Credit:Mr Parkinson said it was not easy to sell upmarket shoes online, with customers expecting a full retail service when spending $600 or more on a pair. To keep McLoud afloat during lockdowns, the Queen Street institution had to do something for the first time in its 76-year history: it cut prices.
“That gave us some cash flow. Two of my guys would come into work, behind locked doors, and they would get stuff out to the post office, send shoe repairs up to the factory and other stuff.“But when you’re giving discounts, it’s taking a reasonable slice off your margin and you tend to be losing a little bit all around.
Despite the challenges, Mr Parkinson said his business had proven resilient and would likely come through the latest lockdown, announced by Premier Daniel Andrews on Thursday evening. Many others, he said, would not.“On past performance, we will survive, but there will be a lot of businesses that won’t survive. A lot of the cafes, such a lot of those businesses that rely on the city being vibrant,” he said.
“If you walk around the city, you see a huge number of vacant shops and they just can’t be filled,” he said. “Who wants to be going into a shop and be paying an exorbitant rent at this time?
Why do AFL teams get a heads up? Surely small, medium and large businesses provide more to the nations economic benefit, employ more people, impact more people’s mental health.
Thanks Morrison and Gladys for another outbreak 😷