'The Age' and 'SMH' report online, quoting a spending...

'The Age' and 'SMH' report online, quoting a spending tracker:

"...The tracker also showed spending had weakened at traditional department stores during the 2021 lockdowns in Sydney and Melbourne

...Spending at Myer had fallen to be 50 per cent below normal during the latest lockdown, but that is an improvement on its position during last year’s lockdowns when spending slumped by 61 per cent..."

Spending at David Jones was apparently 68 per cent down during the 2021 ongoing lockdown in Melbourne and the recently ceased similar in Sydney, compared with only 21 per cent down during last year's lockdowns.

In the most recent lockdowns, spending at Target dropped 68 per cent yet during the 2020 lockdowns, it rose by 15 per cent.

The same story was evident at KMart: last year during lockdowns, spending rose at it by 31 per cent but recently has decreased 47 per cent.

Similarly at Big W, last year's lockdowns had a 42 per cent rise in spending, but the current Melbourne and just discontinued Sydney lockdown saw shoppers' spending decline 39 per cent.

So MYR is the only one of the five major bricks'n'mortar retailers surveyed to improve its position, though a drop of half in a retailer's Greater Sydney plus Greater Melbourne sales is far from good.

This shows why it's still important to have the physical stores open (assuming sales on an overall basis are profitable from the stores).

Daniel Andrews take note!