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Speaker 1: We know on the show yesterday that Darwin's Lord Mayor,

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Speaker 1: Conbat Scaralis was touting removing alcohol from corner stores as

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Speaker 1: a measure to reduce violence and crime by restricting supply,

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Speaker 1: saying the government should acquire their licenses. But that could

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Speaker 1: spell the end for many operators, giving more power to

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Speaker 1: major retailers. Now joining me on the line to tell

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Speaker 1: us more is one of those corner store owners. Shelley

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Speaker 1: Lay from zacholi IgA. Good morning to you, Shelley.

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Speaker 2: Hi Katie, how are you?

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Speaker 1: Yeah? Really good, Happy new Year and thanks for joining

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Speaker 1: us this morning.

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Speaker 2: Thank you, Happy to you for you too. It's hard

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Speaker 2: to deliver in February.

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Speaker 1: I know it's flying by now, Shelley. What was your

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Speaker 1: reaction to the comments from the Lord Mayor. And it's

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Speaker 1: not sort of the first time that we've heard somebody say, oh, well,

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Speaker 1: maybe we need to restrict corner stores from having alcohol

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Speaker 1: or get rid of alcohol from those stores.

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Speaker 2: Look, there's a few points to consider there, Katie. Throwing

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Speaker 2: out things like get rid of it from corner stores

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Speaker 2: is personally highly offensive to me. We're already working under

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Speaker 2: a restriction of trade which states that our sales in

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Speaker 2: the liquor store cannot be more than twenty five percent

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Speaker 2: of our total turnover. This law does not apply to

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Speaker 2: some of the major bottle shops. So when you come

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Speaker 2: to your your grocery liquor store, let's put it in

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Speaker 2: round figures. So if we're turning over one hundred grand

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Speaker 2: a week, we can only trade twenty five thousand from

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Speaker 2: the liquor store. Let's talk about woolies in town. They

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Speaker 2: don't have any restrictions at all on what they can

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Speaker 2: trade from their bottle shop. And even if they did,

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Speaker 2: if there was the same laws, they were all on

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Speaker 2: the playing field, they would be turning over in excess

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Speaker 2: of a million dollars a week. That would be like

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Speaker 2: two hundred and fifty thousand dollars in liquor sales. So

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Speaker 2: where who's supplying the majority of the liquor to people?

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Speaker 1: Yeah, I get what you're saying. So it's not really

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Speaker 1: you know, like it's it's not a situation where if

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Speaker 1: you if you stop corner stores from having alcohol, Like

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Speaker 1: the fact is that you guys are very limited in

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Speaker 1: what you can actually sell anyway.

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Speaker 2: Correct, correct, And just overnight last week they change that

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Speaker 2: law that the twenty five percent. Instead of measuring that annually,

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Speaker 2: they're now going to measure that quarterly, so which means

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Speaker 2: a lot of stores like ours could potentially close down.

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Speaker 2: So we're transient, as you know. So the twenty five

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Speaker 2: percent rule sort of evens out over the wet and

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Speaker 2: the dry. Yeah, if we're looking at a quarter that

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Speaker 2: just totally dry season when everyone is in town, socializing,

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Speaker 2: buying a bit more grog, then that could mean our

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Speaker 2: shop would have to permanently close down forever. Now, that

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Speaker 2: flow on effect is massive. That's affecting territorians, the money

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Speaker 2: that's staying in the territory, the owners of these corner stores.

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Speaker 2: It's not the big majors, and the only people that

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Speaker 2: will benefit are the majors who aren't restricted in trade anyway.

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Speaker 2: So it's just so frustrating.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, right, And so I mean, how do you feel

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Speaker 1: them when you do hear comments like that from the

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Speaker 1: Lord mayor.

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Speaker 2: Well, I feel like they're thrown out without the correct education.

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Speaker 2: And people just think that they can gain access to

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Speaker 2: grog from a corner store, but they can. People can

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Speaker 2: gain access to grog anywhere or from any liquor store.

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Speaker 2: So why just pinpoint and harm some businesses and not others.

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Speaker 2: And I feel, of course, you know that the businesses

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Speaker 2: that are being pinpointed here are the really hard working Territorians, And.

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Speaker 1: Shelley, I would imagine that you, like you guys, have

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Speaker 1: to be pretty strict, not only with how much alcohol

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Speaker 1: you're you're selling, but obviously you've got to adhere to

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Speaker 1: the same rules and regulations as everybody else, with the BDR,

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Speaker 1: with the floor price, with all that kind of.

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Speaker 2: Thing, one hundred percent. So that's meant to be in

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Speaker 2: place to stop people who can't handle their alcohol, have

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Speaker 2: an issue with alcohol from gaining access to it already,

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Speaker 2: But then there's all these other additional measures that need

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Speaker 2: to be in place. But what I'm just saying is,

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Speaker 2: if you're going to throw out close down the local

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Speaker 2: corner store, let's put us all on an even playing field.

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Speaker 2: All grocery stores that have a liquor store next to

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Speaker 2: them inside them, let's be all on a fair playing

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Speaker 2: field because the majority of the alcohol has been sold

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Speaker 2: by the majors who do not have any restriction of trade.

