“Decisions made by head offices of national retail chains to shut branches in places like Johnsonville unfortunately ignore the impact on local communities,” Ōhāriu MP Greg O’Connor said today.

Mr O’Connor was commenting on the decisions this week by The Warehouse and Michael Hill Jeweller to shut a number of branches around the country including in Johnsonville.

“While I accept that there are commercial considerations behind these decisions what does upset the local community is that there is no responsibility taken for the impact of losing services and jobs, especially in this case where wage subsidies have been received up to the time of the decision to close,” Mr O’Connor said.

In the case of Johnsonville, it just highlights the need for the shopping mall to be rebuilt to ensure local shoppers have options to support local businesses.

“Hopefully this will now be an opportunity for local businesses to fill the vacuum left by the loss of these chain stores and at the same time an opportunity for the northern suburbs residents to generally shop local.

“I will continue to work with Stride Property to encourage them to proceed with the essential revamp which I’m convinced will be mutually beneficial to the mall owners and the local community,” Mr O’Connor says.

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