Why We're Backing Local Business on the Mornington Peninsula

For most of its life, Petits Trésors has been an online business. At least 90% of our sales have always come through the website, from hampers heading across Australia to pantry staples shipped overseas.

So when we moved from Williamstown North to Rye on the Mornington Peninsula, I expected the move to change our postcode and not much else. I was wrong, in the best possible way.

Within weeks, local businesses were asking whether we could help. A motel needed tea and coffee supplies before a long weekend. An office wanted sandwiches for a team meeting the next day. A street food business was looking for a supplier that wouldn't insist on an enormous minimum order.

None of these were big contracts. They were small, practical problems that needed someone local who would pick up the phone.

The same frustrations came up again and again. Big suppliers are built for big customers, and a two-room B&B or a five-person office doesn't need a pallet of anything. Bulk boxes get half used, then pass their best-before date at the back of the cupboard. And when something goes wrong, a call centre in another state is not much help.

None of this was new to us. As a small business ourselves, we'd been on the other side of those same conversations.

We started saying yes to smaller orders. Mostly, though, we've been getting to know the people on the other end of the phone. When you call Petits Trésors, you talk to the people who run it.

We still ship Australia-wide and overseas. But some of the most rewarding work we do now happens within a few kilometres of our door.

There's a quiet advantage in dealing with a business down the road. Money stays in the community and problems get solved faster. Over time you build relationships that a checkout page can't replace.

For a small business, those relationships are the whole point. We'd rather supply twenty local businesses well than chase one big account that sees us as a line item.

If you run an office, practice, agency, coworking space, motel, B&B or food business on the Mornington Peninsula, I'd love to hear what would make your week easier. It might be tea and coffee supplies, welcome hampers, or pâté, cheese and biscuits for guests. Or it might simply be a supplier who picks up the phone.

Get in touch through our Contact Us page, or visit petitstresors.com.au.

Andrew
Petits Trésors, Rye