Retail News

Shopkeepers in the Saratoga Shopping Village are reporting the best retail conditions in ten years.

It is good news for the businesses following a major fire at the Village in February 2006 which interrupted trade for over six months, and saw some business owners leave and new owners take their place.

“This is the best group of retail operators we have had in over ten years,” commented Michael Evans, owner of the Saratoga IGA Supermarket. “They know how to run a business and we all work together and don’t infringe on each other’s trade.”

Mr Evans said that trade at his supermarket was up at least 8% on last year and attributed this to a number of factors. “People are getting tired of the big shopping centres. They are too big and impersonal and here they know they will get good personal service from us all. And these days more people are shopping daily rather than weekly – they can just drop in, get what they want from us or the greengrocer or the butcher or whoever else and then carry on. Another factor for us is that we stock well-known brands while the major supermarkets are reducing their range and stocking their own house brands instead.”

Ken Kay from Saratoga Quality Meats who has been in the Village for twenty-five years is similarly upbeat.

“We are up over 12% and that is after losing customers to our new shop at Terrigal earlier in the year. We are well-known all over the Coast for the quality of our meat and meat products, particularly smallgoods which we make ourselves, so that helps,” he said.

Over the past year the Village has seen new operators move in to the chemist, greengrocer, BBQ chicken takeaway shop and newsagents.

Built some thirty years ago, Saratoga Shopping Village is owned by a family of Melbourne investors and is managed by Ruth Cameron of Saratoga Real Estate.

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