David Jones at Melbourne’s Eastland shopping center suffers another blow for the struggling brand
The David Jones store in the Eastland Shopping Center in Melbourne’s eastern suburbs of Ringwood will close its doors permanently in January.
This announcement comes less than a decade after the luxury department store first opened to shoppers in 2015.
The company said it was focusing on the customer experience by channeling investment into its flagship stores and “right-sizing” its retail footprint.
“Key to delivering this experience is our ongoing program of optimizing our retail network, through investment in our flagship stores, right-sizing and where necessary, consolidating our footprint,” a statement said.
“In line with this, we can confirm the closure of our Eastland store in January.
The company said it was aware of the impact on staff and would provide them with assistance.
“With a long lead time to this closure, we remain focused on prioritizing transition support for our team members and exploring redeployment options.”
The David Jones store in Melbourne’s Eastland Shopping Center is closing
The company currently owns 42 department stores across Australia and employs approximately 7,500 people.
The brand’s decline began with the closure of several stores in recent years, including the failure of the highly anticipated boutique outlet at Sydney’s Barangaroo, which opened in 2016 but suffered from the long-delayed opening of Crown Casino.
In December 2021, the shelves at the Barangaroo outlet were cleared of products, the display cases were empty and screens blocked most windows.
Department store David Jones has experienced a dramatic decline in sales across its city, country and suburban stores as households cut their budgets
The cracks started to appear with the closure of David Jones’ Fortitude Valley store in Brisbane in January 2020, just three years after it opened.
Then, in July 2020, David Jones announced the sale of the iconic Melbourne menswear, home and grocery building on Bourke Street, while retaining the store across the street from the shopping centre.
In June 2022, it closed its only store in Wellington, New Zealand.
The closures were accompanied by a noticeable deterioration in the emporium’s usual impeccable standards of customer service and store design, at least according to some customers.
“The fitting rooms are dirty, dated, dirty carpet, plate sized holes in the ceiling and a dirty plaster on the floor,” a Sydney customer wrote in September 2022.