11 November 2007

Businesses deserting Phillip Marketplace

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JB HiFi have just announced that they will be relocating to Woden Plaza (aka Westfield Woden) on Monday week Nov 19. This is the latest business to move from Phillip Marketplace – Blockbuster Video moved to Curtin in June while High Country Meats moved to the Paul’s Centre last year. The loss of JB HiFi is a huge loss as there is little doubt that it was the main attraction at the site drawing people in where they would then patronise other businesses as well.

With JB HiFi gone, the only remaining marquee business with pulling power will be The Warehouse, and when you consider the same business operates out of Cooleman Court under the name Go Lo – as well as there being a similar business in Woden Plaza in the form of Home Base – then that is hardly something that will have the customers rolling in.

There is little doubt that JB HiFi has been driven out by the increasing hoon activity in and around Phillip Marketplace. The fact that police were constantly being called to the centre made the public uneasy and was hardly conducive to business.

The new JB HiFi store is in Palm Court at Woden Plaza where the old Priceline used to be. All indications are that it will be very similar to the other JB stores in Canberra Centre and Westfield Belconnen.

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I’ve been told by a manager of one of the recently vacated/vacating businesses that the Phillip Marketplace has the most expensive commercial leases in Canberra. So add that to poor parking and terrible access/exits, it’s no surprise the place is dying.

At least one pizza delivery drivers is a part of the hoon issue. About a year ago I watched one nearly roll his car turning into the paved area adjacent to the Pizza shop.

You should have heard the little weasel swearing at me when he realised I was telling the manager about what I had witnessed. That swearing was happening in front of other customers…

barking toad12:58 pm 12 Nov 07

Blame KFC for the parking. They insisted on the extra car spaces, turning 3 spaces into 4.

I’ve been there plenty of times (to visit JBs). I’ve never seen or heard of any “hoon” issues, although yeah….the parking is crap.

I would have thought the hoons would be part of the target market for JB.

Yes parking was a reason why I avoided the place like a plague. I would rarther walk 200m than try to park in the chicanes around Kentucky Greased Chocks.

el ......VNBerlinaV89:24 pm 11 Nov 07

There is little doubt that JB HiFi has been driven out by the increasing hoon activity in and around Phillip Marketplace.

Cite?

I’d suspect it has more to do with the appalling parking layout as already mentioned by everyone else, and;

The store just isn’t big enough. The new store will probably be as large as the one in Civic.

Everything about that parking area is wrong: sizes, angles, directions, everything. But with the JB crowd gone I suspect parking won’t be a problem any more…

When I read the story, first thing I thought was “that place that’s awful to get into and horrible for parking” and I have a small car! You could see the shops, and might like the idea of visiting them, but the driveway in, and the carpark was just too unattractive. One visit was enough. Then need to open it up a bit.

agreed with the crap carparking (traffic control and carspots), though I learnt to use the free carpark behind the volvo dealer and walking across was a lot easier. It was also a pain in the ass if you were going to woden, park at the plaza and then you’d have to drive or walk across to JB, probably why I rarely went there.

Looks like Westfield are putting the brooms through most of the retailers there with all the boarded up shops in there.

I daresay Westfield themselves may have offered a retailer like JB HiFi all sorts of endorsements to move. Looking at the site they have all the old Priceline site, + half of the Bay Swiss site,roughly underneath Kathmandu so it will be the size of Civic/Belconnen. When JB opened in Philip they were not the major retailer they are now and any large site would of been negotiated on terms with the owner not with them. I’d say they are now large enough that they can make terms.

The end of Westfield Woden they are going in has been on the downwards for some time so this will probably liven that end up a bit.

Have to agree about the undersized parking at the Marketplace.

This was one of the worst carparks I have ever used – the last few times I went to JB, I found somewhere nearby (and paid) rather than try to get in and out of spaces that are simply too narrow, out of or into a traffic stream that is on a path that is too tight.

Some time in the future, if RA is really lucky, I’ll let loose with my two brilliant ideas on parking lots (and, no, I don’t think they should all be replaced by bicycle racks).

Yeah, the greater Phillip Business District has been there forever and isn’t going anywhere soon – and certainly not as a result of the JB move.

That little marketplace however will suffer without something else to draw people there.

There is little doubt that JB HiFi has been driven out by the increasing hoon activity in and around Phillip Marketplace.

On what are you basing this? Do you know someone at JB, or are you just taking a random guess? Maybe the rent was too high and the patronage too low (for reasons other than the “hoon activity”)? There’s any number of reasons to move a business.

Can agree enough that the parking there is shocking – it was the one thing that always made me reluctant to go (conversely I’ve never really had trouble with hoons).

Owen31: I think you’re missing the point – this is specifically about the set of shops known as Phillip Marketplace – nobody’s suggesting that Phillip as a whole is a lost cause.

“There is little doubt that JB HiFi has been driven out by the increasing hoon activity in and around Phillip Marketplace.”

What?

Well, there are multiple specialty shops in Phillip such as : Music stores, Art supply stores, building stores. People still have to go out of there way to buy products from Phillip, it’s not as if JB hi-fi attracted the bulk public in Phillip.

regularbrowse4:06 pm 11 Nov 07

Agreed, the parking spaces are too small at Phillip. The Warehouse was alright … but the shoe shop was good. JB HIFI should do well at Woden Plaza now Sanity has closed.

I agree Sammy – woeful little area. The fact that you can’t turn right out of the exit (though most people do anyway) is stupid, and the entrance from Hindmarsh Dr causes more problems than it is worth.

Despite it being a stupid little area, I’d much prefer to be able to get direct access to JB rather than having to go into the Plaza.

I hated that place. The carpark was appalling, with the spaces being too narrow. I stopped going there after a couple of door dings.

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