Drop in customers at Melbourne’s major shopping centres
Melburnians are staying away from major shopping centres, leaving food courts empty and car parks free. Here’s why.
South East
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Customers are staying away from Melbourne’s major shopping centres as Covid continues to spread through the state.
Near empty food courts, closed stores and free car parks have been seen at Eastland, Chadstone, Westfield Southland and The Glen throughout January.
Eastland general manager Greg Balmforth said the centre has had a slower start to the year.
“While January is a traditionally quieter period following the rush of Christmas and Boxing Day, we have also seen some additional impacts in the first half of January from the rise of Omicron, with customers choosing to stay at home more than usual,” he said.
Mikayla Brown, who works at Westfield Knox and Stud Park, told Leader she has a drop in customers compared to this time last year.
“The reasons behind this I think would be that so many people have to isolate either because they have Covid or they have to isolate as they are a social or household contact,” she said.
“Another reason may be that more people have taken the opportunity to go away during the school holidays as we have been in lockdown for nearly two years.”
Shopper Alice Lee said Chadstone was a “ghost town” on the weekend.
“You normally have to get to Chaddy in the morning to secure a car park but I found one easily on Saturday around midday,” she said.
“It was so surreal.”
Australian Retailers Association chief executive Paul Zahra said there has been disappointing levels of foot traffic at major centres.
“Retailers would normally be thriving at this time of year with the post-Christmas sales and people out enjoying their summer holidays,” he said.
“Omicron has been like a wrecking ball through the economy and small businesses in particular are suffering as a result.”
Mr Zahra said Covid has not impacted the sector on this scale before.
“We’ve entered uncharted territory in the pandemic with Omicron decimating workforces and impacting supply chains,” he said.
“Around 70 per cent of our members say they currently have staff in isolation, a third have limited trading hours at some locations and around one in five have had to close some stores altogether due to staff shortages.”
Vicinity Centres, who own Chadstone, The Glen and Box Hill Central, declined to comment.
