By Jessica Yun and Gemma Grant
Suitcases for about $40, stuffed toys for $3 and mugs for $1.50 are a few of the 28,000 ultra-cheap items that thousands of Melbourne shoppers have spent hours lining up for at Panda Mart since Thursday.
The new discount retailer, tagged as “Temu in real life”, opened its first store in Cranbourne in the city’s south-east last week but was forced to close its doors early on Saturday after police were called to control crowds of bargain-hungry shoppers who attempted to push past staff into the store.
Customers queue outside the Panda Mart warehouse in Cranbourne on Monday.Credit: Gemma Grant
“We didn’t expect we would be this busy. We didn’t prepare to get this crowded and this [many] customers,” store owner John Chen said.
“We started managing by putting more security and put more staff on the floor, but it’s still too much.”
Victoria Police were called to help manage a crowd of about 1000 people on Saturday afternoon, when some attempted to push their way past glass doors and left shelves in disarray. The retailer shut its doors that afternoon and reopened on Sunday morning.
While much of the initial chaos had subsided by Monday afternoon, long queues continued to snake past the front door and throngs of people converged at checkout counters. Stock was scattered across the floors of the warehouse while many shelves had been stripped bare.
The recently opened big-box retailer sources 28,000 items from China’s export manufacturing hub of Yiwu, ranging in homewares, kitchenware, furniture, cleaning supplies, home decoration and gym equipment. There are plans to expand to the full range of 50,000.
Social media users sharing store experiences and shopping hauls also revealed rows of make-up, electronics, knock-off Crocs for $7.50, party supplies and more.
Shoppers Bree McCurdy and Cherish Brimelow visited on Monday after seeing it on social media and said they were impressed with the low prices and wide range of goods.
“We saw it on TikTok. There [were] people making fun of the things [in stock] here … but we’ve been finding some great things,” Brimelow said.
The pair of friends hadn’t intended to buy anything but departed the store with cushions, stationery, portable whiteboards, pens and a giant stuffed bear.
“Shipping is such a big thing online, whereas here you can just come down and get what you need in person at a similar price,” McCurdy said.
Chen is hoping Panda Mart can differentiate itself from e-commerce juggernauts such as Temu by having only a bricks-and-mortar offering.
“We want customers to feel the real goods, to see the real price. So they pay, and they know what they are paying,” he said. “Once they think [it is] worth it, they can take it and pay. Something online, you only can see pictures, you can’t really feel them … It might be difficult for customers to have what they really want.”
Dozens of customers at the check-outs in Panda Mart’s Cranbourne warehouse.Credit: Gemma Grant
Panda Mart is in the Cranbourne HomeCo centre. Its Preston site sits across from Northland Shopping Centre and is due to open later this year.
The retailer, founded in South Africa more than a decade ago and with more than 100 superstores across New Zealand, South America, the United States and Africa, intends to open more sites across Australia.
“We want to open in big cities that have more people, and then we might open smaller stores, like 3 to 4000 square metres in shopping centres,” said Chen.
Cost-of-living pressures have pushed customers towards low-cost international retailers, including Shein and Amazon, which have undercut local retailers struggling to compete. Nearly 4 million Australians have purchased from Temu at least once in the year to August, while 2 million Australians have made a purchase from Shein, according to Roy Morgan data.
Temu is expected to exceed $2 billion in sales.
The Business Briefing newsletter delivers major stories, exclusive coverage and expert opinion. Sign up to get it every weekday morning.