Hey Masterton District Council . . . How Would YOU Like to Take A Forced Pay Cut this Month?

Owner of the popular Masterton CBD animal and garden supplies retail store, Yardlands, is making desperate attempts to educate the Masterton District Council on the fundamentals of small business viability i.e. being OPEN and ACCESSIBLE when your customers most need you to be.

Paul Bodle opened Yardlands in 2021, as the culmination of 20 years’ retail experience in the Wairarapa – specifically its central shopping district of Masterton.

As a champion of small businesses in the town’s CBD, Bodle devotes a “significantly above average” budget from each week’s revenue not only to the promotion of Yardlands, but also to the profiling of the surrounding north Queen Street shopping precinct, to help other smaller retailers “hold their own” against the big national chains – the likes of Animates, Harvey Norman, The Warehouse, Mitre 10 and Hunting & Fishing.

Bodle has become increasingly frustrated, however, with what he feels is the regular devaluing of his efforts, and the direct undermining of his substantial advertising expenditures, by the Masterton District Council’s roughshod approach to the issue of street closures.

In its latest dismissive move, the Council got together with the Rotary Club of Masterton South – who approached it to close that entire section of the street, in order to hold a Christmas market on Saturday, December 7.

And without any consideration of the impact to local businesses (for many of which, their prime competitive advantage is their easy-access street parking), the Council gave the Club carte blanche to close the street to all road traffic from 4am until 6pm on that Saturday.

‘They Couldn’t Have Negatively Impacted Local Retailers More If They’d Tried’

Firstly, as with many local retailers, Saturday is the store’s most productive day of the week.

For Yardlands, Saturdays provide many of their large base of working “regulars” with their best chance to stock up with the products the rely on – and, importantly, to do so in a non-rushed manner, given that Yardlands has a reputation for the quality of its advice and the time invested in solving individual customers’ challenges.

Secondly, “on-street parking is the most critical part of our retail business. Without it, our store is dead in the water,” Bodle says.

“When this Council, at will, closes a busy street on a busy shopping day (or at all, for that matter), they’re causing a whole cascade of negative outcomes for all the retailers in that area. And Yardlands is especially affected, given the nature of the products we sell (e.g. heavy bags of garden supplies or pet foods in bulk), for which our customers enjoy readily accessible parking.

“They’re grossly inconveniencing our customer base, particularly our regulars who plan their purchases around their scheduled Saturday visits to our store,” he points out.

“In fact, they’re impacting both our customers and ourselves equally. At Yardlands, we invest in ensuring we understand our customers well and plan our stock around their very specific needs and preferences.

“That’s why we have such a large and loyal base of customers. But that commitment and level of service on our part takes a substantial investment . . . and we simply can’t afford to lose the majority part of what is the relied-upon revenue of our busiest day of the week, leading up to our busiest time of the year.

“Maybe Council management and Councillors have little commercial experience and simply can’t grasp or calculate the ramifications of their too-easily-made decisions, in terms of the substantial amount of money they are taking out of our till.

“Let me help them: On average we serve between 65 and 70 customers within a four-hour period on a Saturday. At that particular time of year, it is often more. That gives you some idea of how critical every single Saturday’s trading is to an operation like ours.

“Yet, with one swift, uncaring, ill-considered decision, they have wiped out not only our most profitable day of the week, but one of our most profitable days of the entire year.

“Small businesses like ours, who also employ people, can’t sustain such losses.”

Close, On-Street Parking One of Primary Competitive Advantages

“Customers’ ready ability to park quickly and very close to the store is, for us particularly, one of our primary competitive advantages,” Bodle points out.

As a double disadvantage, therefore, Yardlands’ primary competitors are completely unaffected by the road closures.

“In fact, it’s worse than that, because while a large proportion of our customer base are diehard loyals, there are always those that would have been visiting us for the first time . . . who now might not do so in the future . . . and we’ll have lost that opportunity to increase our customer base. Again, that’s a particular factor on a Saturday, and even more so, at that time of year.

“So, in that sense, the Council has wilfully just handed our prime competitive advantage over to our ‘big box’ competitors . . . national chains who have no particular loyalty to the Wairarapa nor to the citizens of Masterton.”

Council Should Be Supporting Local Retailers, Not Impeding Them

As do many other small northern end Queen Street retailers, Yardlands invests heavily not only in promoting its own brand, product and service, it also promotes Masterton’s CBD as a retail destination . . . and does so to most of the lower North Island through radio, newspaper and social media advertising.

“In terms of the size of our business and the percentage of revenue, our marketing budget is substantial,” Bodle says. “The one-day takings from the Rotary market would be a pittance compared to our regular and much-relied on Saturday trade – let alone all we retailers combined. Short-term, Rotary gets is market day, but long-term, we are likely to lose those customers who decide to shop at retail destinations that don’t hold fairs in their parking areas.

