Future trends in retailing

Press, 2 May 1981, Page 12

Future trends in retailing

' specialised discounting of all products in shops will be the direction taken by retailing in New Zealand,, according to Mr Ron Cowan, managing director of Hallenstein Bros, Ltd, Dunedin. "New Zealand has got some of the most advanced food discounting systems in the world at the retail level,” Mr Cowan said. "I think that, in the future, . discounting is something that all retailers are going to have to look at, no matter what they sell.” ■■■ Mr Cowan was speaking to .about 60 businessmen and women attending the Gov-ernment-sponsored workshop on growth opportunities at Mona Vale yesterday. He had been asked what he saw as the future of retailing in New Zealand. “Discounting is. certainly in the future, but only in the main cities,” he said. “I don’t think it will work in smaller towns, or even in peripheral suburbs. Mr Cowan said he thought selling by video — using commercial and domestic computer-video terminals in television sets — was unlikely to appear in New

Zealand in the foreseeable future as it was tremendously expensive to run. Asked about the future of retailing in cities, compared with burgeoning suburban shopping centres, Mr Rowan said he thought the present trend to suburban shopping would be reversed. Another important factor in keeping the heart of the city alive for retailers was the’ increased use of old central city housing for family living,'said the Minister of Regional Development (Mr Birch). “As people move back into the centre of cities to live; and do up the houses there, the city can only become a more popular place to shop,” Mr Birch said. “Reduced profitability in retailing in the last few years has led to neglected shop facades in the central city: High Street shop buildings in particular,” he said. “Central shopping areas need sprucing up, modernising pnd renovating. Once this is done, the situation will improve. After all, 50 per cent of the workforce in Christchurch must be working in the city.”