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David Jones’ mistake exposed by Aussie insider

An insider has revealed the real reason David Jones is struggling in Australia and the big mistake the store has made.

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“Who is even shopping at David Jones anymore?”

The short answer is your mum and my mum, but probably not any of your friends.

I worked at David Jones for just over two years via a concession, and I learnt quickly that the department store was stuck in the past. It was all grandeur and clean-cut, and it exuded the kind of old-school glamour that wasn’t very welcoming to any new generations.

You expect to run into Ita Buttrose while browsing. You don’t expect to run into Peach PRC.

The old lady appeal made it an incredibly convenient job to have as a young person because there was zero risk of running into anyone I knew. My friends that nabbed jobs at cooler and trendier stores such as General Pants Co were stuck with the downside of having to avoid exes or girls they didn’t like at university, but I was safe in my David Jones ivory tower.

When I worked there, I always got the impression that they weren’t trying to appeal to younger people. Instead, they wanted the kind of customer that could get approved for their coveted David Jones card, not a teenager, and I always thought it was a mistake.

David Jones’ old-school glamour isn’t very welcoming to any new generations.
David Jones’ old-school glamour isn’t very welcoming to any new generations.

At the moment, it seems like David Jones is paying for that mistake.

The Australianobtained documents in June 2023 that showed a trend in declining sales across many of its signature stores. The sales reflect only one week out of 50.

Some of the most worrying examples were the David Jones store located at Eastland in Melbourne reported a 38.96 downturn in sales, and the David Jones store in Sydney’s Warringah Mall sales had plunged by 20.16 per cent.

The widespread downturns come just three months after the department store was purchased by private equity firm Anchorage Capital Partners for about $100 million.

The problem is that although David Jones still exists in 2023, to me, it feels stuck in the 1950s. It is lovely to walk through, particularly if you get to go to one of their flagship stores where stepping into the store feels like entering a movie set, but it hasn’t managed to find a way to appeal to youth.

The perfect example of their 1950s attitude is that when I worked there, I was once reprimanded for wearing a skirt too short – yes, like when you’re in high school and a teacher walks around with a ruler. In this case, a manager just caught sight of me and rang my boss.

I was in my early 20s working in the lingerie department, but they wanted me to look more conservative than fun and young.

I know that plenty of people would argue that David Jones doesn’t need to appeal to young people because young people don’t have the money to splash around at a store like David Jones, which boasts designer wear such as Gucci and Chanel.

David Jones hasn’t managed to find a way to appeal to youth.
David Jones hasn’t managed to find a way to appeal to youth.

Wrong! Sure, David Jones is expensive, but young people are embracing designer goods, and they are finding ways to afford them at record rates.

A study by Bain & Co found that Generation Z and Millennials (age 11 through to 42) accounted for all of the luxury market’s growth last year, and Gen Z and the generation after them, Generation Alpha, are expected to make up a third of the luxury market by 2030.

So yes, we are in a cost-of-living crisis, and plenty of us are wondering if we should continue to buy tomatoes, but that doesn’t mean our appetite for luxury has been curbed. Especially with younger people that aren’t locked into mortgages or even paying rent yet.

Expert in consumer behaviour Gary Mortimer explained that the department store probably wasn’t concentrating on youth.

“David Jones understands who their core customer is, and that isn’t young teens or early twenties. They are looking for a more affluent consumer that isn’t getting impacted by things like rate rises,” he advised.

Yet by aiming for the older crowd, they are missing out on the footloose and fancy-free demographic that could help bolster their business.

Robert Crawford, a professor of advertising in the School of Media and Communication at RMIT University, is currently researching David Jones and its place in the current retail climate, and he doesn’t think the department store has managed to sell itself to young people.

“Younger generations have grown up within a world where department stores had already lost much of their former grandeur and magic,” he theorised.

David Jones stocked Kim Kardashian’s SKIMS range but experts suggest that wasn’t enough to reach younger customers. Picture: Stefanie Keenan/Getty Images for SKIMS
David Jones stocked Kim Kardashian’s SKIMS range but experts suggest that wasn’t enough to reach younger customers. Picture: Stefanie Keenan/Getty Images for SKIMS

He isn’t alone in thinking David Jones hasn’t managed to connect with the youth.

James Zhong, the former CEO of Smart e-commerce and click-and-collect retailer, explained that it had failed to resonate with Gen Z.

“I believe with the rise of TikTok and social media in general, young people are able to niche down their tastes as the internet can connect everyone in the world who is into a certain thing, and they then prefer to go to specific vertical retailers for what they want,” he said.

David Jones does stock brands that go viral, though. Bec and Bridge, Khloe Kardashian’s Good American, and even Kim Kardashian’s Skims have been at the department store for years now and are also huge on social media platforms such as TikTok and Instagram, but Zhong explained stocking the right brands actually wasn’t enough.

“While DJs try to appeal to everyone, which ends up being no one. If they do find something they want from DJs, it has to be price competitive, which, unfortunately, they often are not,” he said.

David Jones might have a long and wealthy history, but if it continues to fail to appeal to the youth, it may never be cool again.

Originally published as David Jones’ mistake exposed by Aussie insider

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