It is difficult to escape the conclusion that department stores are dying. David Jones is quietly reducing its floor space amid refurbishment of some of its stores in NSW and Victoria, and Myer (which will always be Grace Bros to me) has a new chief executive who is expected to do the same. Miranda Otto in the ABC series Ladies In Black Like so many other gentle rituals, department store shopping has been badly wounded by the internet.
“Ten years ago, department stores were the dominant physical retail channel in this country,” Brian Walker of consulting firm RetailDoctor told this masthead this week . “David Jones and Myer together were approximately a $5.5 [billion], $6 billion business.
” Now, shoppers are time-poor and click-prone. They are far less likely to spend time browsing physical stores. The internet offers infinite choice, ease and anonymity, plus free returns.
As a consummate internet shopper, I am part of the problem, and as a working mother, I don’t see how I can possibly do otherwise than buy things late at night on my laptop, hoping for the best when my quarry arrives in the mail. But I mourn what we are losing. Department stores, which sprung up with the rise of the post-industrial bourgeoisie, were and are largely female spaces under the benign reign of female staff.
Myer and David Jones have been hit hard by the ongoing retail slump. Credit: Wayne Taylor They are replete with lingerie saleswomen who can name a woman’s cup size from 20 paces and.
