Kmart set to open first 24/7 store

Thursday, 25 July 2019

Johnny Hogeboom was jittery with excitement at 7.53am as he waited outside the Blenheim store. 'They're getting ready,' he said as workers arranged themselves inside.

Kmart's plan to open a 24/7 store in Auckland reflects the city's changing demographics and retailers' need to differentiate themselves from the competition, one retail analyst says.

Kmart will next month open a store in Auckland's Sylvia Park mall that is open all hours of the day.

'It will be a very exciting change for retail in New Zealand,' said country manager Jason Picard.

Chris Wilkinson, a consultant with First Retail Group, said while there were unlikely to be crowds of people wanting to shop in the middle of the night, it would give Kmart the edge over competitors.

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'All retailers are looking for something to help them differentiate themselves,' he said.

He pointed to Bunnings, which is also part of the Wesfarmers' stable and now opens 7am to 7pm at the weekend.

'When you talk to the guys at Bunnings and say 'are you busy at 7am' they're not… but they take the hit in winter so that when summer comes [and people want to get stuck into projects early in the day] they're a jump ahead of the competition.'

He said Kmart stores would not cost much to keep open all night because they used a lot of self checkout services and staff could be redeployed to other areas of the store during quiet periods.

The new shop will open on August 15.