DFO Canberra opens on Friday

yes 20% off isn’t that great, but like anything you have to pick and choose. If you were going to buy it anyway, it’s better than the original price.

However if you’re just looking for random bargains then you probably need to visit a few times and keep an eye out. I got a $230 Esprit coat for $60 at DFO Brissy (obviously not much need for coats up there and it was coming into summer).

20% off? Yuck. I got some shoes at La Scala the other weekend that were 50% off. That’s my kind of off. 20% isn’t a bargain. There is the odd bargain to be had at Brand Depot, but in the main, spoon-fed bargains aren’t really bargains. Mind you, half price shoes that are still $155 probably aren’t either.

And for those who were interested, the free gift was a white calico bag with blue trim ( I was there for the book shop )

Parking was really bad at 6:15, as if they hadn’t planned for 3,000 people to turn up at once.

Back from the DFO opening night. I picked up some shoes at 20% off, a one night only discount. Or so they said.

I didn’t have much time and subsequently missed out on quite a few stores I would have otherwise looked at.

I haven’t been to Brand Depot for ages, but did go shortly after it opened. The vibe of DFO as a new centre is much better than BD, and from memory, there’s a greater variety/quality of stores. It’s also more conveniently located too.

I’m not sure BD will be around for Christmas 2009.

Another lot of shops which will be popular for a month or 2 before the novalty wears off… It doesn’t have much that any other shopping centre in Canberra has. The “bargains” aren’t that much of a bargain from what I’ve seen too.

Sammy said :

Actually, it seems like the DFO website has just left the entire purple section off the store listing, which as far as i’m concerned are the drawcard stores. Doh!

When they announced it’s impending opening a month or two ago they said that the “homemaker” retailers wouldn’t open until later and would open progressively before christmas.

He’s going to go through planes at a rate of knots then. A plane for the Tralee site, a plane for DFO….

Mr Evil said :

Will Snowy be launching any last minute court action to have the place shut down?

He’ll arrange for a plane to be flown into the building.

oh I can’t wait! I have been to the Sydney and Brissy ones heaps of times and always get heaps of bargains… FINALLY we get one here!

i thought we were getting an IKEA?!?!?!

The hours are great!

Looking forward to the kid stuff shops.

I’m going to check it out this weekend hopefully. I wonder what this means for Brand Depot. A fair few of the shops in Brand Depot are vacant, plus they appear to be extending it as well. Whats the deal there?

don’t like DFO? don’t go! just don’t whine and bitch about it…

I wonder what will be there in place of the starbucks.

My guess is that it’ll suck me in at some point. Going to these places feels kind of wrong, but kind of good.

I’m going tomorrow!!! (and i’ll take photos, if i can be bothered..)

Somewhat impressive that trading is 7 days a week – 10am to 8pm.
Looks like every night can be “late night shopping” if you are in to that sort of thing.

I would love to go and report back on the new DFO … but I have been officially banned (by my husband) 🙁

I can only imagine they have very stringent quality assurance, but very poor quality control.

Tarted-down don’t you mean?

You can’t imagine all these brand name stores would have such a swathe of cast-offs, overruns, last season’s etc to fill five or whatever bloody DFO warehouse shops across the country.

Just sounds like a tarted up Westfield.

It’s hilarious that it is called Direct Factory Outlet….ummmm…. don’t think so.

10am? in the morning? Well the people with money to spend are off earning it at that time! At 10am you’ll have housewives with screaming kids trying to park their barges. Good place to stay away from I reckon.

Sammy said :

Yeah, I think DFO’s website is just a bit fuxored. They don’t list any of the major retailers that are listed on the floorplan, ie:

* JB Hi-Fi
* Clive Anthony’s (not Joyce Mayne as I previously mentioned 🙂
* Nick Scali
* Freedom
* Beacon Lighting
* Howards Storage World
* Rays Outdoors
* Captain Snooze
* Oz Design
* BBQ’s Galore

A small oversight.

Hi Sammy,

I think that some of the stores like Freedom are part of the “Homemaker Hub” which is kind of seperate to DFO and opening at a later date….

Well I’ll be going tomorrow night. 😛

I would have thought that to be a “Direct Factory Outlet”, a store would have to be in, or at least adjacent to, the factory.

Actually, it seems like the DFO website has just left the entire purple section off the store listing, which as far as i’m concerned are the drawcard stores. Doh!

Will Snowy be launching any last minute court action to have the place shut down?

Yeah, I think DFO’s website is just a bit fuxored. They don’t list any of the major retailers that are listed on the floorplan, ie:

* JB Hi-Fi
* Clive Anthony’s (not Joyce Mayne as I previously mentioned 🙂
* Nick Scali
* Freedom
* Beacon Lighting
* Howards Storage World
* Rays Outdoors
* Captain Snooze
* Oz Design
* BBQ’s Galore

A small oversight.

JB HiFi have a sign on the outside entry so they will be there. Pity Ikea’s snubbed the region again . . .

I was going to say that it’s more interesting than Brand Outlet because they have a better range of stores, but having just looked at the store directory on the linked website, it actually looks quite lame.

What happened to JB Hi-Fi, Joyce Mayne, Freedom etc? None of those are in the store list on the official website.

Obviously not, or the free market wouldn’t be providing us with more 😉

apparently not…?

Haven’t we got enough shops already? Fair dinkum.