Shoppers queue outside Kmart as non-essential Melbourne retail reopens

Non-essential retail has returned to Melbourne, with hundreds of shoppers queuing outside Kmart ahead of its reopening on Friday night.

The long-awaited reopening of non-essential retail in Melbourne was met with excitement on Friday night, with hundreds of people lining up to enter stores at 6pm.

The scenes outside Kmart stores across the Victorian capital were reminiscent of the end of lockdown in Sydney, with crowds cheering and moving forward quickly to get inside after 260 days of retail restrictions.

Shoppers at Doncaster Shopping Town told A Current Affair that “it seemed like years” since they last visited Kmart, while another said “there were so many people at the front door waiting for this to open up”.

Reporter Seb Costello told host Deborah Knight that “even before the magical opening time of 6pm there were queues out the door with shoppers excited to spend, spend, spend”.

It’s on. Hundreds of Melburnians pouring into @Kmart at Westfield, Southland, on the dot of 6pm. pic.twitter.com/KjcMpo8IRN

— Lucie Morris-Marr (@luciemorrismarr) October 29, 2021

Kmart at 5.45 pm this evening. Dudes, what is it about freakin' Kmart?

Is it the home brand cutlery or the $5 PJs that you need to stock up on, on day 1 of Melbourne's reopening? 🤔 pic.twitter.com/9PbIm7zYxg

— Dhayana (@MissDeusGeek) October 29, 2021

Hundreds of shoppers lined up outside Kmart at Chadstone for retail reopening at 6pm. @theheraldsunpic.twitter.com/Itepy3w8Dg

— Miles Proust (@MilesProust) October 29, 2021

Kmart chief executive officer John Gualtieri told Sky News on Friday he was “ecstatic” that retail was returning to Melbourne, describing the city’s latest lockdown as a “challenge”.

“To say we’re ecstatic to be reopening our doors in Melbourne tonight from 6pm, would be an understatement,” he said.

The CEO said 90 new Kmart stores have been opened across Australia during the pandemic, bringing 15,000 new team members into the “Kmart family”.

After the “wild” scenes at Sydney’s reopening, the retailer cracked down on shoppers, having implemented a slate of measures to keep stores Covid-Safe.

Shoppers have been asked to continue wearing a face mask unless they have an exemption, practice social distancing, sanitise and check in each time they visit a store, while “Covid Check in Marshals” will monitor customer numbers to ensure stores remain below density limits.

Evening shoppers are seen in Bourke Street mall. Picture: Asanka Ratnayake/Getty Images

Shoppers lined up outside a Nike store. Picture: Asanka Ratnayake/Getty Images

Chadstone Shopping Centre Manager Michael Whitehead told the Herald Sun the centre’s reopening on Friday night would look more like a New Year’s Eve celebration.

“We’re kind of going to treat this a bit like a party, we’ve got some great entertainment coming along,” he said.

“It’s certainly going to be very exciting as retailers open the shutters.

“We’ve extended trading hours right away through to midnight tonight to make sure we can accommodate everybody in the safest way possible.”

With Victoria set to reach 80 per cent double-dose vaccination today, Cabinet Minister Danny Pearson said “the eased restrictions will be coming in … to ensure Victorians can make the most of this great long weekend”.

“We’re opening up tonight, that’s a great thing and we’re not going to stop at 80 per cent double dose coverage, we’ll go by one per cent each day until we get to 85 [per cent] and beyond,” chief health officer Brett Sutton said.

“I’m very confident we’ll get to 90 per cent of the population fully vaccinated.”