May 8,
2016 12:50pm - Benedict Brooknews.com.au
A NAME which graced hundreds
of towns and cities across Australia is now consigned to the history books,
banished to a corner of the internet, a badge for someone else’s business.But Dick Smith is far from the first well-known name to depart Australia’s high streets and shopping malls. Where Dick goes today so Grace Brothers, Brashs, Adelaide Bank, Action supermarkets and many others have gone before.
Today,
international retailers such as Zara and Costco are crowding out domestic
competitors.
Retail analyst and managing
director of Marketing Focus, Barry Urquhart, tells news.com.au, that Australian
towns were once overflowing with brands.
“If
you go back to early 1960s, Australia had 27 department stores. Today we have
three, it’s perennially changing.”
Mr
Urquhart said there were two main reasons famous names disappeared. In a
country where two companies often dominate each sector, such as in
supermarkets, consolidation has seen smaller players taken over and their brand
sacrificed.
Another reason was retailers
simply losing their mojo and not moving with the times.
“The
changes in the marketplace makes a lot of products and brands redundant and
obsolete,” says Mr Urquhart. “The inability to adapt and change is the essence
of failure.”
“There
is structural change going on all the time and the great challenge for
businesses is are they still relevant to the consumer?”
One
thing retailers couldn’t rely on was nostalgia for a famous name.
‘Loyalty
is lovely to reflect upon but loyalty has been replaced by relevance,” he said.
The
classic example was Darrell Lea’s retail stores. Once they were dotted across
the major cities, the enticing smell of chocolate wafting down the street.
Nevertheless, the company fell on hard times.
“When
they said the stores would close there was a rush on, Darrell Leas had never
had such good trading,” Mr Urquhart said. “But just as suddenly that interest
waned.”
NO LOYALTY
Darrell
Lea’s famous Rocklea Road bars are still with us, but in other people’s stores.
The Sydney flagship on George St is now a showroom for Telstra phones.
What
loyalty Australians had, said Mr Urquhart, was not to established brands but to
where they lived.
“Australians
by and large are not tribal in their loyalty, but they are parochial,” he said.
News.com.au
takes a look at few of the retail brands that are no longer with us and one
that made a surprise come back.
GRACE BROS
Like
so many famous department store names, from Melbourne’s Buckley & Nunn to
Adelaide’s John Martin’s, Grace Bros is no longer with us.
Despite
awkwardly having the same name as the decrepit department store in classic
comedy Are
you Being Served?, Grace Bros ruled the roost in its home state of NSW. Its
red waratah logo a common sight.
In
1983, Grace Bros was bought by interstate rival Myer but for more than two
decades the company kept the name before finally rebranding all the stores. “At
one time Grace Bros was the first port of call, but it came the last resort and
you don’t want to be the last port of call,” said Mr Urquhart.SAFEWAY
Once
a prominent supermarket brand in Victoria, Safeway stores remain, have been in
decline, with only 10 remaining in the state. Safeway has slowly been rebranded
under owner Woolworths from 2008.
In its
heyday, in the 1960s, Safeway was revolutionary with its then-US owners
introducing Australia to the idea of self-service stores, essentially what we
now know of as the average supermarket.
In
1985, the Australian-owned Woolies bought Safeway but it would take decades
before the decision was taken to ditch the name.
BI-LO
In
the days before Aldi, there was BI-LO. Cheap, and to be frank, not very
cheerful. Stocked with depressing looking home brands and seemingly the fruit
and veg rejected by larger stores.
In
1987, rival Coles bought the store and positioned as it’s cheaper value
brother. But Coles struggled to juggle the two brands and from the late 2000s
began rebranding meaning, in some suburbs, two Coles were within spitting
distance of one another.
These
days, some BI-Los are now, naturally, Aldi branches.
ANGUS & ROBERTSON
By
the 1970s, the quintessential bookseller was a mainstay in just about every
Australian suburb.
The
emergence of US bookseller Borders, and its massive stores with cafes and
places to perch and read put pressure on A & R and led the two to merge. But
neither were a match for the power of online retailers like Amazon. The stores
withered on the vine before the book finally closed on them both.
The
name survives as an online book retailer.
ABC SHOPS
With
all the focus on Dick Smith, the quiet death of the ABC Shops this year almost
went unnoticed. A treasure trove of DVDs of obscure British TV series,
gardening books and Tardis money boxes it was the destination for gifts for
mum, dad and gran.
BRASHS
Before
British music megastores Virgin and HMV arrived there was the home-grown
Brashs. Originally a retailer of instruments, by the time the 70s came around
Brashs was the destination for music. Pop glitterati attracted huge queues to
the more than 100 stores across Australia to signs CDs. But the song came to an
end in the late ‘90s when the chain collapsed.
FOSSEYS
Founded
in Sydney in 1926 by Alfred Fossey, the apparel retailer grew to 148 stores
across the country. Known for its value, if not its style, Fosseys became part
of the Coles empire and was eventually merged into Target. Today, many of
Target’s country stores are rebadged Fosseys locations.
GOWINGSA Sydney staple, Gowings department store’s prime position on George St guaranteed it customers. It’s history stretched back to the 19th century but while its CBD store with its famous red neon sign above it was a success, an ill-fated expansion ruined the company. Today, the original store is a branch of UK retailer Top Shop. But the neon sign survives to this day, brightly lit, pointing the way to the Gowings Bar and Grill restaurant.
BLOCKBUSTER VIDEOS
The
Borders of videos, Blockbuster turned up in Australia full of US front. And,
for a bit, we loved it, with seemingly miles of Hollywood hits and cheap $1
DVDs. And then the internet happened and Blockbuster didn’t know what hit it.
ONE BRAND THAT WENT … AND CAME BACK
BANK OF MELBOURNE
Originally
a building society, Bank Of Melbourne was established in 1989 quickly expanding
across its home state until Sydney based Westpac gobbled it up in 1997 to bolster
its Victorian business. Melburnians were far from impressed.
“The
history of Westpac is NSW and they were taking away Bank of Melbourne which is
Victorian and you do not do,” said Mr Urquhart. “Localism is very important.”
Westpac
clearly heard the grumbling because in 2011 it brought the brand back as an
alternative to the big names. Despite, you know, actually being owned by one.
This story has been brought to you by the
Emerald Chamber of Commerce Inc.
(Ph:
07 4982 3444)
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