Which is heritage listed isn’t it?
I’ve always liked the idea of the square, hopefully it goes ahead sooner rather than later. Sydney Town Hall has always been a bit hemmed in, some space in front of it will give it a real sense of presence and place.
Get working on it now so it’s ready for when the Metro station on Pitt St opens in a few years. Plenty of other places to put a Woolies.
It doesn’t seem to be. However, the former YMCA building in Pitt Street (now a boutique hotel) which sits behind the former Sydney County Council building, is heritage listed.
Well if the council and church hadn’t built their Brutalist architecture towers in the 70s behind the two heritage buildings, they wouldn’t feel so hemmed in.
Does anyone think Rob Scott will actually close Target? We are about three weeks away from hearing about this when the ‘review’ ends. I note in a recent presser it was the first time they did not deny, they would close it. He has made the tough calls since taking the job on.
It’s a clear dead duck that will never ever become successful, and isn’t worth the time spending 5-10 years fixing it, to sell it. Out of 300 stores, I would say 200 are in urgent need of Referb. The thought of trying to negotiate with 300 landlords seems like an absolute nightmare.
Bit of a rebound in BIGW lately so that turnaround seems to be going well.
Now is probably a good time to see some big consolidation in the big box space. Target gone. Myer cut back by half. Kmart and Bigw will be the dominant players long term. Myer and DJs with small fleets picks up the higher end spend customer.
Though there probably isn’t 300 landlords. There are 24 major shopping centre owners in Australia who would own the bulk of the sites that have a Target store, I think.
IMO it will cost too much to close the whole thing down in one hit, Woolworths has had the same problem with Big W - They couldn’t sell it for $1 if they wanted to, but at the same time they would have to put through a one time impairment of billions to arrange for such a closure.
In regards to Target I do think they’ll perhaps pursue a more aggressive approach in regards to closing unprofitable stores, getting out of leases and converting stores to Kmart where an opportunity still exists to do so. I also wonder how well the Catch at Target pop-up concepts that have appeared in Victoria (Chadstone then Highpoint) have done. The fact that Wesfarmers is also using Target for Catch click and collect is a pretty big hint of a potential future brand integration.
Out of 300 stores, I would say 200 are in urgent need of Referb.
Huh? Unless things are very different in Perth from the rest of the nation, almost the entire store network has been refreshed relatively well in recent years. Of the store network here (excluding Country) I’d say the percentage that are looking tired (20 years or more without a major refurb) is probably closer to 20-25%. I’d suggest that Big W has a greater percentage that require refurb.
Refurbished stores must be a Perth thing. The only refurbished Target store I’ve ever seen is one on the Gold Coast. Sydney stores and my local store in Bathurst, while neat and tidy, are looking really dated and stale. The stores lack vibe.
It surprises me that they don’t use some of these to expand their Officeworks footprint as well
Agree, I prefer the Kmart and Officeworks brands to Target.
Would you go into a shopping centre to go to an Officeworks? I think almost every time I’ve gone to Officeworks, it’s explicitly because I need to go there specifically, or precisely because it’s usually a standalone building that I can quickly get in and out of - rather than a Kmart or something in the middle of a centre.
I couldn’t imagine many Targets are in suitable locations for that style of conversion.
That said, I wonder if you could make a hybrid store or something, a “Homeworks” - so basically the house and homewares section of Target, with the office supplies, furniture and printing of an Officeworks. If work from home is the future - being the shop for that might work…
Officeworks trialled stores in shopping centres not long ago, the plan was abandoned soon after and the company has concluded that stores within bulky good complexes operate best. I think maybe 1 or 2 stores that are in enclosed shopping centre still exist?
Not saying this will happen, but Officeworks are currently in negotiations with their furniture suppliers and sourcing furniture from Australian companies had also been flagged. This new review of their furniture operations could lead to other things.
That’s all I’ll say.
The latest Target store designs are pretty drab.
Indeed. I visited the Canberra Target yesterday. While it is fresh and clean, it was very cold. Grey floor, grey shelves and no warmth.
Blame Guy Russo for this, the concepts that he scrapped were far nicer looking (very modern without going too plain / drab) even if not everything in them were well thought out (in-store cafe).
So they resist the regular nostalgia clickbait and refuse to reinstate Holly’s, but they were chucking cafes in tar-jays?
Lunacy.
That’s a very good idea, actually.
Here is some of the New Target concept they rolled out before Guy Russo took over. This was done in cairns from memory. Thought it looked good.
https://www.hutchinsonbuilders.com.au/projects/retail/target
Coles Rose Bay has been transformed into a “bougie” Coles Local. 
Woolworths started rolling out Metro what 10 years ago?
Or is this more a cross between Metro and Thomas Dux?
Maybe someone who has been to the ones in Melbourne’s Surrey Hills and Glenferrie can answer this?
Why is Myer holding out opening Victorian stores?