Thanks for clearing that up. The former Greater Union and Hoyts cinemas were on the same block on Barrack Street.
Re: Piccadilly: I read a report on The West Australian this morning (the report was back in March) that Perth City Council voted down a proposal from Piccadilly’s new owners to turn it into a live performance venue.
Palace Cinemas are independently owned and specialises in art films. Perth CBD desperately needs new cinemas, it is pretty quiet at night due to WA’s restrictive shopping hours regulations.
Palace Electric in Canberra is a very nice cinema. As you say, they specialise in arthouse and foreign films but they also play the big releases. The architecture of the building is very nice (by Canberra standards) and the cinemas themselves are small but cosy.
This statement was accurate over 5 years ago but no longer, although it was definitely a factor in why the cinemas we had in the past in the CBD shut down. The other factor is until recently the population just hasn’t been there in the CBD and inner suburbs to support a cinema, and the closure of another cinema (Ace in Subiaco) that was located relatively close to the CBD has made opening one an attractive proposition once more.
Raine Square had a lot of problems during construction - the initial builders went into administration about 2/3rds of the way through the project, meaning the opening of the retail section was delayed about 18 months. The other issue was that the design of the retail precinct (especially the food court) was heavily reliant on foot traffic coming from a footbridge that lead to Wellington St Bus Station & the west end of Perth Station - both of these buildings were demolished as part of the Perth City Link project and the footbridge was removed. Lastly, there are already way too many Food Courts in the immediate vicinity of Raine Square (the upstairs food court that the building opposite (140 William) attempted literally didn’t last more then 3 months before getting shut down), there was nothing special about this one in particular so it was destined to fail.
The changes planned for the building will make significantly better usage of the retail space available, and will provide more of an impact / entry statement as it won’t be tucked behind Moon & Sixpence / Boheme anymore.
There were like three cinemas in the Hay Street area just for Hoyts. One at Plaza Arcade, another at the Carillon Arcade and of course the Cinema City one. Anyone know if all three ran concurrently as Hoyts?
There are no stores near me, but last night I saw an ad for Amart Furniture. How long ago did Super Amart rebrand? I know Amart All Sports rebrand to just Amart Sports a little while ago, did this happen at the same time?
Amart Sports is owned by Super Retail Group who own Super Cheap Auto, while Amart Furniture is owned by a couple of private equity investment groups. They are not related. It appears that they split in 2011
It’s really a matter of perception. During the lunch time rush between 12ish and 1ish Raine square food court was packed as (because office workers were right next to it - (BankWest Building. So it did have plenty of foot traffic during those times. Otherwise when it was open on weekends, it was dead, literally only a few people. And subway was the only place that was open on weekends. Everything else was closed (couldn’t get foot traffic)
I was sitting at Carilon City the other day - the top floor food court and I have to say I have a feeling that will go next. The bottom one gets plenty of business and traffic (because it’s basically central) but the top part, only two food places remain. Not as busy or as popular it was when there had a range of food there. Can see that closing at some point this year.
The only reason I liked Raine square was to get across to the bus station through the bridge and Coles. That’s it.
The only thing I miss atm was the Boheme (pub) that had to close so this development can start. … I’m in the process of finding a new home to go drink
I believe it was more recent than that, my local store only changed over all their signage about a month ago and the website hadn’t changed over at that stage.
They have been trialling the brand in SA. This is why some believe it to be 12 months. The web site used to change the logo based on location. I believe the trial was successful so they have gone ahead with the whole rebrand now.
A lot of talk in the papers about Amazon and why retailers should be worried.
Wesfarmers seems to be most at risk. Kmart, Target, Officeworks. Woolworths only has one to deal with- BIGW. Essentially they have already been crushed by the Amazon storm in the form of Bunnings.
Might be wise for WES to offload Target, or close it. Or rebrand a lot into Coles or Kmarts. Not convinced on Guy’s Target strategy, I think his plan is flawed in having two profitable DDS players under the one company. Absolute zero growth in the DDS market that relies on promotions to drive traffic.
Reason for Wesfarmers keeping Target alive is whilst Target Australia exists, it prevents the US Target Corporation from being able to sell anything here. Target Corporation sell a lot outside of the US via http://intl.target.com and noticeably absent is Australia and New Zealand (where another unrelated entity trades as Target there). I can’t see Target Corporation expanding bricks and mortar outside of the US after the failed Canadian expansion.
I doubt Wesfarmers would even find a buyer for Target or Kmart after failing to attract interest in Officeworks. Sears are winding down Kmart in the states so they too wouldn’t be interested in Kmart here.
Identical dilemma to Woolies with Big W really. Neither of them could afford to close (nor would shareholders permit this to be an option considering the cost and the bad PR) their respective department store businesses, however - the lease and other liabilities involved with doing something like that would total into the billions. Woolies would have already done it if they could with Big W. I’d expect Wesfarmers Plan B to be more aligned with what you said initally in that they’ll just convert as many as possible to Kmart / Coles and then close the remaining locations.
The recent decision to not spin off Officeworks has been an interesting strategy as that would be the easiest to float/sell off and deliver the most value to Wesfarmers.
Nonetheless, the medias infatuation with Amazon is bordering on hysterical considering we still have no concrete details on a launch date and what they’ll even have available for sale on their Australian store. The attempts to compare the Australian retail environment with the US is also wildly inaccurate as the US has had an extremely overbuilt retail sector for many decades now that is only now starting to feel the pinch, not to mention that shopping centres/malls in the US are very different to what we have in Australia (The entire Supermarket / Fresh Food offering that shopping centres have in Australia are not found in almost any shopping centres/malls in the US).
I think the main causalities we’ll see from the introduction of a full service Amazon in Australia will be niche / specialty markets that have long been able to get away with overcharging in Australia in comparison to North America - categories like arts and crafts, camping / outdoor gear, toys, specialty clothing categories (Workwear, Plus Size) amongst others. Other categories like Consumer Electronics have already had a self destructive few years before Amazon has even arrived in Australia so I wouldn’t imagine the likes of HN or JB going anywhere.
Yeah, Eckersleys and Riot Art and Craft sell quality products but they are expensive. The $2 type stores can sell some similar art products but are no name and not as good. Amazon may provide some genuine competition.
Some interesting developments happening in Mt Gambier. Bunnings is renovating the old Masters site and will be moving in from their current store. Also, a former local department store that has been left to rot for quite a few years will finally be demolished. the owners also own the Target building on the same block of land, which will also be demolished, and in it’s place will be a new Target store and also Aldi. The Target store is a standalone store, does anyone know if there are many of these left?
… I’m in the process of finding a new home to go drink 
