Darwin has plenty of department stores…
I am talking about the likes of David Jones and Myer.
I think Myer at Castle Hill is three levels, so it will probably reduce to two levels, the same as the David Jones store there. Myer (Grace Bros) at Parramatta has been four levels since it moved from it’s old store into the then new Westfield back in the early 1970s. The layout of Parramatta is sparse on a couple of the levels so I guess they will try to scale down there at some stage.
Can Chadstone shopping centre get even bigger? It unveiled a $660 million makeover to local media today. The expansion includes a V-shaped, 31-metre-high atrium at the northern end, the return of Hoyts cinemas, a new food court, and more than 100 shops. They will open in stages between October 13 and mid 2017. While Chadstone looks to add a hotel to the site, I think the next thing it really needs is an underground railway station.
Chadstone is my closest big local shopping centre (I live in Malvern) but I’ve been avoiding it a bit since the renovations have been underway (which feel like they have been going on forever) so I’m glad to hear that a lot of the new area is opening up soon. It’s about time they got the cinemas back as well.
There is also talk of a bit of a revamp to Chapel Street:
Push to return Chapel to its former glory days
I think this would be good. The Chapel St area has become a bit dingy the last few years. The high end retail reputation that it used to have has definitely faded a bit. It’s still a good shopping strip but but not what it was. I think the number of homeless people the street kind of attracts has turned people away. From my recent night outs there it doesn’t seem to be as busy either on a Saturday night as it used too but that could just be the time of the year. Still a lot of small and groovy bars but it does lack some of the buzz it used to have. Free trams and better parking are a good start. That woolworths carpack is a pain to try and park in on the weekends.
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I visited Melbourne and stayed near Chapel Street twice every year from 2009 - 2013, and the decline was noticeable year on year. The area east of Commercial Road seems to have really deteriorated. By the last couple years I visited the foot traffic on the street was so low on a weekday I legit wondered how most of the stores on the strip were even able to pay their rent.
Chapel St tends to be much quieter during the week but is always busy on the weekend. Given I’m only about 10 mins from it I probably go there once a week for one reason or another. There are a couple of clothing stores there which I often specifically go too and I’ll often go to the cinemas at Jam Factory as well. There’s a few good bars and stuff which I still go to occasionally, like Lucky Coq. The strip has gone downhill though and the retail part of it isn’t what it was. I think a lot of people avoid it now and the two main reasons being that it’s hard to access (lack of parking in the area and Prahran station is gross) plus it does attract a lot of homeless people which really puts you off. If you walk down there at about 6pm on a weeknight you can feel like you are outnumbered by the druggos and homeless people.
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A Coles store near me at my local shopping centre, Southpoint in Hillsdale. closed recently. It opened around 12 years ago and stayed in a time warp ever since then, with almost no customers. They should have closed it 10 years ago, but obviously stayed open for the sole purposes of saving face.
Woolies has always attracted far more customers. Apparently Centre Management haven’t gotten the message based on this Facebook post, which was posted on the day of Coles being closed:
About 16 years ago, there used to be a Franklins Big Fresh in the old 1960s-era Southpoint centre, which then became a Bi-Lo. Then they knocked the entire shopping centre down, except for the Woolworths (which remained open throughout construction and remains open in its original 1960s structure - it was the only Woolies in the area until the one at Eastgardens opened) and then rebuilt the rest of the shopping centre with a MASSIVE apartment complex above the top.
Can’t find too many photos of it online (which shows how poor in terms of patronage it was), but here’s one from the shopping centre’s Facebook page. I’ve drawn arrows highlighting some elements which haven’t been seen in most Coles stores for the past five to ten years - the ancient aisle signage, the massively old ‘bakery’ signs above the bread racks, the massively ancient sign over the Deli, and the overhead strip above the entry/checkout area. There were around 15 checkouts (non self-serve), when they only would have needed 5 with a Christmas Eve shopping crowd.
I reckon the positioning of Coles was its major downfall. Woolworths was located directly next to the car park entrances, whereas Coles was hidden behind the centre’s food court, which basically meant it was the deadest Coles I had ever walked into. Literally the only customer there. The shopping centre itself is really poorly designed. There are massive dead zones where there’s no exit other than the way you came in. I think Pacific Square in Maroubra has the same problem with the Coles there. The dark blue shops in this map show the vacancies, but are out of date - shops 15, 17 and Coles are now also vacant.
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Coles Gosford would have be up there with the least used supermarket in Australia before it closed down. It replaced a once successful Franklins Big Fresh which had strange one way setup where you entered the Franklins via one part of the shopping centre and zigzagged to the checkouts at another part of the centre. Coles continued with that setup for a while before eventually renovating to a normal layout. Everytime I went there, there were very few customers and usually only one checkout operating. The shopping centre was already dying when Maccas moved out and before Coles moved in. Doomed from the start.
Are there any other one way supermarkets? I always thought that was weird.
That’s because it closed down completely in between being Marketplace and Gosford Town Centre. Never got much traction other than the first couple of weeks after re-opening.
I do remember that Franklins though, it had something that I’ve never seen again with other supermarkets; a room with windows with a tv and kids toys in it. Although it might have been inconvenient for parents since it was located near the checkouts and you’d have to backtrack to start your shopping.
One last thing on Marketplace/Gosford Town Centre, I wonder if the “See you on Sunday” painted sign is still there in the car park.
It wasn’t quite a zig zag - but the way they made what was my local Franklins into a Big Fresh, was to tack on a new section that only had a fairly small entry/exit to the main supermarket, and from memory made you enter the store through it.
I suppose it was just a matter of different ways of finding the extra space needed to carry a bigger variety, beyond just regular groceries.
Couple of the bigger IGAs here in Perth provide a complimentary creche service - surprised we don’t see it often in Australia outside of Ikea.
I can remember an early Aldi was like that but they since redesigned the layout.
We had a Toys R Us that was like that too (now closed). Modelled on IKEA maybe?
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Yes, I forgot about IKEA.
I’ve just come back from Europe and thinking about it, there were actually quite a few supermarkets that are designed like that, with one way traffic aisles. Especially in the big cities like Rome and Athens where they’re pushed for space.
Prince wrote a little song a few years ago about a lady who walked into a five and dime store via the door marked ‘exit only’.
Plenty of Coles around with that old look still. Belmont (Geelong) Coles, previously a bi-lo is like that.
Several Coles in Perth still have the 2000s livery albeit not every element (mostly the aisle signage and the overhead strip). They only stopped using all of those elements in new store fit outs approx. 2009.
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Coles Mirrabooka in Perth was neglected for a while as it still had the older 1990s-2000s asile signs up until it’s refurbishment last September though the Orb was removed/covered a few year prior, however the “Make It Count” slogan from 2010 is still used on the store shelves (picture from Yelp, you can slightly see the “Make It Count” banner on the shelf):
