Target is closing some stores, and moving others to the Kmart brand - 167 across the country, timeframe, next year …
The following link gives some detail as to the status of stores, which are affected and how it might affect consumers:
https://www.target.com.au/businessupdate
I wonder how it will ‘affect’ shareholders 
Thanks for the link as it is interesting to see what is happening. It appears our local Launceston store remains as is which is a good thing. If it has been converted to Kmart or closed, it would have significantly reduced competition.
The mid (Big W is another example) and upper tier (Myer, DJs, Harris S) tier department stores are struggling as many consumers have changed their buying habits to cheap and wear once fast fashions. Price driven buying appears to becoming more of a norm over other factors.
Looks like we, Beerwah are getting the upgrade (return of the Cybermen?) from Country Target to the ‘Big-K’?
With only one staff person evident most of the time will the upgrade see it increase to two? Even Aldi survives mostly on one open checkout.
Currently there are approx 209 Kmart stores Australia wide. The conversion suggests more than 50 stores will be added to the brand.
Demographically many of the suggested conversions don’t look that smart. Beerwah has a nearby population of 30,000. Live any further away and you’d travel to Caloundra or Caboolture or … where there are Big-W’s, and all the usual urban options including Telcos and mobile phone repairers.
Perhaps the best interests of the shareholders are being served?
I think the success of ‘cheap’ is that people are discovering one can buy 2 or 3 of ‘cheap’ where each is serviceable and the 2 or 3 provide technology or fashion upgrades every so often, and are less out of pocket than buying one premium product that will become badly superseded or dated. As an example, what is the real value of a (circa) 2006 ‘Tiffany grade’ home theatre amplifier built to the highest possible standards of the time, just before HDMI rolled in, versus a much cheaper one that still had very good performance, and might need to be replaced in 5 years with another now having digital audio processing and HDMI inputs and outputs?
I think you would have to go back further than 2006. I have a surround sound home theatre amp from around that time with HDMI and digital inputs (not tiffany but Denon makes decent stuff). You ask which would be better?
Answer: The 2006 Tiffany Amplifier would be better. Even an amp from before HDMI would be better but in those days most Tiffany grade amps were paired with a pre-amp. Change your pre-amp and you are good to go.
A cheap amp will always be a cheap amp with distortions, etc.
It all depends on what you need and your personal preferences.
I think the reason why people now buy cheap amplifiers is that they are getting better and a lot of them are passable which they weren’t in 2000.
The other reason is that a cheap amp is still better than a mobile phone with an active speaker and people are getting used to that.
Some did, some did not in that era. I did not intend to discuss the quality of amplifiers, just ‘our’ buying habits as they may have evolved. Please feel free to start a topic on amplifiers/home theatre if you would like.
Having bought lots of tshirts from Myers and have them go badly out of shape I tried BigW version which were much better quality, washed like a dream! I used to be a lab technician in a special testing lab for a large uk catalogue firm. Our tests included thread counts, chemical testing to ensure what the buyers bought and what the importers delivered were the same composition, weight, shrink tests, wear tests, washing tests, breaking, rubbing and abrasion tests and anything else discovered to be at fault by our customers. My favourite failure was a washable baby blanked which disintegrated into its component parts of warp thread and acrylic fluff! Took me hours to de fluff the washing machine, a plumber may have been involved had it not been a twin tub!
Shareholders would be happy as the Target stores were losing money. People were not shopping in these stores as much as they did in the past. It is about demand and supply. No one is going to keep a shop open if there is no demand for the products on sale. Shopping mall landlords didn’t seem too interested in dropping rents to match the general decrease in foot traffic. Sad for the people who worked in the shops.
Our local Target is getting k-marted, which I personally am pretty unhappy with. It will knock the guts right out of the “mid range” here, particularly with clothing, and especially with mens clothing.
There are several chain boutique options for women (Mosaic brands mostly ugh), but men will be left with a Cotton On superstore (which is no good if you’re bigger than a large), and then only the cheaper, mostly lower quality options. Here’s hoping another chain with mid-range offerings for men (especially larger men) will notice the gap and parachute a store in.
I mostly hate buying clothes online. Actually I hate buying clothes full stop. I have a very non-average shaped body that is hard to fit into average sized clothing, so EVERYTHING requires trying on, and 80% of what I grab to try goes back. Target has been the primary supplier of my wardrobe for a very long time, and now I’m actually having to think very hard about where I will buy my clothes in the future. Will I move laterally to Crossroads and Katies (and ignore my revulsion with their business models) and Cotton On for casual wear, will I go down and switch to Kmart and Best and Less (really not happy with their quality from past experience), or go up and shop at the local higher end boutiques hoping for classic pieces that will cost a mint but last for years???
This is a serious dilemma I’m losing sleep over 
An update on Target stores to be closed or converted to Kmart stores.
