Cuts handling earns retailer’s wrath

Press, 8 December 1988, Page 1

Cuts handling earns retailer’s wrath

By

NIGEL MALTHUS and PAM MORTON

The Municipal Electricity Department’s handling of the power cuts has earned it the wrath of Mr Gordon Wright (below right), owner of the Redwood Supermarket. While the lights were out for only two hours, the supermarket’s display freezers were off virtually all day — Mr Wright had found himself caught by the terms of a supply contract under which the freezers take electricity on the controlled ND2 tariff.

The tariff is cheaper — only about 10.7 c a unit compared with the normal non-domestic rate of about 17.5 cents — but it gives the M.E.D. the right to cut supply to control peak loads.

But Mr Wright had not expected a cut of anything like a full day. He said he had taken the lower tariff about 18 months ago, on the M.E.D.’s advice, and after he had seen charts showing that the longest outage in the previous two years had been about 45 minutes.

What angered him most was the response he received when he telephoned to ask for the power to come back on. He was told it could be on again in half an hour if he returned to the high rate and stayed on it thereafter. “It was the most blatant example of commercial blackmail I have seen,” said Mr Wright. He had accepted the M.E.D.’s original advice, “but when something like this happens the

M.E.D. declines responsibility.” Going back on the high rate would cost an extra $3OOO a

year, he said. With power off to the freezers until late afternoon, when the Electricorp workers’ action ended, Mr Wright had to keep insulating covers over the stock

and turn away customers seeking frozen goods. The M.E.D.’s consumer services engineer, Mr Angus Mac Alpine, was unimpressed by Mr Wright’s complaint. The ND2 tariff gave substantial savings, but only on the condition that supply could be cut at peak load times, he said. “If he cannot accept the conditions of the rate, then the equipment he’s got on it is obviously not suitable,” he said.

Staff at the Countdown Supermarket, in Northlands, cheered as power came back on after

staff had spent the morning working in black-out conditions. Electricity was cut to the area from 9.35 a.m. to 11.35 a.m. Many businesses were unaware of the shut-down.

The supermarket was forced to close for two hours as they did not have a back-up generator to light the building and run tills. The assistant manager, Mr Malcolm Allison, said staff had been serving people at the time of the cut and were unable to complete several transactions. About 40 trolleys full of food were left in the shop to be picked up later by shoppers. Mr Allison said staff had

continued to work as best they could by stocking shelves. He said the power cut had not only meant two hours of trading was lost but that several people had been inconvenienced. In the Northlands Mali about 10 shops closed during the cut, the largest being Smiths City Market.

The manager of the DEKA store, Mr Pat Drury, said there had been no warning of the time of the cut, although they had expected to lose power at some stage during the morning. The lack of warning about the cuts effectively put Lane’s appliance centre out for the morning. The tills were locked when the power went off and the shop was plunged into darkness.

The shop manager, Mr Russell Wilson, said it was impossible to trade and that if cuts ' were introduced again in the afternoon then a whole day’s • trading would be lost.

“Financially it’s not good news. It’s the busiest time of the year for us and sales are being lost because of the cuts.”

Extra security guards were employed to patrol the mall and keep a watch on shoplifting.

Soggy ice-cream was the main complaint from tearooms and food shops. The manager of the Northlands Tearooms, Mr Royce Baker, said as a ripple control system controlled power to the premises the cut began at 8 a.m.