Close watch on retailer tactics

FROM MY CORNER ... with Ann Brunswick

In recent months we have all read headlines about how times are tough, especially for our nation’s retail sector. Sure, former PM Kevin Rudd doled out several billion dollars a few years back to boost pre-Christmas sales. But even before that, and ever since, most shops around our inner-city shopping precincts seem to have been promoting permanent sales.

Some of the discounts on offer are phenomenal. It’s not uncommon to see “50% off” on a lot of shop windows and even “70% off” has made an appearance here and there. So if times are so tough, why do some stores make it so hard for you to shovel your hard-earned cash at them? Last Friday evening while in the CBD a sign on a particular jeweller’s store took my eye.
It was promising massive discounts on all stock. So it was only natural for me to check it out, especially since it has been my plan for some time now to purchase a new watch. You see, in January while competing in the early rounds of the 300mm standing block handicap section of the Woodchop Carnival at Brunswick Heads, my beloved watch flew off my wrist and into the crowd where it struck an elderly war veteran.
As luck would have it, my watch ricocheted off his head and hit his wife sitting next to him. Both initiated legal proceedings that are pending so it is not possible for me to say too much, if anything, about the sad events of that day. In addition, my watch has been impounded as evidence, which was why the sale posters caught my eye last Friday.
On entering this particular jewellery store my first stop was a glass wall cabinet displaying several brands and ranges of watches. A number of them looked quite attractive, possibly exactly what was needed to adorn my now vacant wrist. But something was missing from all of them – price tags.
It was impossible for a window shopper like me to determine which watch was affordable and which was way out my league. A shop assistant approached and asked if she could help me. “Yes,” I said, “I’d like to know the price.” “The price of which one?” she inquired.
“All of them,” I said. That seemed to puzzle her. She suggested I pick out one I liked and she could then tell me its price. But comparison shopping was my aim, I informed her. How could I do that when there were no prices on any of them? Needless to say my stay in that store did not last much longer.
At another store a few doors away the same problem was apparent. Not a price tag visible. My non-shopping trip was then cut short because of a pressing rugby training session that night. But it left me bewildered that something as simple as missing price tags had lost those shops my custom and money.

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At the time of writing this our 150 federal MPs had still not determined who and which party would lead our nation. One this is certain about our hung parliament – that by-elections will likely have to be avoided for the coming three years (if the current parliament lasts that long).

Neither major party would want to see any of their seats at risk of being stolen by their opponents at a by-election. Depending on which way a by-election went, an opposition party could use a shift in numbers on the floor of parliament to bring down the government and force us all to the polls again. Surely we don’t want that. Which led me to think that we, as citizens, need to keep a eye on those most likely to cause by-elections, ie: our unhealthiest MPs.
What might be a good idea is for all MPs to undergo a health and fitness test so the more out-of-condition ones could be identified.
It would not be asking too much to then demand that the tubbiest ones trim down a bit, that the shiftless ones do a bit of exercise in the morning and evening, and that the smokers go cold turkey.
It’s time sitting members stopped sitting, and started jogging if we are to avoid another five weeks of hell so soon after the last campaign.