Gerry Harvey’s crusade

You’ve got to love veteran retailer Gerry Harvey. Few billionaires are as colourful and quotable as the Harvey Norman founder.

In the past 12 months alone he has laughed off the loss of a billion dollars in the GFC, declared online retailing is a waste of time and declared the greatest boom in Australian history is only months away.

But now we learn that Gerry has taken things up a level in his protests against the development of a home maker shopping centre that is proposed to sit just opposite a Harvey Norman in the Sydney suburb of Penrith.

Not content with writing a few strongly worded letter, Gerry has produced a home-made DVD which as been sent to the local councilors who will decide whether or not the centre (which will include Harvey Norman competitors such as Spotlight, Bing Lee, Freedom Furniture and JB Hi-Fi) can go ahead.

Harvey is claiming that building the centre will result in traffic chaos, parking problems and, eventually cost jobs when sales at his store fall – he’s tipping a drop of 12.7%, to be precise.

On top of video (shot on one of the video cameras sold at Harvey Norman, we hope) Gerry has apparently been out in the carpark of this shopping centre handing out protest pamphlets.

If the centre goes ahead, he’s also threatened to build a fence through the middle of the existing carpark, so only Harvey Norman customers can use it.

It’s great to see Gerry Harvey get so fired up and back his passion up with a bit of old-fashioned, grass-roots activism.

And while Gerry’s complaints about traffic problems are no doubt valid, I’m not so sure his protests about falling sales are so valid.

How many times would the erection of a new Harvey Norman store in a particular area dented the business of the local furniture shop or whitegoods retailer? That’s just how competition works.

What Harvey’s protests do highlight, however, is just how important property has become in the retail game. Getting good sites has always been crucial, but the lack of availability is forcing retailers that want to expand to do some very creative things – like building close to existing competitors’ sites.

Gerry’s protest-film making days might not end with this battle.