How long with Myer/DJ/[insert former aussie retail icon here] last?

Can they reinvent themselves and compete head on with big international brands? Are their days numbered? If so, how long? If you were CEO what would you do?

Growing up in the 80s, lower middle class Melbourne (St. Albans) in the mid 80s to mid 90s, I fondly recall it was a massive deal to shop at Myer Highpoint and somewhat if you held their plastic shopping bags, it was something of a "wow" factor. DJs - hah that to us poor peasants was unheard of to shop at, the only time I ever purchased was a pair of shoes for work (forgot which brand) as they were the only ones who had the sized I wanted.

Myer use to stock decent stuff ... but not anymore and I have slowly seen them dying with closures of their electronics/household goods line....sad, but these days its all internet. Weirdly enough, in the days of the internet and shared knowledge/info, as a teenager, I could NEVER imagine these two retailing giants one day dying....
 
This brings up another interesting point - the retail shopping malls with the massive floor space buildings.

Not only those though; watch out for the little shops in those malls turning over much more often too - unless the rents and % of turnover contracts take a dive.

What will become of these as the giant retailers scale down and scale down over the next 5 to 10 years?

Maybe a shidd load more indoor cricket centres?:eek:

We have 2 really large floorspace buildings vacant down our way - one has been vacant for 2 years that I know of, and the other used to be a Sam's Warehouse, has been sectioned up and about 1/3rd of it is now a "Reject" shop, while the rest of it remains empty and has doen so for about a year and a bit.
 
Off topic, but in the USA Brick and Mortar stores can survive whilst in China I've read many online articles where Brick and Mortar businesses are experiencing some of the worst business since the advent of alibaba.com (their amazon.com).

I think in the retail space, something has to give with the rental prices - I have heard some friends who run and rent small shops inside shopping centres pay up to $300K a year on rent for a 300m2 floorspace in the middle of nowhere. In future, it is likely you will only see major brands in shopping malls is my bet.
 
Hi

The traditional concept of a Myer's/DJ's store will most certainly find it very hard to continue operating and making a profit unless clever changes are made to the business model. For example Woolworths have just done a deal to act as an ebay pick up point that buyers can use to have online orders delivered to which seems very clever by bringing what will be a large number of customers into the store each day. If Myer's/DJ's can come up with some clever tactics to bring people into the stores they can continue to operate.

In regards to large shopping malls with massive floor space, the clever malls will continue to operate and even increase in size but they will need to change their focus to an experiential visit for the customers that enter the mall. Shopping mall owners realise it is things like entertainment, cinemas and food courts that are attracting large numbers of people to their centres and they need to use this to their advantage and promote them well.

Along with changing the store mix to have a higher focus on all things service related, medical and food be it either take-away, cafe's or restaurants will see the traditional mall operated by clever companies such as Westfield, Gandel or even one of the other shopping mall operators such as Federation Centres continue to flourish. Once you encourage this business mix into the equation, some of the smaller goods retailers will be able to turn a profit simply because people are already in the mall visiting primarily for other reasons and these goods retailers will be able to take advantage of the impulse buyer.

Will retail rents need to drop?, maybe yes but it wont be by much unless local planning laws change to allow owners of residential type properties to build retail style shops on their existing land which I don't see happening at least in Victoria after looking at the Melbourne (2050) Plan.

Regards,

alicudi
 
Last edited:
sad, but these days its all internet.

I get the feeling it's heading back the other way tbh. Shopping centers are starting to reinvent themselves and be more about the experience. Internet business is becoming a race to the bottom.
 
Back
Top