Customers bypass Bell Block shops

ROBERT CHARLES/Taranaki Daily News

BYPASSED: Major Singh says business at his Four Square shop in Bell Block is down as much as 50 per cent since the multi-million dollar bypass opened last week.

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Bell Block's bypass could prove fatal to its retailers.

Opened last week, the multi-million dollar bypass diverts traffic around Bell Block and the shopping centre which straddled SH3.

Some retailers felt the change immediately with significantly fewer customers and plummeting shop takings.

Major Singh, co-owner of the Bell Block Four Square, yesterday said till receipts were down as much as 50 per cent as customers found his convenience store suddenly inconvenient to access.

"If this continues and we are not able to return payments on our loans, we would have to look at closing.

"At the end of each day we are throwing out 50 per cent of what we put in the food cabinets. No one is buying it. All the workers in the industrial area along Corbett Rd used to come in before work for their lunch. But now we don't get that," he said.

The till has been even quieter at Barry and Leanne Gooch's fruit and vegetable shop, Cabbages.

"It turned into a ghost town instantly when they opened that bypass. Where we may have had 170 customers a day. Now we might get 70," Mrs Gooch said.

The couple bought the business five months ago and had been aware the imminent opening of the bypass made their purchase a gamble.

"I sat out there on the bus seat and studied the traffic before we bought it. Everyone seemed to be on a mission somewhere and not many were stopping so I thought most of the customers to the shop must be local. But that doesn't seem to be the case," Mr Gooch said.

"We're both feeling quite stressed. We are quite sick about it. We try not to let it show, but it's hard to keep bagging things up for display when you know at the end of the day a lot of it will still be there."

Don Meuli of Meuli Motors said the contents of his till were 25 per cent less than the same time last week and Eden Cafe owner Satish Kumar has seen his takings drop 20 per cent.

Like other retailers, Mr Kumar said opening the old section of Devon Rd to through traffic would solve the problem immediately, as people would be able to more easily have access to the shopping centre.

However, New Zealand Transport Agency plans for the road make it clear this will not happen. The section of Devon Rd made redundant by the bypass will be permanently closed at both ends, with access to the shopping area from Nugent St.

- © Fairfax NZ News