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Speaker 1: New insight into the retail side of our economy. Briscoes,

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Speaker 1: one of the nation's shinier success stories, produces their Q

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Speaker 1: four results. Of course, broadly their Flat, which, given the circumstances,

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Speaker 1: as Andrew was suggesting earlier on the program, might actually

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Speaker 1: be a good news story. The group managing director is,

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Speaker 1: of course Rod Duke, who is with this Rod morning

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Speaker 1: to you.

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Speaker 2: Good morning, Mike.

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Speaker 1: Does Flat make you happy or not?

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Speaker 2: Yeah? I think that's pretty pretty good in the lot

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Speaker 2: of what's happening out there at the moment.

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Speaker 1: The number I like was the post COVID one you

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Speaker 1: talked about, and that was there's been a big, solid

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Speaker 1: bounce back, so that I mean a lot of industries

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Speaker 1: haven't come back since COVID you have. What do you

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Speaker 1: put that down to?

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Speaker 2: I think just the just the operating platform of've gone,

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Speaker 2: the way in which we go to market that proposes

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Speaker 2: the customers, you know, a real good product for a

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Speaker 2: good price, still continues to resonate in the in the suburbs.

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Speaker 1: And the Black Friday Boxing Day thing was in this

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Speaker 1: Is that a big deal? Is that like a game changer,

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Speaker 1: make or break day or not? Yeah?

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Speaker 2: Look at it probably is. Black Friday for us is

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Speaker 2: the biggest single day in our in our training year,

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Speaker 2: and the three or four days around are the biggest

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Speaker 2: three or four days, continuous days that we've got the

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Speaker 2: sort of superseded boxing day in these days.

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Speaker 1: Okay, home where one point seven or one point two

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Speaker 1: seven and sports at zero point four four? Is that

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Speaker 1: material or are they basically the same sort of thing?

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Speaker 2: It's the same. It's the same sort of thing. Look,

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Speaker 2: if we if we chose the best little harder with rebel,

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Speaker 2: then the number would have been a little greater, and

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Speaker 2: quite frankly, if we press a little harder, it wouldn't

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Speaker 2: have been nine point four, it would have been one

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Speaker 2: one point six in terms of sales results.

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Speaker 1: Okay, economists say the second half of this year will

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Speaker 1: be the better half of the year. Do you see

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Speaker 1: that or not?

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Speaker 2: Yeah, I'm budgeting that way as well. We think the

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Speaker 2: national government has surrounded a time to start to explore

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Speaker 2: some interesting things they might have up their sleeve, and

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Speaker 2: it's just about ready to go. And I think you're

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Speaker 2: thinking reelects, so they've probably got to go. Pretty sure.

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Speaker 1: I'm glad you said that, because a lot of people

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Speaker 1: are saying that I just don't know if they're getting

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Speaker 1: the message. And when I talk to luxon each week,

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Speaker 1: he's full of vim and vigor and intent, but there

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Speaker 1: aren't the runs on the board. Is that fair?

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Speaker 2: Yeah? I think so, and I think they will be

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Speaker 2: marked seriously if in fact, by say end of March,

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Speaker 2: well we don't see some serious initiatives.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, so they need to get on with it, and

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Speaker 1: they probably should have been the first place. What about

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Speaker 1: your hours and staff and all of that. Talk to

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Speaker 1: me about that because over the holidays I'm wandering around

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Speaker 1: with a lot of people closed in hospital and still

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Speaker 1: a lot of people moaning about they can't get can

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Speaker 1: you get staff and do you retain them?

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Speaker 2: This time of year typically with a lot of mums

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Speaker 2: and unique students filling in casual work for it given week,

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Speaker 2: but stop takes ended year and big sales events. Yeah,

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Speaker 2: we found it difficult to get to get start pre Christmas,

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Speaker 2: but we managed to. We managed to fill up. But

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Speaker 2: it is a it is a It is a tough

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Speaker 2: market in terms of getting the right people.

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Speaker 1: Even though you know so the right people is the key.

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Speaker 1: I take it is that just a thing? Is that

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Speaker 1: just the way things are, or is something wrong.

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Speaker 2: Now it's been like that. I guess for a couple

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Speaker 2: of years we went through a period, if you recall,

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Speaker 2: a very very low unemployment and so that was that

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Speaker 2: was even more difficult. You could get heads, but perhaps

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Speaker 2: not the right ones. But now it just continues to

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Speaker 2: be difficult, and I think even came forward it's to

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Speaker 2: be quite difficult.

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Speaker 1: It's good to talk to you. Rod. Appreciated very much.

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Speaker 1: Rod Duke Briscoe's group managing directory.

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Speaker 2: For more from the Mic Asking Breakfast, listen live to

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