Multinational Westfield has over recent years forced small business owners to extend the hours their shops are open. Following complaints from shop owners in the Hutt I’ve discussed the issue with a small sample around the country. They have shown me evidence that hours have increased in small jumps from around 60 on average to closer to 70. They tell me that even at 60 hours the ends of the trading day were unprofitable but that they now carry a lot more cost – mainly staffing costs for almost no extra sales. They often have trouble finding staff because the hours tend to be the least sociable.
In Australia shop opening hours are highly regulated by state governments. I’m not sure that that is what we want here but I can’t see a good reason for forcing shops to open on, for example, New Year’s day when hardly anyone wants to shop, strip shops are closed and almost nowhere else in the world are shops open. I do fondly remember Saturday sport where parents were able to come because shops were closed.
I’m going to run a survey of businesses in malls around the country asking them what they think but I’m interested in views on the topic from owners, employees and shoppers.
You are not wrong Christine, when dealing with Westfield you are dealing with the same people who were caught hiding an un taxed US$80 million in a European bank, and then lied there way through USA senant committee meetings re where the money was moved to. Tenent rape is the best way to discribe there activaty.
Spare a thought for the tenants at Eastgate Mall, Christchurch, they have three (Wed’,Thur’ and fri’) 8.00pm closes every week
I have worked in malls for 18 years. there should be only one late night (Thursday night ) 9 – 9 Saturday 10 – 6. Sunday 10 – 5 and public holiday should be 10-5 christmas hours we dont not need to be open until 12 New years day and Anzac day should be closed.We deserve a life too.
Further back round re the Lowery family (westfield) tax evasion can be found at the following;
http://www.hubdub.com/m11580/will_the_us_investigation_into_the_Lowery_families_tax_evasion__lead_to_arrest
I agree. Westfield dictate trading hours, and there should be no need for more than 1 late night a week. Public holidays should be exactly that, instead of forcing tenants to open
Since Westfield have had the mall our hours just keep going up and up making it harder to get staff to work the public holidays. A partition was taken about Xmas hours from 95% of the tenants but they think they know best and we had to work their hours for no sales. A bunch of university degree holders that have never worked in the real world are runing the show here in NZ.
I am a retailer in a Westfield Mall.
The Mall’s decision to be open every possible hour is a marketing strategy. It is one of the ways Westfield strive to be the mall to visit, even if most visits are during the more sane trading hours.
I am sure even Westfield would not be against the regulation of trading hours because all the other malls will be subject to the same restrictions.
Malls are not open all these mad hours to gain extra business during those hours. The are open to aviod losing market share across the board.
This is one of the situations that we should not wait to be corrected by market forces. Too many small businesses will have gone to the wall long before any of the malls change their hours.
We need regulation to help us……please.
I am also a Mall Tenant and I think Paul is right. The real issue relating to extended mall hours is that while the landlord dreams up these strategies without any consultation with the Tenants, every cost you can think of associated with these decisions is ultimately another direct cost to the Tenant i.e. power, escalators, lights, staff wages (even the landlord’s) security staff etc. So the only cost to the landlord would be the catered lunch provided while these decisions are made. The irony is that all of the landlord’s staff apart from one rostered person (and it could be the Mall Handyman) have gone home as they only work traditional hours.
Trevor, when can mall retailers expect to see your survey?
Was waiting for responses to quieten down – appears to have happened now. Will get a draft up tomorrow for comment and then circulate during July. Sound ok?
For all the people moaning for Trevor to do something about opening hours. Labour didn’t do anything about it during the 9 years they were in power, so what makes you think he can do anything about it now when his party’s in opposition?
The matter was first raised with me in October 2008. There is no guarantee that we can progress this but it seems to me there is a growing consensus that working hours in New Zealand have got out of control. There isn’t any real politics in it. Trevor
I agree with Christine, Tenants need some protection. What has happened in NZ, as so often happens when you leave things open, is that some party inevitably goes against the spirit of the intent of the open retail environment, which was to allow Retailers to trade at hours that suited their businesses. What is most frightening about the current retail environment is that basically the Landlords – Mall owners – now have a strangle hold over a large portion of the NZ retailer sector which gets tighter every time a new Mall opens. Basically they are a monopoly that has become very powerful behaving as though they own the businesses operated by their Tenants. In fact they are only building owners leasing space but by their own design have a management contract which the Tenants pay for. Having an environment where Landlords are able to set the hours for the Tenants – even though the Tenants are carrying the full costs of all these decisions – is like “putting the rabbits in charge of the lettuce patch”, they just cannot help themselves.
