Coronavirus Australia: Shopping strips mauled as retailers turn out the lights

In the blackest 24 hours for the ­retail sector in living memory, some of the biggest chains in the country have shut up shop.

A Portmans staff member, who is now out of a job, chains the door shut at the fashion brand’s store in Sydney’s CBD. Picture: Nikki Short

In the blackest 24 hours for the ­retail sector in living memory, some of the biggest shopping mall chains in the country — including The Athlete’s Foot, Lovisa, Portmans, Just Jeans and Smiggle — have shut up shop, putting more than 15,000 staff out of work as the coronavirus pandemic swings like a wrecking ball through one of the economy’s biggest workforses.

Not waiting for the shopping centres and malls to go into lockdown, and wanting to preserve as much cash as possible to brave what could be months of ­ hibernation as consumers are confined to their homes, shop owners have decided to turn once-vibrant shopping strips into wastelands.

The coronavirus pandemic is now a full-blown catastrophe for the nation’s $320bn retail industry and the 1.3 million Australians it employs — making it the second ­biggest pool of jobs in the nation after the healthcare sector.

Billionaire ragtrader Solomon Lew says he has never seen anything like it, and he has been a fixture of the Australian retail scene for 50 years. His Premier Investments owns fashion chains such as Smiggle, Portmans, Just Jeans and Peter Alexander.

Premier has stood down 9000 workers, joining others such as Australia’s biggest footwear retail owner Accent Group, which has shut more than 420 stores — ­including The Athlete’s Foot chain — and sent 5000 staff home rather than bleed cash as sales teams stand idle in empty stores.

Jewellery and accessories retailer Lovisa, which has 430 stores across Australia, Asia, Europe and North America, said its stores in Australia, New Zealand and South Africa were now closed, joining those in France, Spain, Malaysia, the US and Britain, which were shut in the past week.

And they are all just the latest retailers to add to the pile. This week, pubs and hotels giant ALH had no option but to shut after government directives ruled out people visiting bars and restaurants, leaving its 8000 workers without a job.

Mosaic Brands, which owns about 1400 shops — including fashion brands Noni B, Katies and Millers — has also turned off the lights. Mosaic’s mostly female workforce of 6800 staff has been stood down.

In a sign of the times, Smiggle on Sydney’s Pitt Street shut just after 5pm, well before its normal 9pm close, plunging its rows of brightly coloured pencil cases, drink bottles and backpacks into darkness. Staff were packing up as a few Sydneysiders braved the viral pandemic gripping the nation to buy gel pens and exercise books.

Shoppers were few and masks were plenty in an empty Pitt Street Mall in Sydney’s centre. The smell of hand sanitiser mixed with the aroma of perfume wafted out of David Jones. And upbeat music in Portmans, one of the many shops set to close this week, potentially for months, jarred with the sombre mood of the staff who were all set to be stood down.

The doors shut early at Portmans, 15 minutes shy of the normal weekday close, as the floors were swept, stock rehung, and all the lights turned off.

And in the final act of closure, like some kind of macabre corporate funeral, a chain lock was wound around the plate glass door, marking the shuttering of another Australian brand.

It’s a melancholy duty that is being repeated at thousands of stores across Australia as the padlocks are put around doors, shutters brought down and the lonely last sales staff make a final walk back to the car park, with no idea when they will return.