Three stores closing soon: What's happening at the Canberra Centre?

Zara was among the first international luxury brands to grace Canberra with its presence when it opened in the Canberra Centre in 2013.

But its security door will roll down for the last time next month after almost exactly 12 years of occupying 1500 sqm of prime real estate between Polo Ralph Lauren and The Coffee Club on level one.

Polo Ralph Lauren and BOSS are also understood to be leaving soon.

The Canberra Business Chamber says it’s a sad reflection of the shape of the local retail industry at the moment.

“Customers are just not spending,” CEO Greg Harford told Region.

“Retail spending has been flat to declining in recent times, and there’s a lot of pressure. Net margins are absolutely tiny in retail and there are relatively high costs associated with keeping a store open when you look at rent, rates, power, staff.”

He said figures also show owners are spending more time in their businesses than before.

“That’s ultimately a way of managing costs for some firms, but it does put a much greater pressure on the owners of particularly the small retail businesses.”

The number of people opting to shop online, rather than in-store, also remains an ever-present undercurrent.

“Customers being extraordinarily price conscious are going online and migrating their shopping in a way that means it’s just not viable to keep these stores open,” Mr Harford says.

“So we’re definitely seeing a trend towards consolidation across the retail sector, with customers clearly prepared either to shop online or to travel a little bit further, and that may well play out in terms of more closures over time.

“And it’s really bad news for Canberra … Everyone wants our flagship shopping mall to be vibrant and buzzing.”

It’s not all bad news, though.

While Muji and Tommy Hilfiger have both also vacated the Canberra Centre in recent years, they’ve been replaced by Seed and Forever New, and Uniqlo also took over a massive space on the ground floor, just off Bunda Street.

“There’s still good interest in the market,” Mr Harford says.

“I’d absolutely still have confidence that there is a future for other businesses in those premises.”

He said hospitality as a sector is also picking up as consumers “become more and more interested in consuming services and experiences, rather than physical goods”.

He’s less confident the Reserve Bank lowering the cash rate to 4.1 per cent will have much effect.

“It was good news that will presumably help retail a little bit, but we really need to see a lot more to come from the Reserve Bank before we can say we’ve turned that corner.”

He urges Canberrans to shop local, because shopping online “doesn’t help keep shops open and keep jobs here in Canberra”.

The Canberra Centre was contacted for comment.