A Perth startup is hoping its electronic price tag technology can help bricks-and-mortar retailers cut costs and provide better customer service in their efforts to combat online competition.
Perth's grocery wars, amplified by giant Aldi's market push and price cuts by Coles and Woolworths, have claimed five struggling smaller supermarkets over the past five months.
Moves to extend trading hours on weekdays and on Sundays could be a hit with voters, according to a recent survey conducted for the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of WA, with 59 per cent of shoppers keen for longer weekday trade.
The traditionally dominant players in Australian retail are being forced to reinvent themselves in the face of increased competition – from each other, and a host of international raiders.
UPDATE: Aldi says it's first Western Australian store is set to open in mid-2016, at the state's largest shopping centre, the Lend Lease-owned Lakeside Joon
August saw mixed performance in retail, with turnover up 0.1 per cent on a seasonally adjusted basis, according to the latest monthly report from the Australian Bureau of Statistics.
Revised plans for a $50 million revamp of Innaloo Cinema Centre include an Aldi discount supermarket and restaurant, small bar and other hospitality tenancies in the place of a bowling alley previo
The state government has invested $2 million to support Western Australian agriculture by granting free entry to the IGA Perth Royal Show and local Royal Agriculture Society-affiliated shows for children aged 12 years and younger.
ALDI's imminent arrival in WA and continuing competition between the retail majors has sidelined many retail developers who just can't pay the big prices Coles and Woolworths will shell out for new sites.
STEVE Carre has walked both sides of the business street - in big and small firms - and believes there's a touch of arrogance about the former's failure to recognise the value of the latter.
