Burwood’s Kmart store gets central registers, pleasing customers

MOST Kmart customers hate the new centralised cash registers but Burwood shoppers are bucking the trend.

Burwood's new look Kmart with registers in the centre of the store.

MOST Kmart customers hate the new centralised cash registers but Burwood shoppers are bucking the trend.

At the official launch of the new look Burwood store yesterday, shoppers told the Whitehorse Leader they didn’t mind the move.

“It’s really good, easy to find,” Anna Polyzoudis said.

“It’s probably quicker than having to line up at the front.”

“It’s consistent now with all the other Kmarts,” Mitcham mum Zuleika Dawson said.

But a staff member did say that customers had been asking all day where the registers had gone.

Kmart has come under fire for its new store layouts, which places cash registers in the centre of stores, disrupting the age-old tradition of paying on the way out.

A news.com.au poll of hundreds of shoppers revealed they overwhelmingly opposed the new format, describing it as “disorienting”.

They said it made them “feel like shoplifters” when leaving the store, as security guards now checked customer receipts as they exited.

Long-time Burwood customer Dana Nance said it “just doesn’t feel right”.

“It just feels misplaced,” she said.

“I much preferred it at the front. But everything else is fantastic.”

The 24-hour store, which was the first Kmart to open in Australia in 1969, celebrated its revamp with balloon sculptures, face painting and music.