Local businesses battle through the Christmas trade season

It sets the tone for most businesses, but for some smaller businesses it can be difficult to compete with larger chain stores.

Intimate Dreams owner Glenda Anthes said her business had been quiet this year leading up to Christmas.

“I’ve been here for 11 years and I still get people saying, ‘Oh I didn’t know we had a bra shop in town,’.

“I see people walking from the post office with their parcels, online shopping,” she said.

Ms Anthes said she knew there were some things that you couldn’t buy in Lithgow, but people did not give it a chance.

“If you actually take the time to walk down Main Street there are still some shops that can fill the gaps for you,” she said.

Ms Anthes also made a point of saying that social media played a critical role when talking about the town.

“You see people talking the town down and they whinge that businesses aren’t open on certain days, well I opened Boxing Day last year and I didn’t get one customer come in,” she said.

She also said people needed to promote the town, love it and support it especially when it came to employing school age kids.

“You want us to employ your kids, I would love to put three or four girls on but I’m just not busy enough,” she said.

She also said it was unclear to many how money goes around the town.

“The butcher down the road might be able to employ another apprentice because I’m buying meat from him, that’s how it works,” she said.

Ms Anthes urged people to support local businesses and see the support returned. She said she would like to see the people of Lithgow making more of an effort.

“If you want to know what’s going on in the town, go sit at a council meeting and listen,” she said.

While some businesses are finding it tough, others have boomed heading into the festive season.

Lithgow Bearings and Industrial Supplies has been operating for three years and according to store manager Chris Sperelakis, business had been going really good.

“I don’t think we have struggled as much as other businesses, and the drought hasn’t impacted us either.”

“It’s actually been really busy for us with Christmas,” he said.

He also said people definitely didn’t shop local enough and that was a problem for some.​ 

“People come to us for the customer service more than the price, and that’s why people should shop local,” he said.

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Another Main Street business finding the Christmas trade season consistent was Naturally By Nature.

Owner Kelley Crane said the Christmas trade seemed to get later each year but fortunately she had been fairly consistent this year.

“At present I am up on last year’s figures, so hopefully that continues over the coming days,” she said.

She also said she used social media to help promote her business.

“I am constantly on Instagram and Facebook posting, and it works, it gets people thinking,” she said.

Lithgow District Chamber of Commerce Angela O’Connor said local businesses relied heavily on the community shopping local.

“If we don’t support them, they won’t be here in the future,” she said.

She also mentioned Lithgow and the outlying villages  had several amazing boutique stores and urged people to shop local whenever possible.

“Spending your money in them goes straight back into the community’s economy,” she said.

The outlying town of Portland has also seen business boom with the help of their month-long Christmas festival.

Their recent outdoor trading day saw the town flood with locals and visitors.

Portland Business Association president Andrew Neville said the Christmas trade was good and numbers were up from last year.

“We had family activities and Santa photos so that could have attracted people, but overall business in general has been positive in terms of cars in the street, it’s pretty constant,” he said.

He also said it was particularly pleasing considering the Commonwealth Bank closure in November.

“In a small community we go hand in hand, it’s important to have a give-take relationship,” he said.

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