[?]Rfolk: Shopping Bonanza
pp. 59-61 · Read in the full issue
Of The South Seas
From a Norfolk Island Correspondent
While Fiji is still arguing about the chances of getting the sernment to allow luxury goods into the Colony duty free is to build up Fiji’s name as a shopping Mecca for tourists, ■folk Island has got on with the job.
FOLK ISLAND already has a servedly wide reputation as > the cheapest shopping centre South Seas, and now that has agreed to retain the Skymaster services between c, Sydney and Auckland (in of fortnightly) there is no why the island’s reputation ontinue to grow, visitor who strolls along Burnt opping centre will find a vari shops selling souvenirs and prices that can be bettered i Singapore and Hongkong, a lot cheaper to get to Nor )m Australia or New Zealand is to get to Singapore and ►ng, and Norfolk has plenty
of famous name watches, precision cameras, ropes of fine cultured pearls, tape recorders and, inevitably, tran sistor radios. If any of those aren’t what the practical minded tourist wants, then he might like to pick up cheaply an efficient outboard motor or a Canadian chain saw.
The prices apparently are so com petitive that Norfolk has had in quiries from Switzerland for watches and from Germany for cameras!
Here are a sample of Norfolk prices (all in Australian currency, of course.) Men’s Omega “Seamaster” watches from £l6; women’s Omega “Saphette” watches £2B; Omega Ladymatic £32; National 10 transistor portable radios
£lB/10/-; National Console stereo grammes £49/10/-; Philips Stereo players £3O/10/-; Asahi “Pentax” cameras from £35; Canon “Canonette” automatic 35mm £22/10/-; Canon Zoom 35m movie cameras £49/10/-; single-strand necklaces of Mikimoto cultured pearls from £B/10/- and single pearl rings from £2/10/-; No ritake dinner services, 48 pieces, from £B/10/-.
The secret of these prices is that there is no sales tax in Norfolk and Customs duties are at a low level.
The tourists who wander around Burnt Pine will see one sparkling new “emporium” more spick and span than most. This is the commercial world of K. A. Prentice and Com pany, a husband and wife team which first arrived on Norfolk from New Zealand in 1952—a team which has done more than anyone to make Norfolk the shopping Mecca it has now become.
Tale of a Shirt When Mr. Prentice arrived, tour ists were not offered much in the way of luxury items from overseas, and Mr. Prentice himself had not entered the commercial world. But in 1956 he happened to purchase a shirt from a local store and noticed the quality, the price and particularly the label. The label gave not only the exporter’s name but his address in Hongkong, and this address Mr.
Prentice wrote to.
The reply gave much food for thought. A careful examination of Norfolk Island’s benevolent import taxes was further instructive. It appeared to Mr. Prentice that it was possible to funnel many of Hong kong’s goods to Norfolk Island for sale to visitors and that there was even a possibility of the procedure being profitable.
When the first imports arrived the home of Mr. and Mrs. Prentice be-
Mr. K. A. Prentice's new Norfolk Island store on the right, and new Commonwealth Bank office on the left. As the tourists continue to arrive, business is beginning to boom.
With more tourists arriving on Norfolk more amenities can be offered. Here Mr. and Mrs. lan Kenny make adjustments to their new glass-bottomed motor boat, "Mystic", which will take visitors on reef inspections and charters.
i shop. These beginnings were is, but the buying public apto know what it wanted and he type of imports was into include footwear, radios, s, binoculars and all the fancy he tourist loves to take away m. K. A. Prentice and Comvas off the ground and even >g fast - 1 established traders on the at first sniffed at the upstarts nored them. This was their s Mr. Prentice admits, y had got their heads together dared a price war I was out ear. At that time we had the financial backing nor the s experience to combat organjposition. m time other shopkeepers realmost too late, that they climb on the band wagon. this extent K. A. Prentice and ny have altered the pattern mp °A AA- . tour . lsm on Norfolk Additional advertising is ? the number of visitors alfl!!? too late now to attempt to he Prentice business venture. mpany is not only importing
and exporting, but branching into other fields.
In partnership, Mr. Prentice runs South Pacific Car Rentals, second hire car business to be established here in the last two years. He is the local manager for Customs Credit Corporation—an Australian hire pur chase organisation. He dabbles in real estate.
He recently made a bid for a convict-built ruin at Kingston which he intended to restore to its original condition and create as a motel (without cars) for the tourists who are helping his business grow. His tender was not successful—the Hotel Paradise won it and the new owners will turn it into hotel accommoda tion—but no doubt Mr. Prentice will find other avenues to explore in this connection.
For the future, Mr. Prentice re alises there could be problems. He wonders, for instance, whether Britain’s entry into the European Common Market will affect Austra lia and New Zealand to such an extent that the y will not have the money to spend on tourist trips. But meanwhile Norfolk’s cash registers continue to chatter away.
[?]'s Hotel Paradise, will be taken over by new owners—a syndicate from Sydney— [?]e T h e new oWne rs (see " P I M " May, p . 135) will have the task of restoring built No. 3 Quality Row (below) and using it for additional hotel accommodation.