Getting Serious RE Frocking the Ockers

So I have  finally made it to Hobart .. logic tells me that Tasmania may just be the next place in Australia to set up an Annah Stretton store. After a quick whistle stop in Canberra, with thoughts that this city may also be another retail option, the jury is still out given the capital constitution of this city may find the colour and frivolity of our clothes a little overwhelming.

I did however warm to a location called Manuka but given there where no obvious empty tenancies I haven't let my self get too excited. With 350K as the population it certainly will make a better entry for us than Sydney or Melbourne ever will and I have to report that the food here needs work as well as the retail .. two night meals in Canberra where less than inspiring one was positively horrid, not great when these places where recommended and it is after all the nations capital!

Canberra Japanese on speed - Tempura Sushi didn't quite work

Yesterday we flew into Hobart and after a fantastic lunch at Smolt in the Salamanca area, possibly some of the best food I have eaten in a while, we spent a wet afternoon at Port Arthur ...  an extensive tourist attraction and vital piece of history of the Van Demon Lands (the old name for Tasmania) .. Given I am a bit of a Lesley Pearce fan when looking for a trashy novel to take on holiday I had some good insight into this place through the eyes of her book characters and definitely wasn't disappointed by the afternoons excursion.

Port Arthur

I suppose the worst thing about being away for me is all the ideas that flow .. and given the company is 20 years old on April the 14th 2012 I guess its been a potpourri of very successful ideas in the past .. so not only am I contemplating what our twentieth celebration will look like but I am also setting up a vision for the next twenty years... so being in new environments presents a myriad of new opportunities .. its also great to benchmark yourself against other similar operations and what better way to do this than on a global stage.

The original team

Have had my first Skype call from India .. the boy is in Goa and very pleased with the cost of everything, absolutely enthralled by its customs and cultures given that hes from a dairy farm in the Waikato, the cows that grace the beach beside him all in the name of sacredness are an amusement at least and the accommodation that ranges from $2.50 to $7.50 a night another wonderful benefit for a student on holiday.

Interesting moment  in our conversation when he discussed their boat day trip to do some fishing, down onto the sand they went to negotiate the carrier for the day obviously the advances from boat operators where many and furious ... so how the hell does one pick? .. I suppose it becomes the loudest and most insistent and obviously the best price but given these are the traits of all the operators it was Edward who pointed out  ... that all one of them needed was a point of difference and it could have been as simple as placing a shade cover on the boat, sure the others would eventually catch up, but for a while that operator would have an advantage ... business 101 is alive and well in India ????  Not yet !

Edward handing kites to young boys in India. They went crazy sprinting around and screaming with joy! The rest of that day he had about 50 indian
boys, aged maybe 5 to 10, never more than a metre away!

Today we head to Launceston .. I feel this little island of Australia is such a nice fit for the brand that if we look at setting up one store may as well consider two ...