Retail woes: National chain closures impact on Mildura

THE Australian retail sector is experiencing a frightful start to 2020 and Mildura’s shopping streetscape has not escaped the consequences.

Just two weeks into the new year, more than 150 popular stores have reportedly been earmarked for closure across the country, including Jeanswest and Sanity, which both have outlets in the Mildura CBD.

It comes after discount retailer Dimmeys announced it was closing stores – including one in Mildura – in November last year, and national department store Harris Scarfe, which has an outlet on Fifteenth Street, entered receivership in December.

Mildura City Heart manager Danielle Hobbs said a number of small stores also closed last year.

“There’s definitely a trend towards online shopping and in the retail space specifically we’ve had a couple of smaller boutique stores close down in 2019 because they were finding it difficult to maintain sales against online shopping,” she said, acknowledging that occupancy in Langtree Mall had taken a hit.

“I would say our occupancy across City Heart is actually better than national trends, but this particular strip is not looking good.

“We’re aware of the challenges and everyone is bracing themselves for the knock-on effects of the droughts, bushfires, current state of water politics and being conservative and careful.”

Sunraysia Daily can also confirm Australian music and entertainment chain Sanity will be closing 40 shops across the country, including its Mildura store.

A national retail forecast published by Deloitte Access Economics in December last year compared September sales figures to the 1990s recession, falling 0.2 per cent over 2019.

“Stagnating wage growth and weak house prices have limited consumer willingness to spend, while tax offsets and interest rate cuts have yet to translate to sales,” Deloitte Access Economics partner David Rumbens said.

“And with retail prices increasing, spending volumes have taken the hit, posting the weakest growth since the 1990s recession.”

While Ms Hobbs admitted there would be obstacles to navigate in 2020, she was encouraged by a number of new businesses opening in Mildura in the past few months.

“In the larger space, obviously Dimmeys has announced they have gone into receivership and they are currently having a closing-down sale and will be gone shortly,” she said.

“This week we’ve heard about Jeanswest … logic would say the regional stores would be the first to go and we’re a bit sad about that, but that’s generally what happens in those situations.

“But we’ve actually got quite a few businesses which have opened in City Heart in the last few months as well and our AGM report last financial year showed we had more businesses start in City Heart than we had leave.”

Ms Hobbs also confirmed the Jeanswest store in Langtree Mall was trading “as usual” and administrators were looking at a national restructure.

While retail spending in September proved to be an underwhelming result for the sector, ABS figures for November showed an encouraging rebound.

Australian Retailers Association head of public affairs Yale Stephens said December results would be released in February and hoped retail spending figures would improve yet again.

“We’re taking a bit of a wait-and-see approach with some degree of well-placed hope,” he said.

“We’ve been saying that retail has been doing it tough for a while and certainly long-term trend growth in retail and sales turnover has been flat for most of 2019.

“To weigh against that, we saw some encouraging figures in the November sales that came out last week and now we’re waiting to see whether that’s the start of resurgence or whether it was a case of Click Frenzy and Black Friday.”

Retail solution lies close to home, says City Heart

SHOPPING local is the solution Mildura City Heart manager Danielle Hobbs says will improve retail woes, while also boosting business and consumer morale.

Ms Hobbs recognised the retail sector across Sunraysia was facing a broad set of challenges due to economic and environmental factors, but wanted the community to champion local businesses as a step in the right direction.

“We’re not using the word fear, but we know it (the year ahead) will be challenging,” she said.

“We need to inform and educate the community about shopping local, I can’t emphasise this enough.

“Every $5 spent locally turns into $20 of economic impact.”

Between Mildura’s main shopping hubs Mildura Central and the CBD, Sunraysia residents have access to more than 300 retail stores at least six days per week.

While Ms Hobbs said low occupancy rates in Langtree Mall were a concern, the former Priceline store had been given a temporary purpose until a new tenant came forward.

“We’ve used the store for a pop-up event and currently have a kids’ loose parts pop-up in the old Priceline building, in partnership with Mallee Family Care,” she said.

“This is an agreement between Mildura City Heart and the landlord to activate the space as it is often singled out as an ugly vacancy in the mall.”

Australian Retailers Association head of public affairs Yale Stephens said retail shopping was becoming more of an experience-driven phenomenon and supported local businesses.

“If you go to a retailer and somebody finds they’ve had a really good experience in terms of service, they’re probably going to be inclined to come back … people do like to feel valued,” he said.

“We do think experience is becoming more important. Whether you’re in a mall or a shopping centre, the underlying principles are the same, you still need to make sure your customer has a good shopping experience.”