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Often when you see several shops in a centre all close around the same time, it's because it's the end of their lease. It may well be they all signed up for a lease of the same amount of time and at the same time (possibly when Harbourtwon first opened, I don't know).

Several of them might be end of lease, and some might be moving into the new section.

I just checked the pics I took today, and the old Woolworths sign above the new entrance has been replaced with
the new logo. That was a quick change!

pushbutton wrote:Often when you see several shops in a centre all close around the same time, it's because it's the end of their lease. It may well be they all signed up for a lease of the same amount of time and at the same time (possibly when Harbourtwon first opened, I don't know).

Several of them might be end of lease, and some might be moving into the new section.

That makes sense - I didn't make a note of which ones are closing. Most of the shops seem to be
thriving - I doubt the owners will have trouble finding new tenants.

Xaragmata wrote:I just checked the pics I took today, and the old Woolworths sign above the new entrance has been replaced with
the new logo. That was a quick change!

Good but weird! Why would they put the old one up first? Surely it must have cost them for the wasted sign which presumably they won't be able to use now.

Xaragmata wrote:I just checked the pics I took today, and the old Woolworths sign above the new entrance has been replaced with
the new logo. That was a quick change!

Any chance of uploading the photos you took today so I can see how it looks with the new logo there?

pushbutton wrote:

Xaragmata wrote:I just checked the pics I took today, and the old Woolworths sign above the new entrance has been replaced with
the new logo. That was a quick change!

Any chance of uploading the photos you took today so I can see how it looks with the new logo there?

I'll do a rough one and post it shortly.

The old logo - Thursday



The new logo - Friday (looks better!)



Completed Woolworths signage on northern end of building - Friday

Looks good, although they could have made more effort with the look of those exterior walls. It makes no pretence at being anything other than a slab of pre-cast concrete painted, of all boring colours, grey!

Woolworths are going to progressively re-brand stores with the new logo as they are converted to the new 2010 format. As the name suggests they plan to convert all stores by 2010, which is mighty ambitious, and probably won’t be achieved though they will get a majority of the stores done.

There are quite a few 2010 stores around Adelaide already (eg Mitcham, Marion, Unley), which were converted before the new logo was launched. They will probably get re-branded after Christmas.

Its strange that Harbourtown had both logos up but understandable in a large company – small details are easily overlooked and it sometimes takes a while for the right hand to know what the left hand is doing.

pushbutton wrote:Looks good, although they could have made more effort with the look of those exterior walls. It makes no pretence at being anything other than a slab of pre-cast concrete painted, of all boring colours, grey!

Harbourtown as a whole (hole?) is very introverted. All the decore is concentrated inside the mall. The carpark enjoys great expanses of window and doorless walls for most of the façade. In terms of destination shopping this place ticks all the boxes. Its in the middle of nowhere, you need to walk quite a way toward the beach to find any homes. Very car dependent.

And after all the promotions -- it's not even a proper outlet mall. Just a set of standard retailers who are on "sale" all the time.

Mono is not impressed with this development on any of its promises.

I agree mono. I haven't found shops at Harbourtown to be significantly cheaper than anywhere else. I was just thinking a similar thing today when I went to have a look and saw they're opening a Designer Direct "Clearance" store there. I thought Designer Direct was supposed to be a clearance store anyway at all its shops!

Doesn't "DIRECT" imply direct from the factory (eg. supposedly cheap)?

So if the one at Harbourtown is a "Clearance" then what are the other stores?

That's just one store at Harbourtown I know, but as I say I don't find any of them all that cheap.

I think when they first opened the Adelaide Harbourtown, it was advertised as being "up to 60% cheaper" than normal retail prices (not sure of the exact percentage). The key to understanding this is to make sure you pay attention to the "up to" bit!

In my opinion Harbourtown is like the 'temporary' short term shops you sometimes see in malls that are there just until the centre can find a new permanent tenant. Therefore they don't bother to spend much on fitting out the shop and just have bare concrete floors, no ceilings, cheap signage and simplistic fittings and fixtures. Except at Harbourtown ALL the shops are like that!

The only thing I think it has going for it in all honesty is that it's an open air mall, but yet it's a managed and purpose built shopping centre, and in that sense it's unique in Adelaide and more or less unique in other states.

One of the strangest things about Harbour Town is buses servicing the area have to go on yet another time wasting detour. I don't see why buses can't stop on Tapleys Hill Road and a pedestrian crossing be installed.

I guess the owners just wanted public transport to be as convenient as possible for customers. I agree though if they'd just put in a bus stop 'layby' area adjacent to Tapleys Hill Road (and there's plenty of room for one) and a good pedestrian path from there to the nearest entry, it would have been almost just as good for customers and would have meant probably a significantly less delay for other passengers on the buses.

I went to Harbourtown today and the new carpark was pretty much full already, hate to see what its going to be like when the new Woolworths store opens.

BTW I love the new logo

AtD wrote:One of the strangest things about Harbour Town is buses servicing the area have to go on yet another time wasting detour. I don't see why buses can't stop on Tapleys Hill Road and a pedestrian crossing be installed.

But you gotta remember this is Australia, we are to lazy to walk!

Apparently this Woolies will be open 24/7.