Proposed Giralang Shops - Destined to fail?

sepi said :

The supabarn owner was in the paper a few months ago saying he wants to open more shops but cna’t ever get the land to do so – he is always outbid by woolworths and coles protecting their monopoly.

Didn’t they own the Coles in Chisholm a while ago?

The supabarn owner was in the paper a few months ago saying he wants to open more shops but cna’t ever get the land to do so – he is always outbid by woolworths and coles protecting their monopoly.

I think he should open a supabarn at somewhere like Downer shops. (Too late for Downer – they are getting units instead of shops too.)

But I can see a small supabarn working well as a suburban shop. Parking would be the only issue. But Downer had a fair few carparks.

The Giralang shops were deliberately run down over a period of several years, yet the rents to business owners continued to increase thus making the business not viable.

The supermarket, newsagent and tavern closed within months of each other – in domino fashion.

It was a deliberate ploy by the site owner – and he has been lobbying furiously for years to get his preferred development approved and built.

Giralang residents have been screwed.

In the end it comes down to commercial realities, the viability of the shops, and the potential return to the site owners from selling/renting the retail space.

While yes it would be nice if every suburb had viable shopping centres, experience has shown that it’s just not possible, particularly for those sites that are not serviced by a major road.

Be happy that any development is being proposed, get behind it, and most importantly shop there once it opens!

Also, I question any person who has the time to advocate for such organisations, go help feed the homeless or something.

Thumper,
it’s not environmentally viable to have shops within walking distance of where people live.

The greenhouse gas emissions of an overweight middle aged man on a 10 min round trip walk to the shops for milk is equal to the emissions from running 3 HQ Kingswoods with 253ci engines on leaded fuel with added nastiness for 2 years.

We should all be encouraged to drive our Prius to the nearest corporately owned (westfield) multiplex and buy all our groceries in excessive packaging and packed in plastic bags.

Always big money to be made by selling of retail space in the centre of established suburbs.

Aye there’s the rub.

Of course whilst the Territory plan might allow the apparently easy conversion of retail to residential, I bet if you tried to run a business from your front room with a couple of car parks on the front lawn – there would be a world of bureaucracy to slow you down.

With energy taxes probably around the corner it seems insane to be getting rid of local shopping precincts. That said it highlights a real problem for the ACT. If cars become unaffordable everyday transport, how will this place work at all.

The guy from the Giralang Residents Association called equated the Giralang shops (in their current, closed down, graffitied state) with Baghdad. That was interesting.

Oh, and Thumper, it was the developers who raped Latham with the Stanhope mob as the accomplice. And what government planning dept in this day and age doesn’t check that a development a)fits adequately onto the land, and b)has the provision of hot water ??

I don’t know whether or not you’ve seen the “Latham Shops” but what used to be a neat little centre with a supermarket, butcher, post office, hairdresser, chemist, newsagency, Chinese restaurant, physio, and school uniform shop now masquerades as shops…the post office and school uniform shop merged into one and took up occupancy of the old servo. The supermarket is now a sorry excuse for anything – my pantry has more food in stock (and what corner store doesn’t have Tim Tams??). The supermarket itself is built in the middle of the planning disaster ghetto (the one where they forgot to install hot water systems) and the whole area is prone to vandalism, hoons and general povo destruction. It’s a disgrace.

I hope to god they don’t do the same to Giralang. It’d just be an insult to the residents. Better to have no shops than a crap-arsed supermarket that doesnt’ even stock Tim Tams…built in a DIY ghetto.

Hackett and Watson shops do really well, despite being so close to Dickson woolies.

Lots of people would prefer to park right next to the shop – for free, and do their shopping quickly, without queuing up. And heaps of people walk to the shops too.