Melbourne shopping: Westfield Doncaster’s big name fashion stores still closed
A high-end fashion precinct at one of the eastern suburbs biggest shopping centres remains quiet, with many fancy boutiques yet to re-open after the coronavirus outbreak. See who’s still shut.
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Westfield Doncaster is showing signs of life again with shoppers slowly starting to return following the easing of coronavirus restrictions.
But fashion fans might have wait a bit longer to get their in-store fix with a large chunk of the centre’s high-end retailers still closed.
Manningham Leader visited the centre yesterday and noticed the carpark near Village Cinemas and TGI Fridays was mostly full.
There were small streams of shoppers making their way through the centre and a reasonable amount of activity in its food court.
But foot traffic in the centre’s fashion precinct — anchored by David Jones and Myer, which remains closed — was noticeably low.
More than 10 stores in the area were closed including Rodd and Gunn, Fossil, Ecco, Sussan and Trenery.
The majority of those closed had signs on front doors indicating they would re-open when it was safe to do so and to for shoppers to use their online store in the meantime.
Calibre store manager Reign, who didn’t give his surname, reopened his store last week after a five-week break.
Reign said he expected foot traffic in the area to pick up in the next week as more shops decided to re-open.
“If they (retailers) don’t deem what they earn as higher than their rental costs, they won’t open.
“The way I see it, it’ll be busy for the next week and then it’ll quiet down, everyone (shoppers) has been a bit antsy to get back.
“It’s going to be a quiet for a bit but we knew that … the relationship you have with clients is more important than ever now.”
A team member from Blue Illusion, who declined to be named, said the store had also reopened recently and loyal customers had returned.
But the team member said the atmosphere in the precinct felt “funny and strange”.
“It doesn’t have the buzz in the air,” they said.
“But as more stores open the better it will get, and the weekends have been busy.”
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A Westfield spokeswoman, who declined to be named, said shoppers could stay updated on store reopenings at Westfield Doncaster on their website.
She said 57 per cent of retailers had reopened at Westfield centres across Australia and more were scheduled to do so in the coming weeks.
The spokeswoman also said the coronavirus outbreak had not impacted construction of the centre’s $30 million rooftop dining precinct, which was still on schedule to open later this year.