take the money and run

Richard Branson is a very successful and clever businessman. He has a lot of fun, he is admired and respected and he is very, very wealthy. When asked about his phenomenal success he says simply, ‘I look after my staff’. His formula is simple; he believes that when the staff are happy they work like they own the business. They take on the responsibility of making the customers happy and when the customers are happy they keep coming back. This makes Richard Branson and his shareholders very happy and very successful.

In light of the current recession it’s pretty easy to see that many of the huge business collapses are the result of administrator’s obscene and reckless greed. With an insatiable lust for profit big business has replaced good personnel with cheap technology; they have severely reduced staff, abandoned customer service, invented dodgy service fees, taken jobs overseas and returned inferior products and services. Short-term they all made out like bandits but it never was sustainable. The world economy is collapsing and look who is being asked to bail them out – the taxpayers! Yes, the working man is now being asked to pick up the tab and bail out the very people who have robbed and betrayed them.

If we ever manage to find our way back will we know better and will we do better? I think not. Just look around and you can see the same scenario playing out all around you.

A successful business can not survive on a smash and grab basis. Richard Branson’s very simply formula applies to any business; if they have any intention of going the distance. Overpricing or under servicing is either a matter of stupidity or it is a deliberate attempt at grabbing the money and running.

This of course brings me back to the madness of the Fremantle markets. When the management appears to be destroying a successful enterprise you can’t help but wonder why. There really isn’t much to manage; basically they are landlords and although the markets are under one roof they are actually run by all of the small businesses operating within. It is not a matter of real estate, it is fundamentally a retail outlet, but over time it has evolved into something much more than just that.

People don’t just pop into the markets to shop. It’s a place to go on weekends, almost like a work of art in motion. You go and spend time there like it’s an exhibition; you take visitors down to check it out, you look for unique and unusual products, listen to buskers, interact with merchants, find bargains and homemade things and get caught up in the sounds and smells and colours.

Freo markets is not just another of the cheap junk markets which most cities have and until recently they have attracted innovative people and ideas. Many of the stallholders have been there for at least 10 years and some for almost 30. They have relationships with customers and are as much a part of the markets as the products are. It is a community within its own right and it is filled with character and characters.

When the Murdoch brothers (the management) renewed their lease with the Fremantle council everything changed and became crazy. They both make a lot of money from the rents and have done pretty much bugga all as the stall holders evolved and went about making the markets what they are today.

For reasons beyond comprehension the Murdoch’s increased the rents by around 80% and then announced that they would change the very nature of the markets and redevelop the outdoor area into a glorified ‘Italian style’ delicatessen. Established businesses were stolen by legal technicalities, others were so severely downsized that they were pretty much bullied into leaving and no matter how they want to dress it up or justify it they have betrayed, lied to, mislead and robbed the people who are the markets.

I know that I have been accused of conspiracy theory before and that much of my questioning does not provide answers or facts and details. All I can say is that when something doesn’t make any sense at all it’s because it is either untrue or because someone is hiding something.

Why won’t the Murdoch’s show their valuation? Could it be that they never had one done?

Why was that lease renewed before the old one expired?

Why didn’t the lease go out to public tender?

Why won’t the Murdoch’s or the Council buy out the stalls that are being destroyed by the redevelopment?

Why does the head lease exclude the stall-holders rights and give carte blanche to the Murdoch’s? Did the Murdoch’s draft this lease? Did the council really examine it?

Why weren’t stall holders or their association consulted about the changes?

Why was Richard Murphy (Stall-holders spokesperson) really evicted?

Who can’t predict that the redevelopment is going to be a complete failure? Wasn’t that Mayor Tagliaferri’s idea to begin with? Was that a condition of the lease?

Who doesn’t know that Morley markets, e-shed and Canningvale aren’t offering great deals for Freo stall-holders to come and join them?

Who can’t see that when the stall holders leave or fail then the market collapses?

Who doesn’t understand that when rents go up - prices go up and sales go down?

Who doesn’t know that when the markets go - the tourists stop coming and that business's throughout Freo lose?

WHO CARES?

Not the Murdoch’s. Why? Could it be that they have no intention of going the distance? Why else would they destroy or disregard the stallholders?

It would make sense if they didn’t care about the longevity or the success of the markets. What if they doubled the rent - which would makes the books look very attractive and then just on-sold the lease?

If this is true then let me laugh out loud now, because the stallholders will be long gone and the council and the Murdoch's will be left riding their big fat white elephant because I don’t believe that anyone will be lining up to take all of that on.

Most recent post http://sonyagreen.blogspot.com/