You raise a good point about the vacant Dick Smith store though.
I got my genuine Samsung Galaxy Tab S2 cover from JB HiFi, but I canāt see them listed on their websiteā¦ though there could be stock in store I suppose?
Video City in Launceston announced the other day that their lease is up and they will be shutting up shop. Theyāre selling everything now. I always drove past and was surprised they were still open as their store in Launnie was quite large. Definitely a Tasmanian institution and a place where people spent many hours. They would have had over 20 stores across the state I reckon and are now down to 2 in Hobart which I reckon will be gone once those leases are up.
Every Tasmanian will remember these ads running for years and years.
I know that spot quite well because it is close to Holiday Inn hotel where I stayed on my two visits to Perth. The Armani store is quite small, no wonder Officeworks canāt stock the full range of products there.
I noticed while going around the state recently that there were a heck of a lot of Sanitys still operating in shopping centres. I looked at a map, and noticed that in NSW and Victoria, most Sanity stores are located in country towns - there are only a few in the cities. Brisbane still has a large number of Sanity stores.
i noticed yesterday whilst in brisbane that the site of the old Brumbies Go at the bottom of the myer centre (across from coles) is now a smallish BWS
When some cost about as much to buy from the store as it does to rent thereās no need for me. That said my DVD collection is primarily footy Grand Finals that are never able to be hired up here.
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As well as Tasmanian having very strict quarantine restrictions - you canāt bring any fruit or vegetables into the State and they check at the airports and the sea port, it appears that there may be some fruit fly in Tasmania which could be devastating for the industry. Theyāve just put in place a 3 month control zone on Flinders Island and the Furneau Islands group and for 15km around Spreyton including Devonport where the Spirit ferries are and a few other towns. It means weāre not allowed to take any fruit out of the exclusion zone whether it was purchased here or grown here. Even fruit grown outside of the zone and packaged and sold at Woolies or Coles is not allowed out of the zone. It means that parents canāt send fruit with their kids if they go to school at Ulverstone which a lot of them do as Ulvie is just outside the zone and it means workers have to be careful with what they pack for their lunches and where they travel etcā¦
Itās quite weird, Iāve never experienced anything like it. Iām sure there wonāt be road blocks put in place (Biosecurity Tas is struggling for $ I think) but it feels like weāre outcasts now. Itās going to be tough for the growers, many of them are right in the region which has been effected and now canāt do a thing.
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I remember when I was a kid. We had a Kumquat tree (these are not edible but are instead used for jam) and someone from I think it was either the Government or the council had to come out to spray them because of fruit fly. The tree has been scaled back now and does not really grow much anymore.
Exactly.
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My local Coles is now shutting at 10pm instead of Midnight. I donāt know if it is to save money because it is quiet or because of safety reasons.
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As a complete aside, Iāve lived in Tasmania all my life and Iāve never ever heard anyone refer to Ulverstone as Ulvie!!
Agree though, will be devastating if fruit fly manages to establish itself here.
Lol, you must be a southerner then. Ulvie is the typical north west coast shortening, the youth way is to add rock instead - Devrock, Ulvie-rock, Sheffrock.
Confirmation today that Taiwan has suspended trade with the state too until we can demonstrate our fruit fly free status for 3 months. 5 adult flies were found on Flinders Island and thankfully still only larvae found in 1 instance near Devonport and theyāre putting in a big effort to nuke and check.
Footwear retailer Betts has announced a major overhaul. It will stop selling kids footwear, close its 39-store Betts Kids chain at the end of this month (five of those stores will be converted to Betts), and sell many of the 30 stores trading under its Airflex network to Melbourneās Munro shoewear family which owns Williams and Diana Ferrari shoe brands.
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Iāve seen Betts Kids and Airflex stores slowly disappear over the course of the last 5 years or so here in WA.
Full service shoe stores are a dying breed, and Betts Kids (not as much Betts which has been gradually transformed into a self service type store) was probably the brand that involved the most staff interaction when it came to selling / fitting shoes.
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the thing with kids shoes (and clothes in general) iāve found with my 2 kids is that i have 2 optons.
I can go to a specialist store and pay the higher prices they need to stay in business or i can go to K-mart. sure the K-mart shies might not last as long, but at least with my kids they are growing so fast that itās not a massive deal. they need the next size up before the shoes wear out anyway
Thatās a good way to describe it.
I have family up there, never ever heard any of those towns mentioned in that manner.
Fruit fly was bound to get here eventually, is rather unfortunate itās in our lifetime though.
Oh I was wondering why they seemed to be clearing out their school shoes last month. I think the grown up Betts closed at our local shopping centre, so I guess it might return to where the old kids one was, or it will be yet another vacant shop.
Iām surprised that Lowes still appears to be going very strongly, even with competition from the larger department stores and newer, trendy male fashion stores.
They recently opened a retail outlet inside their headquarters in Arncliffe, which is a bit baffling because itās probably one of the worst locations for a shopfront that Iāve ever seen.
Even though itās only 300 metres away from the train station, the place is surrounded by car-related businesses (mechanics, car dealerships) and so thereās no real pedestrian activity going on in that area.
There also appears to be no off street customer parking and convenient on street parking is only available outside of clearway hours (3pm-7pm). Iāve driven past a couple of times and it looks like a ghost town.
Itās also very interesting that Lowes stores in Chatswood and Hurstville, which are located on main streets that basically died during the 1990s (then taken over by Asian businesses) due to nearby Westfields opening are still going very strongly. I believe these stores have been operating since at least the 1950s, in the same buildings.
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Lowes do very well in a couple of niche markets - cheap big mens clothing and cheap workwear. If amazon ever learns how to tackle the local clothing market theyāll be gone pretty quick though.
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