From the Archives, 1983: Myer unloads favourite gem, Chadstone

But all this could not have been foreseen back in the good old days of the 1960s when everyone had a job and spending money was plentiful.

When the centre opened, on 4 October 1960, about 100,000 curious shoppers flocked there. Six companies ran buses to and from the centre and every bus had standing room only.

Long but orderly queues formed at most shops and the centre’s 2500-space car parks managed to accommodate 3000 cars. The then general manager of the centre, Mr Vic Upson, estimated that another 3500 cars were parked in surrounding streets.

On 4 October the following year, Myer celebrated the centre’s first birthday by erecting a giant birthday cake — with a candle that burned for more than two weeks — in the centre’s garden plaza.

The centre had cost £6 million to build. It revolutionised shopping habits and led some smaller city retailers to complain that they were being robbed of business.

By 1963, about 100,000 shoppers visited the centre each week and the value of turnover reached £10 million a year. The success of Chadstone led Myer to press ahead with its second regional centre, Northland, at Preston.

And it was in 1963 that Myer announced plans for its third centre, Southland, in Cheltenham. The success of Chadstone convinced Myer it was right in tying up funds in shopping centres to bring a Myer store close to every Melbourne home.

In 1964, the chairman of Myer, Mr A. H. Tolley, told shareholders that record sales and profits from Chadstone had justified the addition of a fourth floor to the Myer block at the centre.

The Myer board said in 1964 that “Australia’s present economic situation of full employment with reasonable price stability gives ample grounds for confidence in the future”.

Loading

Myer used Chadstone and its other centres to ride the retail boom into the early 1970s, when both inflation and unemployment began their climb and shoppers felt their buying power was restrained. In 1972, the company spent more than $1 million re-furbishing its city store, which had been neglected for the previous 10 years.

In August 1974 Myer suspended all its expansion plans because it was worried there would be no continued growth in the real value of goods sold.

The fortunes of the company have not been good since, despite efforts to diversify into sections of the video and computer industry and other areas.

As the company’s stocks declined, Chadstone became a little tatty. Its gloomy arcade, partly exposed to the elements, and furnishings of the centre generally appear to have suffered the neglect afforded an asset whose useful days have passed.