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Crowds Flock To New Harris Scarfe StoreHundreds of keen shoppers flocked to the official opening of the new Harris Scarfe store in Traralgon on Thursday. By Latrobe City Council - 21st August 2007 - Back to News In a surge of shopping never seen in the last ten years or so in Latrobe City, keen bargain hunters began arriving just after 7am for a much published 8am opening.
According to Latrobe City’s senior business development officer, Leo Billington, many of the early shoppers arrived well armed with their catalogues, clearly knowing what specials were in their sights for purchase.
At precisely 8am, Latrobe City deputy mayor, Cr David Wilson, officially opened the new store by welcoming Harris Scarfe to Latrobe City and congratulating them on their substantial investment. The Traralgon store is the latest addition to the Harris Scarfe Group which currently has 36 stores across South Australia, Victoria, Tasmania, ACT and New South Wales.
Harris Scarfe, national manager store development and projects, Stuart Elder, said he was most impressed with the opening sales and the seemingly relaxed, yet highly trained 30 local staff members.
Cr Wilson said that with almost 3000 square metres of floor space, the new store gives Traralgon’s central shopping precinct plenty of heightened activity. "The new Traralgon store is substantially larger than another recent development in regional Victoria, in Warrnambool," Cr Wilson said.
"A retail investment of this magnitude shows confidence in our local economy. With a number of major capital projects now underway across Latrobe City as well as expansion by a number of local businesses, there is a strong sense of optimism, which in itself is an excellent advertisement for this area," Cr Wilson said.
"Even later in the day, locals were still talking up the new addition to Latrobe City’s strong reputation as the retail capital of Gippsland," Mr Billington added.
Harris Scarfe also opened a new store in Ringwood just two weeks ago as part of a nation wide expansion program.
Source: www.gippsland.com Published by: news@gippsland.com

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