News
Myer at risk of closing down - Boxing Day
Wed, 26 Dec 2018 02:04 pm
By Admin
The major department store chain Myer sustained $480m in losses this year. The 2018 Boxing Day sales will be pivotal to the survival of Myer.
Myer was the first major founding store at Chadstone when the regional super shopping centre was first established. It has been an anchor store ever since, however it is now at risk of closing down due to poor sales.
So what is the cause of the crisis? The prices? The service? Are people are over it?
What is Myer not doing that is keeping shoppers away from it?
Barry Urquhart, retail expert and managing director of Marking Focus told 3AW's Tony Jones that
Myer is follwing a potentialy fatal worldwide trend where major department stores such as Macys are shutting up shop.
Myer's problems have little to do with online purchashing and the digital economy. Many of the problems are due to consumer expectations. The staff working on the shop floor are not actively seeking
to provide customer service. The workforce now consists of many part time staff who have limited product knowledge, and decline to assist customers looking for advice on a product from another department.
Myer is no longer relevant to the newer generation, many of whom have never shopped there and can't be tempted to visit due to the poor customer service. Even regular long time shoppers are walking away from it. Services have fallen to the point where people say "no more" to Myer. Unsatisfied shoppers now walk away from the store and don't bother complaining about the unsatisfactory experience, so the store doesn't even know how to improve.
An example of Myer's failings are poor/illogical product placement. A customer seeking a product proceeded to the most appropriate department, but was unable to find it. They spent 5 minutes walking around before they found it in another department. The situation was not helped by staff saying "I'm not from x department, I don't know".
With a new Chief Executive Officer in charge of Myer, it will be a 3 to 5 year cultural change.
It will be a long road for Myer, whose main goal now is to attract customers from the more fashionable 'homemaker' centres back into their department stores.