I do not think there needs to be a major change, all that is required are regulations that require Malls to be open a maximum number of hours per week, say 60 hours, the same as NSW Australia – this does not seem to be a problem in Australia. Under this arrangement, instead of Tenants being told for example that they will open 5 nights before Xmas until midnight, that statutory holiday hours will be the same as normal working days 9 – 6 or that they will open on New Years Day 9 – 6, additional hours can be negotiated with the Tenants to suit local demand. If the so called anchor tenants think business is better than that, they can open 24/7 if they choose and so can anyone else but those that do not want to can legally remain closed and cannot be threatened nor intimidated by the Landlord. In Australia the larger stores often stay open longer hours than the rest of the Tenants. In our Mall the Anchor Tenants range from closing most of their counters on late nights, to filling the aisles up with boxes and trolleys as they restock the shelves.
Actually, all the Mall Tenants are asking for is a level playing field, where they have some authoritative say regarding the hours they want to trade.
Draft form for comment by end of weekend please, better format at front of Red Alert:-
Survey on mall stores trading hours
Question Response
Are you an owner or manager of a mall store; please specify which?
Are you satisfied with the current opening hour arrangements for your store? Please state the reason for your answer.
Do you support a standard 10am to 6pm day with the option of one late night to 9pm per week?
If your answer to 3 above was ‘no’, what are your preferred arrangements for the opening hours of mall stores?
Do you support a six day week for mall stores?
Should stores in malls be forced to open on ANZAC day?
Should stores in malls be forced to open on New Years day?
If you have downloaded this form from the website please give details below, otherwise optional
Name:
Store name:
Address:
Email:
Please return survey no later than 1 August 2009 to:
Hon Trevor Mallard
Parliament Buildings
Freepost
Wellington (no stamp required)
or
trevor.mallard@parliament.govt.nz
We own a cafe in a Westfield mall. We are not at all satisfied with the opening hours – although we need to acknowledge that, like all the others, we signed a commercial agreement with the landlords over this aspect when we purchased. The problem is the total opening hours. We are business people and we therefore accept that there will be times when we are on the winning side (not very often during a world-wide recession!) and some times when we will lose. Our cafe, like most similar businesses, is set up to accomodate people who want morning tea/coffee break; lunch (our main businss) and afternoon coffee/tea. We will always lose money when the mall is open in the evenings (we are requred by contract to also be open when the mall is open even though it costs us money) but it is unfair that we are forced to so so two days a week when malls overseas only have one enforced “lose period” for cafe busiensses in the evenings. The business model that malls operate (world-wide)is one where the very big players call the tune (Woolworths, Warehouse, Farmers etc) while they pay a minimal rental. In reality the small businesses effectively subsidise the big players. They are able to bargain for low rent because they are in every mall and they bring in the punters. We have to pay the costs of that, because obviously the mall owners are not going to lose out just because they give the big players cheap rent. We need to all recognise that fact, it is a reality of working in a mall. We (the small business owners) are the foder that is used to subsidise the big businesses – we need to get over it and get on with business. What is unfair is the total hours that the mall owners demand in order to pander to the wants of the big players to the detriment of the small business owners in the malls. Having a declared number of hours, as against the current system where the mall owners force small businesses to lose money because the big payers want to be open so they can make money – is the problem. We think Trevor Mallard has correctly put his finger on the pulse here, all that a specified number of hours per week will do is protect small businesses from being railroaded by the mall owners in order to benefit the big businesses. We think that there should only be one late night per week allowed and maybe (reluctanlty)one extra late night in Xmas week.
Geoff and Jan
Good points Peter I agree that the landlords tend to assume that they are the owners of our businesses, dictating rules and regulations ie what is your monthly turnover,and no you cannot park your car on our property if you do we will charge you $171 Dollars per month for the privilege but you must park in the open on the top car park far away from the customers car parks and if we do not park where Westfield dictates we are threatened with clamping or being towed away they have the gaul to charge us tennants rates for the whole complex an average approx $1000 Dollars per month $12,000 Dollars per year what does anyone pay for their home? as I’m pointing out Westfield do not pay the rates, all Queensgate Tennants do, I see another three businesses closed this week one being “Line Seven” nationwide 11 stores featured on TV3 news and the breakfast show complaining about shopping mall high rents and why should they be open all these hours, Queensgate being 67 and a half hours per week thats over 70 hours per week for preparing and closing down time, who is next, we are in a desperate situation Trevor, something must be done urgently to protect the rest of the tennants from Westfield policys and still with the economic situation as it is at the moment Westfield are still increasing rents believe me Trevor when I predict that Queensgate will be one big car park complex in a couple of years, is this what lower hutt wants this is what is going to happen if nothing is done about the high rents,high rates and the long hours these shopping Malls are open to the detriment of the Tennants.
