A MAJORITY of Ararat businesses want Friday’s first AFL Grand Final public holiday to also have been the last.
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The Ararat Advertiser conducted a snap poll on Monday morning with 17 of the 20 Barkly Street businesses surveyed against the new holiday.
Although the shopping strip was busy on Friday, that didn't translate to the till.
While some employees celebrated the benefit of a rise in wages for a day, most didn’t with business owners deciding to shut their doors.
Employers said they couldn’t afford to open and the reason for the break (so more people could attend the AFL Grand Final parade in Melbourne) during school holidays was ‘ridiculous’.
Most who did thought it wasn’t worth the cost. One went so far as to say the holiday was ‘insensitive’ given just half a day is allowed to observe ANZAC Day.
Ararat Regional Business Association president and Foster’s Mensland owner Graeme Foster said businesses were plagued by uncertainty about whether it would be worth opening.
“I wasn’t a supporter of this holiday because of the lack of consultation with industry groups,” he said.
“The Premier’s idea that people would take advantage of the holiday and visit regional areas including Ararat was great in theory.
“However, I think a lot of the small-to-medium sized businesses would find the loss of trade in dollar terms to be quite considerable.”
Fred and Bet’s Cafe manager Hannah Cunningham said the holiday cost the business more than a day’s trade.
“We couldn’t open, it’s alright to have your family working, but demand would have required we put on other staff as well,” she said.
Ms Cunningham said the cafe usually opens Saturday mornings with all food prepared fresh in store.
“Because we were closed Friday we also had no option but to close Saturday as the level of food wastage would have been too high,” she said.
In contrast, Lyal Eales manager Rob Stebbing said he took advantage of the tourist dollar and reaped the rewards.
“The benefits out-weighed the costs by far, it was actually quite an exceptional day’s trade,” he said.
Mr Stebbing said he was initially against the holiday, but has embraced the initiative and looks forward to other Ararat businesses doing the same in 2016.
