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Had to stir myself to start some Christmas shopping in order to get gifts in the mail etc.
I haven't shopped in Byron for a bit . . . oh golly, what a shock. Byron Bay used to be different - groovy, interesting, fun shops that had locally made stuff unlike anything anywhere else in Australia. Over the nineteen years I've lived here I've watched talented people at the markets sell their wares on a blanket on the grass. Then graduate to a stall. Then have a corner of a shop until finally they have their own little shop in the CBD. Some people - like the natural cosmetics lady - attracted big investors who took their product to a national and international marketplace. Talented people moved into the area to sell their creations. Like a well known jeweller. Until the rent on the little cottage in the CBD was more than she was paying for her shop in Sydney's Strand Arcade. But what depresses me most is that not only are the shops that attracted tourists gone as they can't afford the mad rents, we now have ghastly chain stores.
So why come and shop in Byron then? Even Rhonda from the Dry Cleaners has been forced out which devastated her health due to the stress. And I so miss Wallaces's Menswear and the local foodshops. But shockingly what brought it home to me that I can no longer indulge in retail therapy in Byron (with very few exceptions), was walking out of a long established shop that carries a varied range of fashions. I'd bought a pretty shirt and pair of white shorts. As I left with my purchases, two cute 16 year old schoolies recoiled in shock as we passed in the doorway.
'Oh man, this is an old ladies shop!' They turned tail. I froze. Was it me? I glanced at the mannequin in the window in bikini, sun hat and shirt . . . was she that 1980s? Oh dear. I hid the bag with the store name on it in my basket and slunk away.
Di’s latest book The Islands, published by Pan Macmillan, is now on sale. |
