Notes From The Editor
Someone recently called a retail outlet’s head office to see if their much-publicised speedy delivery service is available for St Francis Bay. The very polite person at the end of the line said that the advertised service is unavailable as we are in an outlying area, but they offer a third-party delivery service.
As the conversation trails off, the person drops a tantalising hint, suggesting that we might not have to wait too long for a store to grace our village.
Three New Stores Coming
How soon? The answer wasn’t exciting, as the timeline was vaguely put as ‘within the next two years.’
So the person called another retail outlet to find out about their delivery service, only to have the same answer about outlying areas and too far to use their super-speedy service. However, you can ‘order and get it in a day or two.’
But now the caller is fore-armed and asked the question upfront about the possibility of any retail outlets coming to the area.
Focused On Food
The answer was again a confirmation, but this time, there would be two such stores coming to our sleepy little town in different areas, with construction based on a similar two-year timeline. One shop would be sooner, small, and more focused on food.
Wow.
This careless whisper of three new shops coming to town is the funny little rumour going around the village at the moment, and most people, including me, don’t believe a word of it. We are pooh-poohing** the idea as silly and not worth worrying about.
But is it a silly notion?
Development is inexorable, and we can expect our town to grow. Retail outlets would only move here and set up shop if they knew that their stores would get the traffic, be well-supported, and ultimately make a profit. As our population has grown so much, perhaps more shops will come? KFC is getting plenty of customers and will undoubtedly thrive over the season.
But with more retail outlets, are we rapidly losing the charm and tranquillity that drew us to this village in the first place?
Still, I love those little Woolies‘ savoury BBQ chicken pancakes.
** (I have never been able to use pooh-poohing in an article before, and I am pretty chuffed that I finally managed to use it.)
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