Carolyn Young: Retail NZ Chief Executive on the calls for small towns to ditch the 9-5 retail model

Business owners are being encouraged to work with neighbours to keep small towns 'alive'.

Napier City Business general manager Pip Thompson says Napier and Hastings CBDs become ghost towns after 5pm, when stores close.

She says 'to stay alive in 2025', trading hours need to no longer be confined to 9-to-5.

But Retail NZ Chief Executive Carolyn Young says a single store can't make the change alone.

"If you've got a number of stores around you that are open later, people will come because they know that they can call into that store at a time that suits them after work." 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
More calls today for regional New Zealand to ditch the
traditional nine to five retail model. This story originally came
you remember, from the Napier business leader who says the
CBD there becomes a ghost town as soon as the
shops shut up at five o'clock. Now more towns are
having this debate, so are our smaller centers stuck in
the past. Retail Ing Zen CEO Carolyn Young is with

(00:21):
me Hi, Carolyn.

Speaker 2 (00:23):
Kidder Ron, how are you really good?

Speaker 1 (00:24):
Thank you? With basic question, would businesses not open if
there were customers to serve?

Speaker 2 (00:33):
Absolutely? Look, I think most businesses are in the process
of evaluating their data on an ongoing basis. They're working
out the foot traffic that's coming past, and they get
data feed into them from that they can see where,
when and where their sales are taking place through their
point of sales system, so they'll be able to tell
whether or not they've got people coming in first thing

(00:55):
in the morning or last thing at night, and you know,
adjusting their time frame. The core mon in terms when
they're opening closed. Consumer demand is what should drive your
opening hours, obviously, alongside any other restrictions there might be
depending on the sort of business that you own. But
consumers are going to want to come in at a

(01:16):
time when it's convenient to them, and being open when
they are available is important.

Speaker 1 (01:21):
Yeah, because I guess the thing is for tourism especially,
you've got people coming here who might be used to
shops being opened a little bit later. Is there any
truth to this idea that if you have multiple shops
open then it creates a bit of a vibe. People
know it's happening and they will actually, you know, build
it and they'll come open and they'll come.

Speaker 2 (01:41):
Yeah. Absolutely. If you for example, if you work in
a mall, all of the stores in the mall are
open till the same time. So everyone knows that the
new Market, Westfield Mall and Upland is open till seven
o'clock at night, so everyone knows they can go there
for a couple of hours after work. Now, in a
high street environment, the stores aren't regulated like that, you know,

(02:04):
so some stores might close at five, so might be
at the five, someone might be at six or later.
And if you've got a number of stores around you
that are open later, people will come because they know
that they can call into that store at a time
that suits them after work. But if there's only one store,
you know that store is probably pretty quiet. So you know,
if you've got neighboring businesses, it's about getting alongside your

(02:27):
neighboring business and saying, hey, you know, do you want
to try opening a little bit later, seeing if we
can create a bit of energy and enthusiasm for people
to be coming in the stores afterwards, or alternatively, you know,
what are you doing in the weekends, or you know
what time are you opening in the morning. If you've
got a few more stores doing the same thing, it
just you know, it does, as you say, create a

(02:48):
bit of a buzz and a bit of a vibe.

Speaker 1 (02:50):
Carolyn, thank you for that, Carolyn Young, Retailings and CEO
time has just gone thirteen after four. We'd love to
know what you think about that one. I just think
if a business, who better to know whether there would
be customers visiting a store than the business itself, And
if the businesses itself knew that there were customers going
to visit, they would simply open. I don't know, I
think the whole thing's a bit weird. For more from

(03:12):
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