Kmart trading 24 hours from 1 Feb, What the......?

What about ACT Shopfronts !! Can we get them to open anytime other than 9 to 5 Mon to Fri……… so I don%u2019t have to take half a day off work just to renew my license

Jim Jones said :

When has there ever been a problem getting a carpark at Kippax?

Some Sunday afternoons.

Good luck to K-Mart with their 24hr trading. Can’t imagine I’ll ever need to go there after 10pm.

I just got back from Tuggeranong Kmart, 7:30PM on a Monday. It’s open until 9:00PM. Must only be Belco doing 24 hours.

It wasn’t even close to busy. Probably would have been 30 customers. On the upside the checkout queue was excellent. For the record I spent $24.70.

dr phil said :

Is that the auto work shop also? Nothing worse than trying to find a mechanic at 1am on a bogan budget.

Thats an interesting question, although sadly I can probably guess the answer. If they worked 24hrs a day, theyd get their jobs done, and would no longer be able to claim to always be booked out for the rest of the week, like most mechanics do.

colourful sydney racing identity said :

24 hour trading at kmart will not last 6 months.

K-Mart in Hobart (Tasmania for those who might be geographically challenged..) has been opening 24 / 7 for the last 12 months. Seems to go alright down there.

If they can make it work in Hobart, I dare say they will have it sorted here in Canberra…

Aurelius said :

Why are we even bothering to debate the economics of it?
Does anyone here really believe Kmart would be doing it if there weren’t money in it, short term or long term?quote]

Because that is the fun of this site.

I guess time will tell on the economics of it though – businesses no matter how big and successful do not always make good decisions.

i feel sorry for all the little kiddies who should be in bed getting dragged around by greedy parents buying more useless tat ..

Try living in Brissy where Coles and woollies have to shut at 5pm on Saturdays. Then you have to resort to 7-11 style shops or really plan your weekends. Canberra has it good in terms of access to shops.

Is that the auto work shop also? Nothing worse than trying to find a mechanic at 1am on a bogan budget.

Why are we even bothering to debate the economics of it?
Does anyone here really believe Kmart would be doing it if there weren’t money in it, short term or long term?
Businesses should be able to trade whenever they wish. If they can make money doing it, why the hell not?
And Woody, put me down for one with cheese, bacon and that gooey yellow American mustard. No, make it two!

I’d have though 7-12 would have been all thats required. Then again the local tuggers one open to 9pm is good if you ask me. Same with Bunnings til 9pm. If you work and want to do some stuff at home after work extended trading hours is great.

I’ll even admit to driving to the city to go to Borders at 6:30pm on a saturday night to get a book. Sometimes i just don’t have the time to go shopping in the day or want to go during the day with crowds on weekends.

Not sure that i’d ever need anything past midnight, let alone say 9pm though.

Genie said :

“I know with Belconnen Mall, attendance at that ungodly just might guarantee you a car park%u2026%u2026..Maybe!”

Well, considering the open-air carpark is now effectively gone to construction, more and more of us will need to shop late%u2026or go to Kippax (that%u2019s my plan, at least!).

Haha good luck trying to find a carpark at Kippax too….

When has there ever been a problem getting a carpark at Kippax?

According to my insider friend at Kmart, Belconnon Kmart is the highest rating non 24 hour store in the country so the big wigs at the top decided they could make even more money if they changed the store to 24 hour trading.

It’s costing them a bucket load more rent and the mall has to provide extra security since Kmart only has access through the mall. People will have to walk past other closed shops to get in which those stores aren’t happy about. Sounds like they are going to keep it going no matter how much money they lose in the process. Sure, it might be handy for a 3am emergency nappy run but whose going to be out for a shopping trip at 3am? Not to mention the joy that will be drunk uni students on bar night coming down for some entertainment

“I know with Belconnen Mall, attendance at that ungodly just might guarantee you a car park%u2026%u2026..Maybe!”

Well, considering the open-air carpark is now effectively gone to construction, more and more of us will need to shop late%u2026or go to Kippax (that%u2019s my plan, at least!).

Haha good luck trying to find a carpark at Kippax too….

bd84 said :

MrPC said :

I used to love late-late-late night shopping at the 24hr K-Mart at Campbellfield (Vic). It cost them next to nothing to achieve (retail wages are pretty low even at night) and gave shiftworkers (which I was at the time) and insomniacs something to do to at night.

That’s where you’re wrong, it costs an absolute fortune to keep the stores open late at night, staff to provide service to customers will cost a lot more on penalty rates, security for the store, extra costs for security of the shopping centre and a lot in power bills for lighting the store and cente.

So, staff rates of say $10/hr with penalty rates (say $25/hr), security is already there Im pretty sure, the lights are all turned on anyway. Where is the huge expense? If its so unaffordable, why do petrol stations stay open 24hrs? If you listen to the rhetoric, they make like 50c profit for a full tank of fuel.