Just one more comment regarding the calculation of how rents are assest as of 4 years ago at westfield the rent we were informed(for small businesses as well as anchor Tennants)is $95,000 Dollars per year, if 8% of your turnover was over $95,000 Dollars you would pay 8% plus GST, any business who’s 8% of their turnover does not reach the figure of $95,000 Dollars would pay $95,000 Dollars rent, this means that a business with $1,200,000 Dollars turnover will pay $96,000 Dollars rent plus GST which equats to $108,000 Dollars rent per year you tell me what small business can reach this goal of 8% of their turnover to achieve a $95,000 target this is why the small businesses are subsidising anchor tennants and are the first businesses to go belly up because only the anchor tennants can pay these very high rents the calculation is geared in their favour and should be stopped, curb the high rents, reduce the hours of opening and close one day per week the worst day being Mondays.ps add 4 years of rent increases so we are now looking at in axcess of $10,000 Dollars,to be the average rent for small business,
in ref to my last entry the $10,000 Dollars rent, should read per month thanks.
Trevor
I have been told by “retail experts” that New Zealand is light years away from Australian regarding protection of Mall tenants from greedy grasping landlords.
Can you please find out more about the Australian legislation and look to introduce this to New Zealand.
One example given was that if Mall management put a kiosk in front of your store and this was not shown on the original plans you had a case for misrepresentation. I gather this is because when management place a kiosk in front of your store then generally your turn over reduces.
Re Pat’s comments. I am interested in hearing more about what rents stores are paying. Westfield appear to be more transparent with their rents insofar they have a starting minimum rent and the a % rent based on turnover. (Although I bet the % varies from store to store, with large tenants on a smaller %). With Kiwi Income Property trust their rents are not transparent and it is not uncommon to find one store paying say $1000 per sm per year and the store next to that paying $1500.00 per sm. So when entering a lease you cannot make an informed decision as this information is not available to you.
I have heard of rents from $300 per sm to over $2000.00 per sm. These are rents quoted to me from other small retailers.
I have stores in Westfield malls. New years day is our least profitable day of the entire year. Staff do not want to work it and customers expect big SALES. But while we provide discounts the cafes apply surcharges to the customers we attract.
Force Westfield to CLOSE New years day…please !!
I agree with Brenton, those (The Landlord) that set these times make sure they all have New Years day off.
Christine is right and here is the real story, Retailers in the Mall are being treated by their Landlords as suckers, only because the Landlord can get away with it because of weak regulations in NZ.
Shopping Hours – St Lukes Auckland
Monday to Wednesday 9.00am to 6.00pm
Thursday and Friday 9.00am to 9.00pm
Saturday 9.00am to 6.00pm
Sunday 10.00am to 5.30pm
Public Holidays 10.00am to 6.00pm
Hours /
Shopping Hours – Chatswood Sydney
Centre Hours
Monday 9.00am to 5.30pm
Tuesday 9.00am to 5.30pm
Wednesday 9.00am to 5.30pm
Thursday 9.00am to 9.00pm
Friday 9.00am to 5.30pm
Saturday 9.00am to 5.00pm
Sunday 10.00am to 5.00pm
Australian Statutory holidays 10.00 – 5.00
NZ v Australia Hours Compared
Mon 9.0 8.5
Tues 9.0 8.5
Wed 9.0 8.5
Thur 12.0 12.0
Fri 12.0 8.5
Sat 12.0 8.0
Sun 8.0 7.0
Total/week 61.00 67.50 open 6.5 hours per week longer in NZ
Part 2
Here is where costs go on just labour: – on a standard week we work 6.5 hours more, and an extra hour on stat holidays. Australia have one late night a week, and one late night during the pre-Xmas period whereas we have about 8 late nights including some midnight closes, and there have been as many as 5 midnight closes. All these hours are set by the landlord and enforced with threats and fines. The current trading rules were introduced so Retailers could decide their trading hours but in the absence of any regulations the Landlord has taken over – this needs sorting really quickly as we now have an uncontrollable monopoly – we need urgent help Trevor. In Aust. some shops in Malls did not open New Years day, saying they would rather be with their families and they were not required by law to open so no problem – if they wanted, they could sit on the beach with the Mall staff as they do not work New Years day.
All that is needed is an amendment to regulations to say Malls need only be open 61.00 hrs or so per week with public holidays being say 7 hours”. Those that want to open longer can go to it and lose money!!
i have one question: if i can’t shop at weekends, if i can’t shop after 5pm, then WHEN THE HELL can i shop at all? i too have a job where i have to be 9-5 weekdays. this leaves only evenings and weekends for shopping.
get over it people.
i’m all for shift work anyway – this way everyone gets a chance to do their shopping, banking, visiting doctors, etc, whatever needs to be done!