Keep Sydney Open - support in stores this week

We support safe nights in a global city. We support live music. Keep Sydney Open!

With the NSW State elections coming up this weekend, our staff will be sporting KSO's t-shirts this week to show our support for their movement. We're not here to give you a side of politics with your scoop, or to tell you what to vote, but we are showing our support to Keep Sydney Open and want to help them spread the word on their mission to bring our city back to life.

Some of you might remember our April Fools' joke back in 2016, where we released a statement claiming that 'Messina stores would be closing at 7pm due to the lock out laws'. Yes, it was of course a joke, but three years down the line it does feel like our city has instead become the joke, and moved even closer to a reality of us all being tucked up in bed by 7pm. We just got voted tenth worst city in the world to live in the Time Out Index. Not cool Sydney.

As a business, we have thrived and grown in an era where Sydney was full of people dining on the streets, going to live music venues, thriving festivals and luckily for us, also stopping off for a late-night scoop at our stores. And of course tourists coming to our sunny shores. We're not having a whinge about business (even though we've definitely seen a downturn in late night scooping), this is more about how we feel about this city which we have loved and grown up in. Gone are the days that Crown Street or Kings Cross felt alive post 9pm or you can have a beer in a park without being moved on by our friends in blue.

We want to live and work in a diverse city with freedom of choice and not be treated like children. So have a read about what Keep Sydney Open are up to and make up your own mind about our city and how to keep it vibrant.