The ongoing Mildura power outage is continuing to have a significant impact at Mildura Central, with much of the Woolworths end of the centre still without power during what would normally be a busy week of school-holiday trade.
At the latest update, Woolworths remains closed, along with a number of other businesses at that end of the centre.
The situation is quite different around the Kmart end of Mildura Central, where the majority of retailers have power and are able to trade.
It means Mildura Central is far from completely closed, but the outage has effectively divided the centre, with one end largely trading while many businesses at the other continue to deal with the loss of power.
For those businesses, the impact is about much more than simply missing a few sales.
It can also mean lost hours and potentially lost wages for local employees who would normally be working through one of the busier periods on the retail calendar.
The Victorian spring school holidays are now underway, a time when shopping centres such as Mildura Central would normally see increased daytime traffic from families looking for somewhere to shop, grab something to eat and keep the kids entertained.
For casual and part-time workers in particular, that extra activity can mean additional shifts and longer hours.
Instead, workers at businesses unable to open may find shifts shortened, cancelled or simply unavailable while the outage continues.
Even the loss of one or two shifts can make a noticeable difference to someone's weekly income.
The timing has been made even more difficult by the disruption to Mildura Central's planned school-holiday entertainment.
The centre had scheduled free Sci-Fi-Bri live science shows during the holidays, with sessions designed to bring families into the centre and add some extra entertainment for children.
Monday's shows were unable to go ahead because of the power outage, and the Sci-Fi-Bri program has now been postponed until further notice.
While the cancellation of a children's show may seem relatively minor compared with thousands of homes and businesses being without electricity, there is also a flow-on effect for retailers.
Events such as these are designed to bring families into the shopping centre, encourage them to stay longer and generate extra foot traffic past cafés, food outlets and specialty stores.
A family visiting for a free school-holiday activity might also stop for lunch, pick up a coffee, browse Kmart, visit a clothing store or buy something for the kids.
When those activities are postponed and a large section of the centre is without power, some of that spending simply doesn't happen.
For smaller retailers, the loss can add up quickly.
A large national retailer may be in a better position to absorb a disrupted trading day across hundreds of stores, but the effects can be very different for a locally operated business, franchise, café, kiosk, hairdresser or beauty business.
Those businesses still face wages, rent and other operating costs, even when circumstances outside their control prevent them from trading normally.
Food businesses can face additional problems during an extended outage, with refrigeration, coffee machines, cooking equipment, EFTPOS systems and point-of-sale computers all reliant on electricity.
Extended loss of refrigeration can also lead to stock having to be discarded.
The nature of the Mildura outage adds another layer of difficulty.
The incident involved high voltage entering parts of the low-voltage electricity network, meaning affected premises may require electrical checks before they can be safely reconnected.
As a result, getting power back isn't necessarily as simple as flicking a switch. Switchboards, refrigeration equipment and other electrical systems may need to be checked before some businesses can return to normal trading.
For now, Mildura Central remains very much a centre of two halves — the majority of the Kmart end has power and is trading, while much of the Woolworths end remains without power, including Woolworths itself.
During an ordinary week that would already hurt.
During school holidays, when families are out and about and retailers would normally expect additional daytime trade, the impact has the potential to be much greater.
And behind every store unable to open there are not only lost sales, but potentially local workers missing the shifts and wages they would normally rely on.
Out and About Sunraysia will continue following the situation as power is progressively restored.
