Department Stores are fighting for survival and have shown no hesitation in exiting or downsizing legacy locations in an attempt to save money. It doesnt help them that people’s shopping habits have changed and the idea of going to the CBD to shop isn’t necessarily something that many do now given the growth of super-sized shopping centres elsewhere in the city
I don’t know much about retail in Brisbane’s CBD, but I can’t imagine that it’s cheap (especially given there have been efforts to reinvigorate the CBD) and I recall they are occupying a significant amount of floor space in the facility, a lot of which that they likely no longer need or want.
Not sure about fighting for survival, some solid EBIT numbers from Kmart and BIGW last month.
Fighting for survival would be those with excessive footprints, ie Myer and DJs. Myer and DJs had large format stores in the 90s and 00s because that was the market at the time. They signed 30 year leases. 30 years later they don’t need such a large trading floor.
I think the department store category will be Kmart and BIGW, then Myer in some key large malls, but with a smaller trading floor. David Jones in PE hands might backfire later on. Target will continue to reduce its stores and rely online. The average Target lease is also something like 30 years, you will see some falling away as time goes on, was a couple just recently.
Yes, Brisbane CBD parking is hideously expensive from memory - last time I was there I saw it would cost something like $70 for 3-4 hours parking on weekdays at Queen St Mall - that’s on par with Sydney (and Melbourne too I’d imagine).
Big W is still, IMO, due to close more stores as it has been a couple of years since that has happened. Here in Western Australia, sometime after 2025, I think David Jones’ Mandurah Store will be on the chopping block and will relocate to a new expanded store further North of Mandurah.
TK Maxx will have stores in every single state of Australia expect Western Australia by June and I hope to see at least 3-4 TK Maxx Stores open in WA over next 5 years with a number of Shopping Malls going to expand.
In 2019 Woolworths took a $370m one off hit to close 30 BIGW stores.
Having a quick look, seems like they haven’t even done 10 yet. I assume more are coming, otherwise what happens to those funds which they haven’t used, I assume still sitting on the balance sheet somewhere.
The retail world has changed greatly since then, Target has closed many stores, potentially making those to be closed BIGW stores, now profitable.
2019 was a long time ago now, while never explicitly revealed it was always implied that those 30 stores were predominantly regional.
With Target Country ceasing to exist, I suspect this changed the trading environment to the extent where many of those slated for closure are now profitable, and others that may be still trading at a loss are not losing enough money to the extent where it makes sense to break leases, etc.
Dodgy sign at Woolworths. I find quite a few signs and labels especially related to specials hard to interpret - also at Coles and other retail like Bunnings, Myer etc.
I haven’t been to The Reject Shop in a while but their cheap stuff like imported dishwasher tablets are now cheaper on Catch . 30c a tablet Finish is now 36 cents.
On a different topic with Weetbix going up a dollar after not going up for ages I tried the Coles Wheat Biscuits. I was surprised , 5 star health rating and almost identical ingredients bar one added vitamin vs 4.5 Woolworths with higher salt (doesn’t say it has the added vitamins ) and Coles had slightly less salt than the brand name . Cannot taste much of a difference… except it tasted a little less sweet but not an issue when i had it with a sliced banana for $4.60. I’ll probably change to generic now
I stopped buying generic weetbix a few years ago as Woolies changed something and their biscuits were a slightly darker malty looking colour and tasted bitter … this was before they changed to the packaging they use now.
