Need something more complicated like meat and vegetables for your bbq? Go to your local independent Supermarket. Mine is open 8am to 8.30pm EVERY DAY!
Need something at 2am? Go to Fresh Provisions, Easy Plus or the many many service stations that are open 24 hours a day!
Need consumer goods not found in super markets? Buy it on the internet or get up off your fat ass and go to a real shop. Suburban malls are open till 9pm on Thursdays. The city is open Friday till 9pm, 9-5 Saturday and 12-5 Sunday.
Weekend markets are open on Sundays as well! Why don't you check them out.
3b. I've asked people who have come into my store (owned by Woolworths) why they like our store being open on Sundays, when you have always been able to buy liquor on Sundays from bottle-shops attached to the local pub. The only somewhat sensible answer I ever get is because 'BWS is cheaper'. This is slightly true, but we are only cheaper on a few shitty products and these lower prices come at a huge expense to the consumer. Choice.
To get these lower prices, we are heavily sponsored by the biggest liquor companies, for example, Fosters. Fosters gives us their products at cheaper prices on the condition that we remove as many competing products from our shelves as possible. Fosters products are always given priority in product placement and stock kept on hand. In the three years that I have been working at BWS, the range of products that we keep in store has easily halved. Not only that, since Fosters is Victorian, many West Australian products have either been removed or have been totally ignored in favor of Eastern States products, no matter how bad these eastern products are.
Pro-deregulators will then argue that we live in a capitalist society and so we should have no rules and let it be a free for all, live or die. Don't they realise that sometimes we have rules for reasons. Don't we have rules, such as laws, that are designed to protect us and make our quality of life BETTER!
What good would sports be if we started easing back the regulations. Why do we force cricketers to bowl the ball instead of just throwing it at the batsmen? Wouldn't throwing it be more efficient? Why don't we let footballers just throw the ball around instead of punching it? Shouldn't we just give them the freedom to do what they want? Sure... you could... but it would ruin the beauty of the game.
Extending trading hours will ruin some of the unique beauties of this wonderful city, all for the sake of some stupid lazy slobs. Its not about 'shopping when you want' its about protecting our unique quality of life and stimulating our own culture.
If you can't EASILY buy what you need in Perth at the moment, then you need more than just extended trading hours. You need a bullet in your poor ignorant brain to put you out of your misery.
There are many other advantages as well. Since all shops in the CBDs know that they have exclusive access to Perth's shoppers on these time periods, you can pretty much guarantee that the shop you want will be open. Less worrying about the opening hours of the stores you want to go to is always less stressful.
Having so many people flock into the cities at these specific times also creates an amazing atmosphere. Lots of people mean more buskers and artists are out and about entertaining and displaying their art. The weekend markets are also set up to catch the hordes. In all my travels I have never seen anything like it, and certainly nothing remotely similar to it in a city of under 2 million people. I love it, I always run into people I know and have a chat. People then start talking about 'how small perth is' but its probably just because everyone is coming to the same place to shop. It's amazing.
Now, what was it like in the city this particular Thursday night? I took a photo (Note, despite being night time it is still very bright because the government has introduced daylight saving despite the people of WA rejecting it at three referendums!):
There are still people there, but not even a 1/4 as many. Half of the shops had closed early, despite the eased trading restrictions. With the foot traffic heavily reduced by competition from the suburban malls, it wasn't worth most of the shops paying employees to keep the shops open. There was only one busker, I saw him arrive and I could see he was clearly disappointed by the turn out and it was Christmas too!
With deregulated shopping hours, Perth will be catapulted towards being yet another soulless inner-city like Brisbane. Perhaps one day when we reach a population of over 3 million like Sydney or Melbourne, it might work, but that is still a long way away. Decentralization is a bad bad thing. We must protect our CBDs.
2. Creates thousands of new jobs??? Perth already has huge difficulty filling all the jobs we already have on offer. Restaurants and stores are in serious trouble because of a lack of staff. We don't need more jobs.
2b. More flexible work hours? I don't think so. I work at a bottle store and just this year, despite the referendum, they allowed all liquor stores to open on Sundays. Hours become less flexible, I have to work Saturdays and Sundays now. I used to always have Sundays free to study or play. Not any more. If I say that I refuse to work Sundays, they can fire me. Not only that but Sunday pay rates were reduced 50%!!!!
Our managers got no pay increase, but still have to be on call Sundays, if not working themselves.
The weekend is also our busiest trading period so being open an extra day before being restocked on Tuesday creates other logistical problems. We have had to move our 2nd delivery day from Thursday to Friday afternoon. So we are still restocking on Friday afternoon during our busiest period of the week, causing all sorts of discomfort to our customers and guess what! Warm beer! Since the beer doesn't get to spend a night in the chiller before the hordes arrive Friday afternoon, many of them are walking out with warm beer when they came hankering for a cold one!
Now, I only work part time and I have nobody dependent on me but I imagine it would be so much harder for people with families who will likely be forced to work Sunday shifts to keep their jobs. Having Sundays protected for our families is an important part of our West Australian lifestyle.
