Locals lobby to keep Target

The Wesfarmers Group announced last Friday it would be closing 75 of its retail stores, and another 92 would be converted to KMART, and confirmed Deniliquin was one of the stores marked for closure.

The announcement sparked outrage in the Deniliquin district community, with community members saying the decision to close Deni but convert the Echuca store will hurt the shop local message.

Since then locals have been encouraged to write to Wesfarmers in the hope it will take into consideration the community’s outrage and reverse the decision.

Deniliquin mother of four Fiona Waters said she was disappointed by the decision to close the local store, and immediately wrote to the company.

‘‘I have four boys and we have a dairy farm. Having Target meant I could dress my kids and myself. It also meant I didn’t have to drive for over an hour to buy undies and socks,’’ she said. 

‘‘If we have to drive to Echuca to get these essentials then other local store owners will also suffer and the buy local campaign that has been so successful, will also be adversely affected.

‘‘This has been a real blow to my family and our town. They have no idea how hard this drought has been on the community already and continues to be. 

‘‘With the recent rains we were all feeling a bit more positive and then we get another essential service taken away.’’

Target’s customer support centre responded to Mrs Waters saying ‘‘the decision to transform the Target network, and particularly the very difficult decision to close some of our stores is not one that is made lightly, but one that is necessary to improve the commercial viability of the business and to support the thousands of people we employ. 

‘‘In order to do this successfully in the current retail environment (and in a way that truly supports our customers), we know that we need to adapt our business – to make it smaller, more focused, less complex and more digitally enabled so we can better serve our customers both instore and online,’’ the email read.

‘‘These changes have been made following the first phase of a strategic review of the business. For some time, the Target business has needed to transform to a smaller, more focused and less complex business. Changes to the store network and operating model have been a focus for some time.’’

In regards to support for regional locations, Target responded to Mrs Waters saying they plan to increase awareness of their online business.

‘‘I am disappointed with the response, especially asking me to shop online,’’ she said.

‘‘It shows they have no grasp on the economics of rural and regional towns.’’

The Deniliquin store is expected to operate for about another 12 months, with closure anticipated to be in mid-2021.