The other way to look at the situation, is youre paying expenses for a 24hr day, but only making money for less than half of that time. You still need to pay rent, power, security, alarm costs, etc, the only increases would be a small increase in staff costs (say $200 per staffer at 25/hr) and maybe an insurance increase. Wouldnt it make sense to be open to make money for as many hours as youre paying for?

bd84 said :

people don’t generally travel to the town centres outside these hours. It took coles many years to figure out how much money they lost with 24/7 trading,

To be fair, why would people travel to the town centres? There is nothing open at the moment. McDonalds didnt just spontaneously look out the window and see people driving around their stores at 3am, they extended their hours, then went out and told customers who came in droves.

Also, how much money did they lose on 24/7 trading? Do you remember when the ACT govt brought in the trading hours laws? Coles whinged so much they even tried to introduce a members only club that shoppers could join, to evade the trading hours restrictions. After the trading hours laws came in, I often visited Queanbeyan store, and there’d often be 20 customers in the store.

Interestingly enough, if you work shift hours the normal opening times are better for you. What’s the point of KMart being open exactly the hours that you’re working?

I’m not a big fan of malls myself, having been raised in Canberra all my life. Centralised malls lead to one or two retailers becoming dominant through the whole country. Ultimately we’ll end up with all restaurants being Taco Bell, and everything else being Walmart.

If you’re wondering why I don’t like that vision of the future, just ask any author whose books are published by Macmillan how they feel about Amazon being such a dominant force in the online book selling market.

Midnight possibly. But all night??
I can just see myself simply absolutely having to have those new gardening tools at 3am…

dvaey said :

Where have you seen a coles/woolworths close at midnight recently? Every one Ive looked for on the southside closes at 10pm, with coles Chisholm the exception staying open until 11pm.

In Belconnen they’re both open until midnight. The Coles website says that Woden, Gungahlin and Manuka are the same.

24 hour trading at kmart will not last 6 months.

Woody Mann-Caruso said :

I want a 24 hour Ikea where I can stuff myself with $1 hot dogs while looking at furniture at 3am.

THAT is brilliant. I want it too now!

“I know with Belconnen Mall, attendance at that ungodly just might guarantee you a car park%u2026%u2026..Maybe!”

Well, considering the open-air carpark is now effectively gone to construction, more and more of us will need to shop late…or go to Kippax (that’s my plan, at least!).

I was surprised to notice kmart was open to 9pm not long ago why you would want them to be open 24 hours is beyond me.

MrPC said :

I used to love late-late-late night shopping at the 24hr K-Mart at Campbellfield (Vic). It cost them next to nothing to achieve (retail wages are pretty low even at night) and gave shiftworkers (which I was at the time) and insomniacs something to do to at night.

It’s a pity all the clothes they sell in my size nowadays are crap.

That’s where you’re wrong, it costs an absolute fortune to keep the stores open late at night, staff to provide service to customers will cost a lot more on penalty rates, security for the store, extra costs for security of the shopping centre and a lot in power bills for lighting the store and cente. To make it worthwhile, they would need to do quite a bit of business in those late night hours, which is unlikely to happen. You will even find that most supermarkets in canberra don’t even stay open to midnight now as they don’t make money, particularly places like tuggeranong and belco which do the majority of their trading before 7pm, people don’t generally travel to the town centres outside these hours. It took coles many years to figure out how much money they lost with 24/7 trading, I’m surprised they’d make the same mistake twice. It won’t last long, particularly when we get to winter!

random said :

The strangest thing is that, as far as I can tell, Coles and Woolworths will still be closing at midnight.

Where have you seen a coles/woolworths close at midnight recently? Every one Ive looked for on the southside closes at 10pm, with coles Chisholm the exception staying open until 11pm.

Special G said :

It didn’t work for Coles with food being one of those essentials. I can’t see Kmart pulling it off.

Maybe youve forgotten too easily, or maybe youre new to Canberra, but coles used to have 24hr trading all over Canberra, until the ACT govt brought in the trading hours legislation, with thinking like #14. The ‘pressure on retailers’ is a myth. Just because Im bored and want to go look around K-mart at 3am, that doesnt mean if the government forces them to close earlier, that Ill get bored or want to go shopping earlier.

Morgan said :

Who goes shopping at three in the morning?

Just because your world revolves around getting up at 6am, going to work at 9am, having lunch at 12, home at 5pm and in bed by 8:30pm, that doesnt mean the other 300,000 people in this city are the same. If we all worked to your 9-5 schedule, youd better hope you never needed an ambulance, firefighter or police officer (or that burst watermain fixed) at 3 in the morning.

According to the K-Mart website, Belconnen is open 24 hours but Tuggeranong is closing at 9pm weekdays (Thu 10pm and weekends 6pm).

