Retailers kept their doors opened for extended trading on Tuesday evening as part of the Mount Gambier Chamber of Commerce’s Christmas Wrap Up.
More than 20 businesses in the city’s centre took part in the special pre-Christmas shopping event, offering exclusive discounts and prizes as part of the evening.
Mount Gambier Chamber of Commerce president Candice Fennell said the event was a success with 145 tickets sold and she loved seeing the foot traffic around the town.
“What’s been really rewarding about it is the amount of businesses that participated but also the amount of our community members that really took on board the importance of shopping local,” she said.
“Our second time around, we have learnt a bit, we have listened to particularly our shop owners on their feedback and what worked well.
“What we found this year was businesses took on board and put in place quite unique and interesting ways to pass on discounts to shoppers.
“We are slowly using things like this to go ‘what else can we use to help businesses attract more people into their shops.
“Coming up to Easter we might do a similar sort of event now so that we’re using and taking additional opportunities to say ‘we can all shop local anytime of the year’ but it also gives businesses a good chance to participate.”
Ms Fennell said this year’s event took place around two weeks earlier than last year in a bid to commence before the majority of Black Friday online sales.
“The clear feedback from last year was the timing was really important for business owners,” she said.
“Similar to last weekend with the Christmas street parade and pageant where we listened to businesses there as well.
“They were seeking for the chamber to shut the street down for longer so people did not need to rush off and could take advantage of wandering along the street for their shopping.
“The wrap up event following close to the Christmas street parade was a really good way to sort of lean in to having the shopping event this week.”
Ms Fennell said she encourages people to shop local at all times of the year but particularly during the upcoming festive period.
“There are a lot of shopper owners; retail and hospitality; that are really struggling and we want to make sure they have got every opportunity possible to get people in their doors.”
