For most of its history, yes. In the early 1980s, Myer had purchased the Grace Bros company, obviously, before that, the stores were a completely different experience to Myer. However, after the purchase, the stores were pretty much the same, with the Grace Bros name retained mostly for nostalgic purposes. It was until the mid 2000’s that the Grace Bros name was dropped in favour for Myer. An example would be Grace Bros in Orange, they converted in about 2005 I think?
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As I predicted, the Target fleet of around 100 is probably sustainable for a turnaround then a sell off in a few years.
Captains normally go down with Sinking ships so the Target CEO needs to go as her ‘high end’ strategic plan for the business would be one of the strangest moves I’ve seen in a while that has no basis.
Big upside for BIGW here.
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It has been a few years since Wesfarmers converted their first Target stores to Kmart. One of the few was my local Target store in Melbourne’s North, now a Kmart
On another note, I wonder if they’ll continue to use the ‘country’ brand once stores are converted to Kmart? Ie; Kmart Country
I assume they would be large format Target country. Obviously all the shoe box versions are gone, majority in regional areas.
You’d think the larger Target stores most likely to close would be in shopping centres which already have a K-Mart and/or are in undesirable locations while stores which are set to be converted to K-Mart might be in shopping centres which already have a Target but no K-Mart?
The Grace Bros > Myer changeover happened in Early 2004.
Aside from the name/logo, I’m pretty sure the Grace Bros and Myer experiences during the 1990s & Early 2000s would’ve been pretty much the same right up to the advertising. Of course one other major difference being that Grace Bros’ branding was predominately red compared to Myer’s trademark black.
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But you said this only 3 days ago?
Yes and no - Kmart is going to have significant market dominance, but Big W definitely has some opportunities to pick up in specific locations where Target is earmarked for closure - potentially new store openings as part of that (in any locations where a Target is shuttered where Big W does not have a presence). I do think that Woolworths might re-think pulling out of any regional locations that have a closing Target Country store mind you!
This branding is long gone already, they rebadged all the Country stores to “Target” not long after the new logo was brought in. They’re only separate internally.
Anyway, this is the kind of restructure they should have done 3 years ago IMO rather than slowly picking a handful of Targets to convert and letting the small format regional stores languish.
I do wonder if MP David Littleproud owns Woolworths shares considering his somewhat bizarre call for a Wesfarmers boycott.
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A few other things in the Wesfarmers announcement today that was missed.
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Anko branded US (Seattle) operations to close, however the store format used as part of these operations is likely to become the chosen format for small Kmart stores. Credit to Wesfarmers that it’s probably not the greatest time to try and start a retail business from scratch in the US!
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Implied further integration with Catch - I still expect we will see more of this in Target down the line once they right-size the brand and work out what they plan to do with it going forward after this round of closures / conversion of regional small format operations.
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My local Target closed down nearly one year ago & since then, the local BIG W has been been going really well, it’s picked up a lot of former Target customers & employed a few ex Target staff.
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Like Ocean Grove, Which had it’s Small Target Store Closed last year, still waiting for Big W to arrive.
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My hot tip, these ‘Kmart hub’ stores will be called either “anko” or “anko by Kmart”
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I think these Target Country stores would simply be rebranded as Kmart with a similar product lineup to Target Country.
The main focus of the Target Country stores is clothing, not household trinkets like the Anko stores in Washington were, and I think that’s probably the most sensible thing to keep going with. Target Country did sell household items, but 75% of each shop was dedicated to clothes.
You can’t buy affordable mass produced clothing in most country towns except at these Target Country stores, yet the local hardware shop will probably sell most of the household products Kmart is offering (albeit at a higher price).
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I hadn’t even noticed. There’s one Target Country in Canberra (an ex Fosseys) which appears to have received a refit and the new logo within the last year or so. I remember that store having a Fosseys branded store trading hours sign in the front window for years after it became Target Country.
Wesfarmers Press release makes it pretty clear that they’re at the very least looking at the US Anko format for some degree of inspiration.
The conversion of suitable Target Country stores to small format ‘Kmart Hub’ stores will leverage Kmart
Group’s learnings from trialling small format Anko stores in the United States while providing regional
customers with increased access to a selected range of Kmart’s home, apparel and general merchandise
products.
I expect they’ll be branded as Kmart nonetheless (even if they seem to be already referred to internally as Kmart Hub).
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looks like ballarat cental target is safe. but ararat (where i come from) is going to be kmart and maryborough vic (where i used to live) is going to close down
CASINO RETAIL CENTRE QLD
MURWILLUMBAH QLD
Speaking of Fossey’s, we had one in Mornington, but it’s now a pharmacy.
The list at Target website shows that the stores facing closure are in rural areas except Langwarrin in Victoria, in Melbourne’s outer south, about 3 kilometres from Frankston.
I thought that - but there’s an * that says more will he added - and there’s only around 50 listed as closing or converting.
I’m guessing those stores are less likely to be in a shopping centre where they might have to get approval from others to switch the business or just close outright?
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Some interesting locations on that list. It will be a case of Back to the Future for some towns. For example, Katoomba’s K-Mart only closed a couple of years ago, then Target Country opened up next door, now to be turned into K-Mart again.
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