Why Oatley neither needs or wants another super-market
Sent: Sunday, 24 July 2005 11:12 PM
To: John Fletcher
Cc: Gerry Masters
Subject: No supermarket for Oatley West.
Why make enemies of your potential or current customers ?
To: John Fletcher
Cc: Gerry Masters
Subject: No supermarket for Oatley West.
Dear Mr Fletcher and Mr Masters,
You may be aware that Coles is considering a tenancy for a super-market in a development by "Renaldo plus 3" in Oatley West in Sydney.
I am a resident of Oatley West and must register my total opposition to this proposal.
I am a resident of Oatley West and must register my total opposition to this proposal.
To put this simply and clearly, Oatley neither needs or wants another super-market of any brand.
Oatley is a wonderful close knit community.I love living here.This is quite remarkable in any city these days and makes Oatley a special place.It's worth fighting for.
- The area in question is quiet and surrounded by residential properties on all sides.
- It has very poor access for shoppers and delivery vehicles entering or exiting the property.At certain times of the day the Sun makes the access road quite dangerous.One end of the access road is narrow and becomes a one lane rail underpass for anything a bit bigger than a family wagon.
- All trucks and cars entering / exiting will cross a footpath crossed daily by many hundreds of commuters and school kids heading for the station and the local schools.
- All streets that will carry your trucks are residential streets.Some only see trucks when the garbage is collected once a week.This a fact.
- The excavation of thousands of tonnes of rock and ensuing construction for nearly 12 months will be a massive inconvenience and disturbance to our community
- It is going to make a lot of residents very, very angry.
One of the prime reasons I paid the high price of purchasing here is because it is a quiet and safe area on a peninsula with no through traffic.It is however still very close and convenient to larger shopping precincts at Hurstville, Roselands and Riverwood.These are minutes away and all have a Coles super-market.
Because Oatley is on a peninsula the vast majority of potential customers will be Oatley residents most of whom do not want this to go ahead.I cannot see people outside of Oatley coming to shop here.It is out of the way to do so.
Why make enemies of your potential or current customers ?
I can see where you may wish to gain entry into an IGA suburb but I daresay many of us here are already Coles shoppers at one of the above sites.My family is to a very large degree.
I will assure you that my family will happily re-direct our not inconsiderable shopping dollars away from all Coles Myer stores if you go ahead with a tenancy in this appalling development.
In Coles super-markets alone we spend in excess of $10,000 per year let alone Target , K-Mart, Myer et al.
We have 2 young kids and our spending will only increase over the next 15 years.
We are only one family but multiply that by hundreds of families and it is a considerable loss of revenue.
Not only will a store in Oatley possibly cannibalise sales in the abovementioned locations it will more likely cost overall sales by inviting a public relations backlash and a general boycott of Coles Myer brands by a community that is overwhelmingly against a development of this kind and size in our suburb.
The proposal was voted down unanimously by council with over 450 locals in attendance.Hundreds turned up at the on-site hearing of the Land and Environment Court.
Our fight has the full and on going support of our Mayor, the councillors, our State and Federal Members and their Opposition.
Please take a locals advice, it is a poorly positioned and ill advised development that will cost Coles considerable custom and ask you and Mr Masters reconsider and walk away from this.In fact it would be a considerable PR coup with people in this area to do so.
In closing, it is interesting and perhaps revealing to note that your potential developer invokes the name of a major competitor to try and sell this disaster to the community.
I quote. "This is a boutique supermarket that will have the ambience of a David Jones Food Hall".
I don't care if he plans a replica of the Sydney Opera House.Its still a super-market in the wrong place.
I thank you for your time.
Yours Faithfully,
(name withheld)
(name withheld)