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Speaker 1: Now, Shelley, when you talk about the fact that you know,

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Speaker 1: like when you talk about what the Lord Bear had

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Speaker 1: said on the show. What would removing grog from your

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Speaker 1: store actually mean for your business?

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Speaker 2: Well, what it means is that obviously you lose that

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Speaker 2: income that comes from the alcohol sales. Yes, but then

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Speaker 2: and that's one thing. But what happens is that people

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Speaker 2: will then not shop with us because we're not convenient anymore.

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Speaker 2: They will go to a store that has the alcohol

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Speaker 2: offering next door. Food and drink go hand in hand.

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Speaker 2: People love convenience. So then the grocery sales go down

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Speaker 2: and it doesn't become a viable business anymore, which in

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Speaker 2: turn affect the good people. It affects for our shop,

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Speaker 2: in particular, the good people of Zucoli or their house

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Speaker 2: values will go down because this whole center would shut

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Speaker 2: down because if the anchor tenant's not here, none of

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Speaker 2: the other shops will survive. And then and then this

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Speaker 2: will will become a derelict center. And then the good

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Speaker 2: people of the Collie their house prices will go down.

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Speaker 2: Like it has a massive flow on effect. So we

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Speaker 2: really need to be careful when these type of words

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Speaker 2: are thrown around that we're put on all I'm saying,

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Speaker 2: we need to be put on an even or fair

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Speaker 2: playing field.

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Speaker 1: Hey, Shelly, have you heard much from you know, like

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Speaker 1: the IDAs in Ellice Springs or any of the corner

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Speaker 1: stores in Elie Springs, how they're going so far with

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Speaker 1: those restrictions that are in place in Alice.

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Speaker 2: I haven't heard about the Monday and Tuesday restriction as such.

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Speaker 2: But with this twenty five percent rule and the change

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Speaker 2: virtually overnight to measure this quarterly instead of annually, will

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Speaker 2: also cripple their businesses because they are very curisty and

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Speaker 2: transient with their sales, and that will close them down.

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Speaker 2: So that means, you know, in exus of one hundred

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Speaker 2: people will be losing their jobs. Like it's just we've

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Speaker 2: got to work together to find a solution. And when

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Speaker 2: I and people aren't educated and they don't understand or

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Speaker 2: know about this rule that is imposed on the smaller

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Speaker 2: grocery stores. But as an example, if you came and

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Speaker 2: bought a carton of Great Northern here paid fifty bucks,

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Speaker 2: you would have to spend one hundred and fifty dollars

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Speaker 2: in the IgA to offset that so that we can

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Speaker 2: keep the liquor store open.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, right, and so how do you kind of manage

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Speaker 1: that as a business? So are you going to get

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Speaker 1: to the point where you've got to have it open

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Speaker 1: for lease hours. Like, what's the answer for you guys?

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Speaker 2: One hundred percent. Yes, if we want to stay open

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Speaker 2: and not break these.

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Speaker 3: Laws that have just imposed on us overnight, we will

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Speaker 3: then have to close our doors on certain days of

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Speaker 3: the week. And what on us is we need a

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Speaker 3: risk based approach, Like we've got good people here. Why

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Speaker 3: should they then have to drive up to the major

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Speaker 3: up the road at Bakewell and give them their business.

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Speaker 3: They're having to drive further and then they're giving the

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Speaker 3: major their business.

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Speaker 2: Well, it should be local, that's right.

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Speaker 1: It should be people's choice, you know, it's it's up

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Speaker 1: to them to determine whether they want to shop with you,

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Speaker 1: whether they want to shop with Major supermarket, whatever they

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Speaker 1: want to do. But it should be their choice, and

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Speaker 1: you know, and fair for people.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, And look, there's no doubt we've got some issues

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Speaker 2: here in the territory with alcohol, especially at the moment

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Speaker 2: as we're seeing in our springs. And look, we all

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Speaker 2: want to play our part and help and and you know,

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Speaker 2: I know more than many people in the territory how

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Speaker 2: these different things affect businesses with break in and theft

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Speaker 2: and what have you, and we're all trying to play

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Speaker 2: our part and to help it, but we need to

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Speaker 2: work together, and I just feel like we, the good people,

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Speaker 2: are being unfairly targeted by saying that our licenses should

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Speaker 2: be taken away from us, because in turn that would

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Speaker 2: then cripple the entire business and then have a flow

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Speaker 2: on effect to the cafe in our sensor, to the

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Speaker 2: pizza shop, to the gym, the chemist, the doctor, you

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Speaker 2: know what I mean. Like, it's just it's bigger than

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Speaker 2: just taking away these licenses.

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Speaker 1: Yeah. Well, Shelley Lay, the owner of zacholi IgA, I

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Speaker 1: really appreciate you having a chat with this this morning.

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Speaker 2: Thank you, Thanks Katie. I appreciate your time. And look,

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Speaker 2: I just want it yet people to know that really

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Speaker 2: there is a rule that's in place that not many

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Speaker 2: people are aware of that we're really adhering to to

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Speaker 2: play our part in this, but it's not across the board,

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Speaker 2: across all liquors shops.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, no, I appreciate it. I think a lot of

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Speaker 1: people will be surprised to hear that. So I appreciate

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Speaker 1: you having a chat with us this morning.

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Speaker 2: Thank you, Thanks Katie.

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Speaker 1: Thanks Shelley see