‘Hard times’ for naughty traders

SEX AND drugs aren’t rock and rolling in central Geelong this Christmas as parking fees, streetworks and new laws bite adult stores hard.
Some shops reported the worst December on record, blaming online sales and job cuts across the region.
Other complained that $2 shops were undermining their core business.
Moorabool St’s Adult Fantasy, a fixture for three decades, is shutting up shop and consolidating its operations at Belmont.
Others, speaking on condition of anonymity, told the Independent high rents and job losses at employers such as Ford and Boral were behind “the quietest December in years’’.
“It’s the worst year ever,” one staffer said.
“I don’t remember December ever being so bad. It’s so quiet it’s blown me away, so many people have been losing work.”
Naughty Gifts manager Phil Kelly lashed out at City Hall for failing to encourage Christmas shoppers to central Geelong.
“I don’t know why council doesn’t make parking free,” he said.
“It’s always on about reinvigorating the city and this is a huge issue.”
Mr Kelly said works on the National Hotel site had denied passing trade to shops along the Moorabool St hill, while $2 shops had filched much of the hen’s night and lingerie trade.
He criticised new laws banning various synthetic euphoria-inducing substances, saying $30,000 of party pills and potions in stock were now worthless.
“These are all synthetic and none affect you for hours, some maybe two hours tops,’’ he said.
“They’re not like your ice or heroin or anything and I’d prefer to sell an 18 or 20-year-old synthetic E that I know has a short-term effect than see them buy crystal meth watered down with who knows what.”