$2 shops and family businesses

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When an out-of-town group come in and offer their wares, the local family businesses probably suffer. The competition may be good for the buyers but the local shops are emptied. It happens in Australia so much now with super-super-size supermarkets as well as numerous $2 shops selling cheap products keeping customers away from locally owned businesses. It's a free market so they say, so there!

It's happening in Labasa in Fiji also when a group from India set up shop in competition with the family businesses in Labasa.

So should we buy from these out-of-towners or maintain loyalty to local people?


Indian fair lures Christmas shoppers
SERAFINA SILAITOGA
Thursday, December 20, 2007

Labasa town came alive as crowds flocked to the civic auditorium to take advantage of the sales at the Indian Village Craft Mela. The sale of Indian hand-made items by merchants from India have angered local businessmen who claim that it is affecting their business. A thousand people had already passed through the stalls by yesterday.

Organiser Manish Jain said they decided to set up stalls in Labasa after they met many people during the Nadi Bula festival who urged them to visit the northern town. He said group members made their own items such as shoes, rugs, clothes, bed sheets, curtains and jewellery. "That's the special part about this business and that's what makes it unique so when we come out and sell in countries like Fiji, we are proud to sell it because it's something that we made," he said.