“It’s a ridiculous business proposition. And that’s the problem. Too many Councillors on too many Councils around New Zealand have no understanding, no experience, and no concern for local businesses or the most basic principles of commerce.

“You only have to look at what’s happening in Wellington to see that, and the eventual ramifications of it – which aren’t ultimately advantageous to anyone, whatsoever.

“They fail to understand that when they intentionally disrupt retail trade in a town’s or a city’s CBD, they push retailers (particularly the small ones that can’t withstand the revenue losses) and customers away from that central shopping district.

“It’s short-sighted on every front; busy retail stores pump life into a CBD and generate revenue for the community, and ratepayers specifically, in a multitude of ways.”

Raising His Concerns . . . and the ‘Response’ from Council

Bodle says that when he has raised retailers’ concerns with the Masterton District Council and also with the Masterton South Rotary Club, he’s been met with the “old, familiar and very lame responses”:

‘It’s a one off.’

It’s not a “one-off”, he says. Masterton District Council has a habit of closing off streets to traffic and disrupting regular retail activities at the northern end of the CBD.

“Yet we and our fellow small specialty retailers are the very lifeblood of this end of Queen Street.”

‘You have a back entrance. Use that.’

Bodle points out that Yardlands alone, has an average of 65 to 70 customers within a fourhour period during his heavily promoted Saturday trading.

“But we have one park at the back, and that is used for inwards/outwards goods. And it’s shared by several other Saturday retailers. Encouraging customers to use this access would be downright dangerous for them, and a bloody nightmare, frankly.”

‘We can’t please everybody.’

"We are not the only retailer in this predicament," Bodle stresses. "Is there anyone from the retail sector (other than our competitors) that is being pleased by these central shopping district road closures?

“They’ve gone too far, too often, with this ‘old boys’ club’ modus operandi – pleasing their mates rather than those who actually operate a commercial business and pay rates accordingly – with their lack of consultation and commercially careless attitude towards hardworking, popular, family-owned retailers and small businesses.”

'There are retailers that think it’s a great idea.’

“Great,” says Bodle. “Please tell us who they are. “And if they trade on Saturdays, and if they’re in Queen Street North, where they’re actually going to be affected by these road closures. Are they in the Queen Street North sector where roads are going to be closed to traffic?"

‘Join in.’

“We’d love to. But some of us have the revenue demands of a small business to attend to.”

‘The Mayor Will Crank Up His PR Machine . . . But A “Success” by Whose Definition?’

“Worse still, the Masterton mayor will crank up his PR machine to claim to the community that these events are a huge success for CBD retailers, regardless of the fact they are, in fact, anything but – most especially for we retailers,” Bodle laments.

Yardlands alone – just one store in the impacted area – entices more than 400 retail customers from the broader Wairarapa, from Wellington, and from the Manawatu districts, to shop in Masterton CBD every week.

“And we support or sponsor many community organisations and schools,” he points out. “Is closing all access to our stores, for the sake of pleasing one local club, really worth penalising us in such a direct and impacting manner?”

Bodle advises that at least two Masterton District Councilors have, however, been fully supportive of his (Bodle's) position.

"Councilors David Holmes and Craig Bowyer have supported me by presenting the street's retailer concerns to the rest of the Council.

"So far it's fallen on deaf ears, but at least the one bright spot is that we still have a couple of sensible heads around the Council table.

"They fully agree that if blocking off car parks for a market day is all fair and well for we small retailers, and apparently such a great boost for business, then why don't the likes of Animates, Harvey Norman, The Warehouse, Mitre 10 and Hunting & Fishing use it as a marketing strategy?

"Hmm. It doesn't quite play out so logically, does it. At least Crs Holmes and Bowyer can see that, even if the rest of our 'elected representatives' don't want to recognise it." 

A Far Better & More Logical Alternative

But don’t get Paul Bodle or the Yardlands team, wrong:  He thinks a market day or a fair is a great thing.

“But why on earth do it in the most impractical, illogical part of town . . . in the middle of the central shopping district?

“Masterton has a spectacular park and public gardens begging to be showcased to the rest of New Zealand!” he exclaims. “The beautiful Queen Elizabeth II Park lends itself perfectly to hosting stalls in the shade under the trees around the lake . . . with the lively atmosphere of paddle boats and the miniature train clanking around the island.

“We would have jumped at the opportunity to showcase Yardlands at such an event. By way of example, we already sponsor one of the paddle boats.

"There’s no logic in the snap, ill-advised decisions of the Masterton District Council management or those that sit around the Council table. The only sense it makes is that they’re pleasing a few of their Rotary buddies.

“How about putting the townspeople, the local retailers, and sheer common sense, first?