00:03One of life's pleasures, and for five bucks, customers are more than willing to spend.
00:10In a growing district, which one to two thousand new people call home every year,
00:15an extra sprinkling of sales boosting this coffee connoisseur's annual revenue by about five percent.
00:22Everyone needs the coffee in the morning to start the day.
00:24It's a small amount for something that, you know, it's a comfort thing.
00:27As stones throw up the main street, this charity op shop is collecting a few more coins.
00:33We have a very generous landlord, too, who doesn't charge us lots of rent.
00:38But for some, the extra money is being swallowed up by higher costs.
00:43Rent increases, cost of living increases, wages increases, probably ten percent down, yeah.
00:49For others, it's a battle against cheaper chains and online shopping.
00:53This retailer claims six small clothing stores shut their doors in the past year.
00:59There's not going to be any small businesses around.
01:01It's just going to be big businesses like Cayman, Target.
01:04Maybe the council would help by, you know, promoting the main centre a bit more than they are.
01:11The Mount Barker Council says it is helping by offering support and advice,
01:16while a business-funded advocacy group is using a social media campaign to grab customer attention.
01:22Not every business goes perfectly, and sometimes they swap around,
01:25but if every business had decided to leave, we'd probably have five that had come in here.
01:29Local shop owners are calling on the growing population to spend their dollars in the town
01:34to keep jobs and ensure the small family-run businesses survive well into the future.
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