A shopper has shared a first look inside one of the new ‘K Hub’ stores after Kmart Australia converted struggling Target country outlets.
Eliza Reid, visited the outlet in Bairnsdale in Gippsland, east of Melbourne, which opened a week ago, to see how the smaller store compared to the standard Kmarts.
The 28-year-old – who runs Bargain Homewares on Instagram – filmed a tour of the store showing the popular aisles such as homeware and décor, clothing and accessories, toiletries, laundry, storage, stationary, shoes and kitchen appliances.
But she noticed there were a couple of key categories missing from the store.
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A shopper has shared a first look inside one of the new ‘K Hub’ stores after Kmart converted struggling Target Country outlets into a one-stop shop (picture of the new Bairnsdale store)
Eliza Reid (pictured), from Gippsland in rural Victoria, visited the Bairnsdale outlet, which opened a week ago, to see how the smaller store compared to the standard Kmart
‘They don’t have a makeup and beauty section and they also don’t have the outdoor stuff,’ Eliza said in her video.
‘There’s a lot of women’s clothing though. All I see when I walk in are women’s clothes. There’s a small accessories section but it doesn’t have the full range.’
She filmed the ‘makeup and beauty’ section but there were no cosmetic products to be seen.
‘They actually don’t stock makeup,’ she explained.
‘There’s toiletries, [makeup and toiletry] bags… so more essential items so if you want makeup, you’d still have to go to a pharmacy or Woolworths.’
The 28-year-old – who runs Bargain Homewares on Instagram – filmed a tour of the store showing the popular aisles such as homeware and décor (left), clothing and accessories (right)
With Christmas fast approaching, Eliza said she noticed there were 10 aisles dedicated to toys and a small section at the front of the store for festive decorations and essentials.
‘I guess they might make this seasonal because Christmas is coming up so maybe that’s why they have 10 aisles of toys,’ she said.
‘There’s also an aisle for arts and crafts, stationery and a little electronics section.’
She walked down the homewares section, which showed rows upon rows of décor items, furniture pieces, faux plants, bathroom, laundry and linen.
In the kitchen aisle, the shelves are fully stocked with gadgets such as pie makers, sausage roll makers, toasters, kettles, blenders, sandwich presses and more.
In the kitchen aisle, the shelves are fully stocked with gadgets such as sausage roll makers and toasters (left), while there was also an arts and crafts and stationery section (right)
With Christmas fast approaching, Eliza said she noticed there were 10 aisles dedicated to toys (left) and a small section at the front of the store for Christmas decorations and essentials (right)
‘There are a few aisles for linen, bath towels and bedding but again, not the full range. Then there are laundry, storage and a few aisles of kitchen appliances, pots and pans, crockery and glassware… and a little bit of furniture,’ she said.
‘The thing about coming to a new Kmart store is that everything is well stocked. I haven’t really seen stores with stock like this during Covid,’ she explained.
‘For the small country towns where K Hub is opening, I guess it’s better than not having a Target at all.’
Kmart has been rolling out the new ‘K Hub’ stores in regional Victoria after shutting Target
The new K Hub stores come just months after owner Westfarmers decided to shut 75 Target outlets, and convert 92 others into Kmarts.
The company said the restructure would reduce Target’s ‘unsustainable’ cost base and allow it focus on the more-profitable Kmart.
An additional 25 regional Target Country stores will be converted into small Kmarts, while between ten and 40 large stores will become big Kmarts.