Nothing stirs up bizarre rumors in Linton than something fairly major happening without warning or explanation. It certainly didn’t make the ABC 24 hour News or the pages of the Miner so it is still unclear why the Grocer Shop doors remain firmly closed.
Have costs, corporations, conspiracy, councils, competition or complacency caused the closure? Only recently we took two steps forward when businesses began opening in Linton. Craft Shops and Hairdressers among them. After 150 years (there was a grocer style business here in 1860) another icon of Linton looks headed for listing in both meanings of the word. Listing in the records of the Historical Society as yet another business that ‘used to thrive’ and listing in a register as a significant village building.
Maybe it could open again in another guise. I would like to think that there is still some life in the Economic Store as it was known for a long time. Some of the forebears of the Grocery are still around and may be mourning the loss of what in the past was their livelihood. We have to ask what is the future of small businesses in Linton. I’m optimistic that with the increases in on-line trading and the NBN maybe coming through Linton this decade that the village reduces its dependency on passing trade like the ’Cars That Ate Paris’ to really concentrate on Good and ServicesTrading On-line if we can create or find our niche market.
My idea for a Tea Cosy Museum fell flat at the last attempt so this time around would the idea of starting up a Cryptozoology Gallery wave anyone's flag?
In today's economic climate where the supermarket vampires are sucking the life out of small business maybe the return of Jesus has more chance of being successful than a resurrection of another grocery shop in the town.
As an eager supporter of anything positive about Linton the Astonisher is always on the lookout for Australian made widgets and fizz-gigs rather than something produced for Apple by a worker on a 60-hour week for 30 cents an hour. We need to create employment in Linton not in Long Jowl.
Real - Chinese Garlic at $6.99 a kilo while Australian Garlic is $19.99 a kilo. Something's got to give. Protectionism anyone?
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