Op shops drawing visitors into Hilltops towns

A busload of bargain hunters from Canberra and Yass will head into Harden and Boorowa next month, with a new Op Shop Hop highlighting the potential of second-hand shopping to bring visitors — and their spending — into Hilltops towns. The September 12 tour is being organised and run by Zac’s Place in Harden, with participants travelling from Canberra and Yass to spend the day exploring local op shops before stopping at the Boorowa Community Op Shop on the return journey. Zac’s Place’s Ros Stewart said the idea grew from a simple question — how could they encourage more people from outside the area to discover Harden? “We thought if we started in Yass, that’s close for people in Canberra as well,” she said. The hope is that once visitors know what is available, they will remember Harden when they are travelling through the region in future. “Then they know where we are, they know where to come, they know where to stop and they’ve got that for next time,” Ros said. Interest in the first tour has been strong, with seats filling quickly several weeks before the trip. Importantly, Ros said many of those booking were people they did not know — suggesting the tour is reaching beyond friends and supporters already connected with the participating communities. Once in Harden, visitors will be given a map and encouraged to explore local second-hand outlets including Chats and Treasures Op Shop, Vinnies and the Book Nook, all within a short walk of each other, before having lunch at Zac’s Place and travelling on to the Boorowa Community Op Shop for the final stop on the journey back to Yass. Morning tea and lunch form part of the day, with lunch at Zac’s Place, before the group travels on to Boorowa on its way back to Yass. While the Op Shop Hop is a first for Zac’s Place, the idea that op shops can draw visitors from outside the region is already familiar in Boorowa. Boorowa Community Op Shop volunteer Ilze Myburgh said visitors from Canberra arrived at the shop every week. Some were passing through or visiting family and friends, while others had heard about the shop and deliberately included it in their trip. She said visitors were attracted by the shop’s reasonable prices, welcoming atmosphere and traditional op-shop experience. Lyn Diskon said a customer survey conducted several years ago found about 47 per cent of shoppers at the Boorowa Community Op Shop were from outside Boorowa. The visitors often spend more than a few minutes in town. “We often get asked where can they have a coffee or lunch, or where is a good place to stay, or where can I get petrol?” Lyn said. That flow-on activity is part of what makes the Op Shop Hop particularly interesting for small towns. A visitor who initially arrives to hunt for second-hand treasures can also buy lunch, stop for coffee, fill the car with fuel, explore other shops and potentially return for another visit. Julie Poplin from the Boorowa Community Op Shop said people regularly travelled from Harden, Young and Yass specifically to shop there. “A frequent comment is, ‘we like this shop as it is an old fashioned op shop where you can hunt to find treasure’,” she said. Ros hopes the September tour could be the beginning of something larger, with the possibility of future trips bringing visitors from other centres such as Wagga. For Hilltops towns, it suggests an unlikely tourism drawcard may already be sitting on the main street — racks of pre-loved clothes, shelves of books and the chance to discover something unexpected.