By Dylan J. Stone.
In six weeks’ time, many thousands of tourists and locals alike will be rocking the plains at the second Mundi Mundi Bash Festival and behind the scenes, businesses across Broken Hill are already preparing for a surge of customers during the week prior to, and the week after, the Bash.
While many local businesses extended their opening hours and their range of products and services during April other businesses made the difficult decision to close over the Easter Long Weekend due to the challenges of budgeting for and paying out penalty rates.
Consequently, while some businesses have reviewed their performance from the April Bash to prepare for August, other businesses have been planning based on information obtained from the dedicated inter-business Mundi Mundi Bash meeting, which was held at the end of May.
How are our local businesses preparing for the Bash?
Owner of the Argent on Argent Café, Tricia Hall, comments that her business handled the April Bash well, and says that businesses will need ‘plenty of extra tables and chairs’ to best capitalise on the visitor boom the August Bash is expected to deliver.
Tricia recommends that having ‘staff trained well in all areas (as well as) local tourism knowledge’ will be beneficial for both business and customer.
Ensuring staff are knowledgeable about the local community such as where accommodation, amenities, supermarkets, and service stations can be found, will be beneficial for every business.
Not only does this promote Broken Hill as a helpful and welcoming community but this also establishes important rapport between customer and business, which is the goal for every local business.
Owner of the Silverton Bakery, Naomi Schmidt, is also making changes to her business operations after the April Bash to capitalise on the upcoming August Bash.
Naomi has mentioned that she has remodelled the bakery to ‘double the counter space,’ as well as creating a wider variety of meal options and extending the trading hours during August to be available to customers travelling outside of peak periods.
Naomi also confirms that changes to display fridges and point of sale capabilities within the Bakery will allow her business to process customer orders faster than the Bakery previous could, ensuring the Bakery is as prepared as possible for an expected surge of visitors during the August Bash.
Business confidence ahead of the August Bash is understandably strong.
Businesses from a wide variety of industries are preparing as they see fit- extending their trading hours, ordering additional stock, and remodelling their shopfronts, among other plans.
The key message from the business community is that preparations are well underway to ensure our community can make the most of the August Bash, and the business community will be ready with open doors for our visitors in August.
Welcome to Broken Hill, and please enjoy everything our community has to offer.
