‘The Returning’ pop up store opens to trade in unwanted Christmas gifts
Everyone’s received a bad gift or two at Christmas, however there is now an option for Melburnians, with a pop up shop at Melbourne Central here to exchange your horror presents.
Lifestyle
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Re-gifting unwanted presents is usually something you do quietly and discreetly but Melbourne Central is taking it to a whole new level with ‘The Returning’ pop up store.
The unique and creative concept, which opened on Friday, will enable people to offload cringe-worthy, impractical or unsuitable gifts from any retailer, in or out of the centre, to be replaced with a gift card to the same value or to be swapped for another returned unwanted gift.
School sports coach Ally Kirkwood is excited to have a place to return gifts she doesn’t love or think she will use.
“Instead of stashing something away and knowing it will never see the light of day, I’ll be potentially re-gifting what could be another man’s treasure,” she says.
“Sustainable shopping is a clear trend at the moment, and if we’re able to do more of this at Christmas time when shopping and overconsumption of products is at such a high level, then I think re-gifting presents could be the right direction to take.”
Melbourne Central Centre Manager Ryan Ling says the fun new store is based on new research was commissioned by the centre which reveals nearly half (46 percent) of unwanted Christmas presents in 2019 are set to get stashed in the cupboard only to be forgotten about, while a third of Aussies will suffer through keeping or using their gifts nonetheless.
“We see a trend with many Australians embracing re-gifting and interestingly our research has found that more than 70 percent of Australians feel ok about someone they gave a gift to either selling it or re-gifting it to someone who would appreciate it more,” he says.
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“There are certain aspects of re-gifting that can be tricky but if you can find a better home for that unwanted impulse-purchase or gift that’s not quite right, it’s a great way to reduce waste at a time of year when overconsumption is at a peak.”
The Returning store runs from Friday until December 27.