2b. More flexible work hours? I don't think so. I work at a bottle store and just this year, despite the referendum, they allowed all liquor stores to open on Sundays. Hours become less flexible, I have to work Saturdays and Sundays now. I used to always have Sundays free to study or play. Not any more. If I say that I refuse to work Sundays, they can fire me. Not only that but Sunday pay rates were reduced 50%!!!!
Our managers got no pay increase, but still have to be on call Sundays, if not working themselves.
The weekend is also our busiest trading period so being open an extra day before being restocked on Tuesday creates other logistical problems. We have had to move our 2nd delivery day from Thursday to Friday afternoon. So we are still restocking on Friday afternoon during our busiest period of the week, causing all sorts of discomfort to our customers and guess what! Warm beer! Since the beer doesn't get to spend a night in the chiller before the hordes arrive Friday afternoon, many of them are walking out with warm beer when they came hankering for a cold one!
Now, I only work part time and I have nobody dependent on me but I imagine it would be so much harder for people with families who will likely be forced to work Sunday shifts to keep their jobs. Having Sundays protected for our families is an important part of our West Australian lifestyle.
3. Pro-deregulation argument three is so bad that I now use it to judge personality. If someone uses this argument when discussing trading hours, I can instantly tell that they are ignorant, selfish, small minded people who aren't worth the time of day.
If sacrificing all that I have outlined already just so that you can 'shop when you want' is your argument, then you are a pathetic piece of flesh.
Need some bread and milk? Go support your local deli!
Need something more complicated like meat and vegetables for your bbq? Go to your local independent Supermarket. Mine is open 8am to 8.30pm EVERY DAY!
Need something at 2am? Go to Fresh Provisions, Easy Plus or the many many service stations that are open 24 hours a day!
Need consumer goods not found in super markets? Buy it on the internet or get up off your fat ass and go to a real shop. Suburban malls are open till 9pm on Thursdays. The city is open Friday till 9pm, 9-5 Saturday and 12-5 Sunday.
Weekend markets are open on Sundays as well! Why don't you check them out.
3b. I've asked people who have come into my store (owned by Woolworths) why they like our store being open on Sundays, when you have always been able to buy liquor on Sundays from bottle-shops attached to the local pub. The only somewhat sensible answer I ever get is because 'BWS is cheaper'. This is slightly true, but we are only cheaper on a few shitty products and these lower prices come at a huge expense to the consumer. Choice.
To get these lower prices, we are heavily sponsored by the biggest liquor companies, for example, Fosters. Fosters gives us their products at cheaper prices on the condition that we remove as many competing products from our shelves as possible. Fosters products are always given priority in product placement and stock kept on hand. In the three years that I have been working at BWS, the range of products that we keep in store has easily halved. Not only that, since Fosters is Victorian, many West Australian products have either been removed or have been totally ignored in favor of Eastern States products, no matter how bad these eastern products are.
Our entire Cask wine fridge was replaced with a new fridge that just holds Jim Beam and Cola products! We now have 60 Jim Beam 6-packs ready to go, when we only sell 10 a day, yet we have halved the amount of cask wines (which is our store's biggest product sector) that we can keep cold and they are in the large chiller with all the beer carton's so all the grannies on the pension have to risk pneumonia just to get their weekly cask.
I'd estimate that around 90% of the bottle stores that were allowed to open before this year's deregulation were independent and stocked whatever products they wanted. Independent stores, although sometimes more expensive, kept products in their stores according to quality, not sale price. They have a far wider range of products on offer than BWS will ever have. Allowing them to open on Sundays alone, gave them a small advantage over Woolworth's and Coles owned liquor stores and encouraged them to maintain a good range of products. Now that advantage is gone and as a result, they will need to cut corners to compete against these huge corporations and it will be the consumer that suffers the most.
I'd estimate that around 90% of the bottle stores that were allowed to open before this year's deregulation were independent and stocked whatever products they wanted. Independent stores, although sometimes more expensive, kept products in their stores according to quality, not sale price. They have a far wider range of products on offer than BWS will ever have. Allowing them to open on Sundays alone, gave them a small advantage over Woolworth's and Coles owned liquor stores and encouraged them to maintain a good range of products. Now that advantage is gone and as a result, they will need to cut corners to compete against these huge corporations and it will be the consumer that suffers the most.
Despite what you might think, the ONLY parties getting any benefit from extended trading hours are the largest corporations.
Pro-deregulators will then argue that we live in a capitalist society and so we should have no rules and let it be a free for all, live or die. Don't they realise that sometimes we have rules for reasons. Don't we have rules, such as laws, that are designed to protect us and make our quality of life BETTER!
What good would sports be if we started easing back the regulations. Why do we force cricketers to bowl the ball instead of just throwing it at the batsmen? Wouldn't throwing it be more efficient? Why don't we let footballers just throw the ball around instead of punching it? Shouldn't we just give them the freedom to do what they want? Sure... you could... but it would ruin the beauty of the game.
Extending trading hours will ruin some of the unique beauties of this wonderful city, all for the sake of some stupid lazy slobs. Its not about 'shopping when you want' its about protecting our unique quality of life and stimulating our own culture.
If you can't EASILY buy what you need in Perth at the moment, then you need more than just extended trading hours. You need a bullet in your poor ignorant brain to put you out of your misery.
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