I was given an extra once for a Year 7 class at Cobram Secondary, which was teaching them about different cultures. To start the class I wanted us to first talk about the culture we have here, so I posed the question: “What are things that we do here, in this Cobram Barooga community, that a kid in Melbourne might not do?”
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Of course, when you open the floor up to a room full of 13-year-old students, I got a barrage of answers: “Go down the river, fishing, skiing, camping, hunting with Dad, working on the farm, motorbikes, horses”. In particular, there were three answers that I took away from that lesson quite proudly, and they were: “We look someone in the eye when we’re talking to them; always give a firm handshake; we support local business in this town.”
I reflected that our kids do have a certain cheeky friendliness that is unique to our area. But supporting local business was the point I took away.
I was raised and spent all of my working life in business, and so my focus has always been that growing the pie for everyone is always the better option. Like many of you, I will be glad to see the new Cobram Village facility open. However, among all the new lights and fanfare, I am conscious that a new Chemist Warehouse will be part of that addition.
Chemist Warehouse deliberately paint over and scuff the floors of their newly concreted floors to make it appear cheap, in addition to having every single product seemingly on sale. Profits are retained by shareholders and partners outside of this town, and my main purpose of writing is to highlight that this town has been supported very well by three local, family-run pharmacists and should continue to be so. We are also blessed with top-quality butchers and produce stores.
Of course the Cobram Village development should be welcomed by our growing river-side town. But as a community we have a choice between becoming one of those towns that has a new major shopping centre, with ‘For Lease’ signs on every other shop, or a town that supports new developments while defending the small businesses that have been committed to this town, spend their profits in this town and will hopefully continue to be a part of this town going forward.
Listen to the 13-year-old kid who knows: “We support local business in this town.”
