Businesses that have adapted to the current tough retail times might just come out on par with a good year, a business leader has said as the days to Christmas contract.
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With just a few more shopping hours until the big day, Tamworth Business Chamber executive officer Sam Rains said businesses were down an average of 30 per cent on last year, but there were some outliers.
He said the figures in the region were "a mixed kettle at the moment".
"Obviously there are a lot of businesses doing it extremely tough in the current conditions, but then there are some amazing stories of people tapping into the #buyfromthebush campaign or Buy Regional, and having unbelievable success," Mr Rains said.
"There are certainly some positive stories coming out of all this hardship.
"There's no denying they're hard times, but businesses that seem to be adapting seem to be doing alright."
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Mr Rains said those retailers were "finding a bit of a silver lining" in the far-from-favourable conditions.
"I'm sure they'd like it to be gold, but it's just silver at the moment," he said.
At Nundle Woollen Mill, owner Nick Bradford said walk-in sales were down 20 to 30 per cent, "but the online November we had was our biggest online month ever".
"Considering we have most of our sales in winter, that's pretty extraordinary.
"And December won't be our biggest month ever, but it will be our biggest December ever, absolutely."
Mr Bradford said the shop-regional campaigns had been "just mind-blowing" for the mill, particularly Buy Regional.
"Fifty per cent of our traffic online has come to us via nsw.gov.au since the Buy Regional campaign has started," he said.
Mr Rains said the chamber's Think Local, Support Local - which enticed people to buy from local shops with the chance of winning a Honda Jazz - also had an impact on retail figures during a crucial time of year.
"We'd love to have more of an impact - there's never enough - but we recorded just shy of $1.5 million in sales revenue and had about 9000 entries for the campaign," he said.
"It's something we'll be running for years to come, and continue to build on - and we have plans and ideas to help it continue to grow - but certainly the response from local business was that they were very appreciative of the concept and idea."
Carolyn Millet
Based at The Northern Daily Leader, Tamworth, and Namoi Valley Independent, Gunnedah. Covering general news and features on community, council, arts, business, health, education, entertainment and rural matters.
Based at The Northern Daily Leader, Tamworth, and Namoi Valley Independent, Gunnedah. Covering general news and features on community, council, arts, business, health, education, entertainment and rural matters.
