News & Discussion: CBD Retail

[Prince George]

We heard that this was happening a while ago, but it actually happened rather quietly - Giant Bicycles have opened a flagship store, their first in Australia, in Hindmarsh Square.

GLOBAL bicycle maker and retailer Giant Bicycles has opened its first Australian store - in Adelaide.

Located on the ground floor of Hindmarsh Sq's Mantra apartments, Giant Adelaide was officially opened on Saturday after months of anticipation.

Giant Bicycles Australia marketing manager Martin Clucas, who oversaw the set-up of the Adelaide store, said Adelaide's reputation as being a cycling hub made it an easy choice for the company.

"I guess the Tour Down Under provides a huge cycling presence which made it a fairly easy choice for us," he said. "There's a highly prevalent cycling community in Adelaide and this provided us with a perfect opportunity."

Apart from selling the full range of Giant bicycles and accessories, the store also comprises a 'Bike Spa' cleaning service and a comprehensive service centre. "We've got a professional and electronic bike fitting room too which is pretty special," Mr Clucas said.

The article mentions that Giant have 10,000 stores world-wide, so I wonder if this is one of those "Adelaide is Australia's test market" things (check the formula works before opening in the more expensive east-coast cities). It will also be interesting to see how this affects their network of retailers, I guess the important thing is that this store can't go undercutting them.

[dsriggs]

Today's Borders' last day before they shut for good. There's about 5 times as many people there as there are books on the shelves. What a shame...

[rhino]

The article mentions that Giant have 10,000 stores world-wide, so I wonder if this is one of those "Adelaide is Australia's test market" things (check the formula works before opening in the more expensive east-coast cities). It will also be interesting to see how this affects their network of retailers, I guess the important thing is that this store can't go undercutting them.

10,000 stores! Who do they think they are? McDonalds?

[Wayno]

The article mentions that Giant have 10,000 stores world-wide, so I wonder if this is one of those "Adelaide is Australia's test market" things (check the formula works before opening in the more expensive east-coast cities).

Could be they are opening their first store here as we are the home of the TDU.

[russo92]

Apple unable to open Rundle Mall store because the shopping strip lacks a large enough shopfront
The Advertiser, May 29 2011

ONE of the world's most recognised and sought-after brands, Apple, has ruled out opening a store in Rundle Mall because it cannot buy a large enough shopfront.

The global technology brand is looking to open in Adelaide but is understood to have rejected the Mall because it does not offer the 15m-wide street frontages that form the basis of their stores worldwide.

Thousands of people gathered outside Apple Stores nationally last month to pick up Apple's latest release, the iPad 2, and its new stores boast a "Genius Bar" for technical help and "The Studio" to help customers with creative tasks including music composition and film editing.

Savills SA divisional director Peter Isaakson, a specialist retail property agent, said the big international brands had corporate formulas they needed to fill - and Rundle Mall was not able to satisfy those demands in its current form.

"I've been through the Mall three or four times trying to put sites together and we got to 13.23m and it still wasn't suitable for the retailer we were dealing with - and it has to be column-free space as well," he told a Property Council conference this month.

"I don't know how we fix that. Do we appoint a developer to come in and buy up all the shops along Rundle Mall? Then you've got the people who own the shops who don't want to sell.

"International big retailers then go to Marion, West Lakes, Tea Tree Plaza and the city is going to slowly die."

Rundle Mall is already home to Apple-authorised third party retailer, Next Byte, in Rundle Mall Plaza, with exposure to Gawler Pl.

Rundle Mall Management Authority chairman Theo Maras said new projects - including the Harris Scarfe redevelopment - were offering broader, column-free frontages but otherwise the Mall was limited by its older titles based on small, owner-occupied shops.

He said the big names were looking to the broader Rundle Mall Precinct - Grenfell and Pulteney Sts, North Tce and Gawler Pl.

Physiotherapy student Melinda Privopoulos, 23, said an Apple store would give the Mall the extra buzz that came with people lining up for new products and a big brand.

"Rundle Mall and the Mall's Balls are the centre of Adelaide," she said.

Apple, which did not return calls, has 10 stores across Australia.

I thought there had been talk of a store planned for the new Harris Scarfe building ?

[AtD]

How it reads to me: "Apple unwilling to pay for a suitable site, hopes public threat to look elsewhere will scare prospective sellers, landlords, or even the council, into bending over backwards."

[rhino]

Happy to see I'm not the only one who read it that way

[Nathan]

How it reads to me: "Apple unwilling to pay for a suitable site, hopes public threat to look elsewhere will scare prospective sellers, landlords, or even the council, into bending over backwards."

Really? Reads to me like "Savills director unable to do his job and find suitable space for client, has a small whine to someone connected to News Ltd, who then run a non-story as a major news item because mentioning Apple is massive click-bait"

[ml69]

Interestingly, only 2 of Apple's 10 Australian stores are located in a CBD area .... Sydney (megastore) and Perth. The other stores are located in regional shopping malls in relatively affluent locations.

If you go the the Apple website http://www.apple.com/au/retail/ you will see that the stores generally have a similar layout, although not all appear to be 15m wide.

I think a Rundle Mall or Gawler Place store would be ideal, and a coup for CBD retail. Isn't there talk of revamping Gawler Place as part of the Rundle Mall overhaul?

[Burger]

What many people fail to understand is that Apple have basically 2 concepts for company-owned stores. One is a shopping centre-based store, which has it's own requirements and may not always be their desired 50'x150' floorplate. It won't vary much though as I have seen all of the Eastern seaboard stores and they are pretty much the same (except Bondi Junction which had it's own unique issues and solutions).

The other concept is their Significant Store (they don't do 'flagships'). For a significant store they will not waiver on their desired format and their works document is pretty extensive too. It might also be that they can live with 13.23m (in the case mentioned in the article) but there are other issues to contend with such as height, loading, floor loads, storage & symmetry among many other requirements. Either you can meet the requriements and you get one or you can't and you don't. Simple.

From a retail trade and mix POV and it's a no-brainer if you have the opportunity to get them in. For example, I have heard recently that their significant store in George St, Sydney does close to $200M (!) and they are one of the few (if not the only) retailers to consistently trade over $100,000 per sqm for their shopping centre-based stores throughout the world (Apple themselves won't release the figures but the agents are more than happy to tell you!). And they drag so much extra traffic into the area that it improves the value of everything around them.

[Ben]

Adelaide's first Georg Jensen store is going to be going into the new tenancy created by Bang & Olufson on Grenfell being split in 2.

[Plasmatron]

I think the Borders shop that just closed would be a good location for a new Apple store in Adelaide.

[[Shuz]]

I think the Borders shop that just closed would be a good location for a new Apple store in Adelaide.

Apple want a 15m wide storefront.

Borders would only have to be 8m?

[dsriggs]

On The Run's opened their North Tce. flagship store in the last couple of weeks. Best convenience store in the city by a mile.

[arki]

I noticed that last night. Had to look twice as the North Tce sign is absolutely monolithic!