Susie O’Brien: Why Kmart’s empty shelves could be good news for shoppers
Kmart shelves have been empty for weeks as the retailer struggles to meet demand. But there is a light at the end of the tunnel, writes Susie O’Brien.
Susie O'Brien
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The struggle is real.
The pain is immense.
The shelves are bare.
How are Kmart lovers going to reorganise their pantries and meet their “laundry goals” when there is no stock?
No $179 hanging egg chairs (only available online).
No 75c drinking glasses.
No boxy white metal things that say “sparkle”.
(But there are lots of fake hanging cactuses which don’t seem to appeal to anyone.)
Kmart shelves have been empty for weeks as the retailer struggles to meet demand amid Chinese factory closures and covid production lockdowns.
You wouldn’t believe the reaction. Hell hath no fury like a Kmart shopper scorned.
Some blame the discount retailer’s over-reliance on Chinese goods. “Kmart needs to support Australian goods,” said one.
But this debate was had and lost 20 years ago when most factories in Australia stopped making household products.
People don’t want to pay what it costs to buy things made here — least of all Kmart shoppers. Once you’ve had the sugar rush that comes from buying $5 clear pantry organisers and $6 rose-hued cushions, you don’t want to go back to paying Australian-made prices.
Once we were told to buy our kids a job. Now we buy them stuff instead.
It’s a sign of the times.
Our kids don’t want to work in manufacturing and decorate their flats with our old cast-offs.
They want to be computer game designers and Instagram influencers and have chic on-trend new stuff they paid next-to-nothing for.
But most disgruntled Kmart shoppers weren’t mad about the Chinese manufacturing issue, they were annoyed they couldn’t immediately meet their desire for stencilled presentation boards and three-tier food steamers with a bonus egg cook socket.
They took to social media to share stories of woe — shelf after shelf empty in the kitchen, small appliance, craft and crockery sections. One woman, whose quest to buy an egg flip was thwarted, called it “shocking”.
“Don’t bother shopping for months,” she said, admitting later that she’d be back the next day
“just in case”.
Once the domain of the daggy and the destination of the desperate, Kmart is now less a shop and more a community. Addicts bond online over their love of wooden animal cake toppers and $19 rose-gold geometric-patterned doona covers. (They also share handy hints, reminding each other not to put the drink bottles in the dishwasher as they end up looking “like a penis”.)
Fuelled by shows like The Block and House Rules, and egged on by celebrities on Instagram posting photos of their luxe Scandi Hamptons mid-century mansions, Kmart is having a moment.
You don’t want to come between Kmart fans and their right to buy ombre bamboo baskets ($20 for two) and willingness to spend their days emptying packets into colour-coded jars, bottles and baskets.
Aldi and its famous middle aisle inspires the same devotion. Why pay $1600 when you can get a $350 “Air Rower” at Aldi? Or a digital air fryer for $39? Or a UV smartphone sanitiser with wireless charger?
Or a 12V heated travel blanket?
Aldi fans are also going cuckoo because there’s little stock and few specials. On social media one said there were “Sad staff, empty shelves … like something out of Poland in 1950”.
Sure, but with fewer communist dictators shooting poor people and more “assisted living toilets” which no one seems to want.
I am glad to tell you there are signs the drought is starting to break. When I popped into Kmart Burwood yesterday to do some “research” for this story, there had been a shipment of plastic pantry containers and cute woody things you hang necklaces on.
I left with a trolley load of fancy see-through boxes, a roll of marble-look contact, some sticker sheets and some other things I left in my car. “These old things? I bought them ages ago,” I’ll tell my partner when I smuggle in the matt black soap dispenser set, velvet hand towels and brass hanging lamps.
As one woman posted online: “I don’t know why men go to bars to meet women. Go to Kmart. The ratio is 10 to one and they’re already looking for things they don’t need”.
As I said, Australian brands need to pay proper wages and negotiate fair deals with workers in other countries. But we shouldn’t be embarrassed by our love of discount homewares at stores like Kmart.
Some can’t afford anything better. Others don’t see the point of paying more than they have to. And others don’t have much money because they spend all it at Kmart. Like me.
— Susie O’Brien is a Herald Sun columnist