A group of Wyndham St, Shepparton, traders said patronage at their businesses had dropped drastically since nearby Welsford St closed because of roadworks since early December and they were bracing for more pain with the closure of a car park at the back of their shops.
The Welsford St car park, near Fryers St, will be closed for two weeks from Thursday, January 12, to Wednesday, January 25, and then again from February 20 to 28 to allow the car park entry and exit to be upgraded.
It is nearly the final straw for some business owners who say Christmas trade was severely impacted and were now having their traditional back-to-school rush curtailed.
For some businesses, these are two of their busiest times of the year.
Lovells Shepparton Newsagency owners Gary Lovell and Louise Lovell-Brown said while they understand the work had to be done on the Welsford St entrance to the causeway, they would like it to be done faster.
They think workers should have worked on weekends and at night to get the job done quicker.
“We know if we want to go forward, we have to work with council to fix it,” Mr Lovell said.
“But it’s been really bad as far as customers coming to the store.
“Takings are well down. Christmas was well down.”
With Christmas stock ordered months in advance, the newsagency has been left with lots of festive stock it could not get rid of because of a drop in customers.
“We were down 50-60 per cent at Christmas on normal trade,” Mrs Lovell-Brown said.
“Some days on a Friday we would have 15-20 people in here (at once),” Mr Lovell said.
“Last Friday, we had one.”
Mrs Lovell-Brown also cited a week when there was a $100 million jackpot draw in Powerball – which usually brings a substantial boost to the business.
“We were down 48 per cent on takings that week,’’ she said.
“We should have been double or triple normal.”
Mr Lovell said it was not only the closure of Welsford St that had impacted the business but also the amount of traffic forced onto Wyndham St by the roadworks was turning people off going there “because it takes too long for them to get to the area”.
“We rely on people being able to park and come in for a quick sale,” Mrs Lovell-Brown said.
With parents traditionally purchasing stationery for their children to go back to school now, the owners were fearful they would be left with more stock they could not get rid of.
Rebel Sport is another business hurting from the roadworks.
Customer service manager Julia McCarty said the back-to-school period was traditionally the third busiest time of the year for Rebel – behind Christmas and just before the football season.
Two of those times have fallen during the time the works have been taking place.
Mrs McCarty said the car park at the back of the shop had been empty at a time when it was usually full to overflowing and believed it was because people were confused with the road closed signs.
“Most of our trade does come through the rear entrance (to the shop),” she said.
“That (the closure of the car park) is really going to hurt us.
“We don’t doubt all of this has to happen, it’s just the timing of it.”
Rebecca Barillaro opened the doors to her business Afterglow Coffee five months ago.
Since then Shepparton has had floods and now the roadworks were deterring more customers.
“It’s been really tough,” she said.
“Our trade has more than halved.”
Mrs Barillaro said she and her husband had even spoken about whether they would keep the cafe open while the car park at the back was closed.
Nearby, Priceline Pharmacy Shepparton has also been quiet.
“For Priceline, November and December are the busiest times, when the gift sales are happening,” pharmacist Chenqi ‘Lucas’ Luo said.
But not so last year.
And now the pharmacy has lots of items it could not get rid of.
Traditionally January was a time to get rid of the “dead stock” that had not sold, but that had not happened this year.
Mr Luo said customers were finding it hard to know where to park.