Is this only Belconnen then that’s going 24 hours?

I’m not sure the custom will be there either, but whatever. Can some enterprising or copycat hairdresser take appointments past 6PM on a weeknight please?

Maybe there are people whose own working hours mean they would appreciate extended hours, eg an extra late shopping night or longer weekend hours, staffed by people who are genuinely willing to work those hours. But 24/7, I can’t see that working, and I’d be concerned about how they’d manage the staffing.

It wouldn’t get me in anyway. We used to buy a lot in Kmart, especially manchester and clothes.

Gave up the manchester about a decade ago. The towels weren’t luxurious but they were fine for the price. Then they started selling them in multi-packs and after having to regularly return them because of weird yellow patches we went looking elsewhere. Sheets also deteriorated.

Haven’t looked in clothing much lately. There’s been less and less for us over recent years. They no longer have the in-house brand socks my menfolk preferred. I bought some nice women’s polar fleece about 3 years ago and the following year they were selling the same styles but made of noticeably inferior flimsy fabric. I had to return half of what I bought and I hardly wear the rest because it still smells weird when I wash it.

For us they’ve crossed the line from budget shopping to rubbish shopping. Sales, extended hours, loyalty schemes, whatever, it won’t make me want to buy stuff I don’t want to buy.

I want a 24 hour Ikea where I can stuff myself with $1 hot dogs while looking at furniture at 3am.

If people are happy to work at 3am, that’s fine. But my friends who had cashier jobs in similar shops in high school used to get told they had to work those hours for the occasional “open til midnight” sale, even if they had an exam at school next day.

It also puts pressure on smaller retailers in the same area who sell products also available at KMart, as if 7 day trading and late night Friday shopping aren’t enough.

I guess time will tell if people actually want to shop at 3am. Maybe a desperately sleep-deprived parent who finally decides it’s time to try a dummy? Or someone picking up necessities on their way home from night shift work? Or an insomniac looking for something to do?

Canberrans love to shop.

One advantage of having K-Mart open 24 hours a day is that my sister in-law may be more willing to come and visit us from California if there are more shops open at 3am. Not that she would necessarily go to a shop at 3am, but I think it helps her sleep just knowing that she can…

Yeah I can’t imagine this is going to last long. Perhaps extending their opening hours to midnight and advertising that fairly heavily could attract a viable business. On the other hand I can’t help but think that in a store that large with few people around they’re really just opening the doors to some rampant shoplifting.

Who goes shopping at three in the morning?

It didn’t work for Coles with food being one of those essentials. I can’t see Kmart pulling it off.

I love the idea of longer trading hours, the shopping centers/malls in the US are open until 9pm every day. However, I cant help but feel this decision is way over the top of sane decision making, especially considering the local Canberra market, and the fact the no other shops will be open at the same time to help pull in consumers.

It’s insane.

The strangest thing is that, as far as I can tell, Coles and Woolworths will still be closing at midnight.

I used to love late-late-late night shopping at the 24hr K-Mart at Campbellfield (Vic). It cost them next to nothing to achieve (retail wages are pretty low even at night) and gave shiftworkers (which I was at the time) and insomniacs something to do to at night.

It’s a pity all the clothes they sell in my size nowadays are crap.

Really? How bizarre! Do you know if this is a temporary thing? Or whether they’re going 24 hours on particular days (like weekends)? Seems very strange…

I think that it is a great idea as there would be those folk who do not have access to shop during normal hours and it creates jobs for those prepared to work those hours. I like the idea of being able to go there at an ungodly hour should i need whatever they stock.

Restrictive business hours can be the death of some business. If businesses can trade whenever they like it can only be good for the ACT economy and the greater economy as a whole as trade builds trade.

I believe that if more businesses followed suite then the ACT should prepare for better economic growth in the near future. If the ACT wishes to build on it’s image of the nations capital, then it should lead by example and let traders operate without impedance.

I think its so that they can pack the shelves over night.

As someone who used to frequent Coles at any odd time of the day/night, this sounds very exciting to me. While it may come as a surprise to some ACT residents, there are actually people who dont like visiting malls during the 9-5 crush. In the old days when Coles operated for those hours, I think they had 2 extra staff plus a security guard. Ive often been sitting at home at various times outside of the 9am-5pm standard trading hours of many stores and thought of something Id needed at the time which has had to wait til morning.

People always believed Canberra is completely dead overnight, but if anyone wants to disprove that go visit a McDonalds drive-thru at 2am or 4am in Canberra, there’ll probably be cars in front and behind you the entire time youre there. McDonalds took the plunge and its paying off, now its time for other stores to take the plunge.

For those of us who work inflexible shift work, having shops open outside the normal 9-5, Monday-Friday framework is a welcome thing – though K-Mart isn’t the sort of shop I’d personally like to see open more often.