There haven’t been many positives to come out of the COVID-19 pandemic, but if we had to find one it would be how much everybody has been supporting local business.
With so many small businesses doing it tough over recent months, South Aussies have rallied around locals.
Two people who are well and truly getting behind the Buy Local movement are Michelle and Jeff Ottaway
The pair are the owners of the new Regions bottle shop in Adelaide’s eastern suburbs which exclusively sells local wine, beer and spirits.
Jeff says that the decision to sell only South Australian products was a no-brainer.
“There’s some of the best wineries in the world in South Australia, great craft breweries and distilleries,” Jeff says.
But while the Dulwich shop might look like it has popped up overnight, the truth is that opening the store has been a process spanning years, thanks to some bureaucratic liquor licensing laws.
Jeff and Michelle originally lodged an application for the bottle shop in 2018, but found that competitors in the area could effectively veto the approval.
“Liquor licensing over the last many years has not been an easy process to get a liquor license for a take away bottle shop. Legislation changed at the end of 2019 and that allowed us to get the license. Previously, it was almost impossible but then the laws changed and we were able to re-apply,” Jeff says.
“So we did that (lodged the application) in December on the 46 degree day,” Michelle adds.
“Then COVID hit so we were told our application was on the commissioner’s desk for a long time. But, you know, we just bided our time and waited, then middle of July we got the tick of approval. Then it was all systems go, really.”
Regions is located at 65B Dulwich Ave in Dulwich
