CASTLE HILL TKMaxx - 2nd day open post corona shut down:
Just some wee musings to complete some photos being posted of life at TKMaxx Castle Hill on the 2nd day of opening after the corona shut own.
Yesterday, apparently Castle Hill had a crazy manic day. Plus one of their registers wasn't polling, so they couldn't even get their day's results.
I arrived
at 11. A queue of about 15 humans. I forgot to ask for the human limit. Would
imagine it's around 180. ??
The queue lady came out & assured us it
was about 5 mins. I asked her what time they were closing & she said 5.30pm . Not earlier? Yes, maybe depending on how
busy it is & the social distancing issues.
What does that mean? Oh, we have to have a distance
b/w us & it also depends on the number of customers.
Yes, but what does that mean? [I dislike parroting of rote phrases which
give you no information of any value]
Getting impatient, I translate it to: So if I
come at 4pm , will I be allowed in?
Yes but in a very uncertain in tone.
If I come at 4.30 pm , will I be allowed in?
It depends, maybe not.
Depends on what? Oh forget it, you realize the
web site says the store is open til 5.30pm .
Yes.
In the store.
First thing I noticed was all the colourful hand
bags & the next thing was the colourful puffas. It's a good thing to have colour at the front of a store - it brings people in.
There was plenty of people but a sense of calm
I didn’t pick up yesterday with Hillsdale/TR/Fairfield. Before you remind me it
was day 2 and hence quieter, it wasn’t that. They were just organized. The de-
security tagging station was in place first up, in the right place, the queue
to pay was in the middle of the HOME sections, rife for impulse buys as ppl left
their trolleys in the queue & went down each aisle as they moves closer to
the POS . Granted
the store is spacious, but their flow was good/logical which makes things
easier.
They were the only store I’ve seen where the
Final Clearance was right at the back of the store. Poor margins; Let something
else with a smaller discount show off toward the front of the store. Not a bad
strategy.
I was in the queue to pay for about 30 mins
perhaps. There were about 30 ppl in this queue. The queue to pay exceeded from
the register area by half of the narrow side of the store & almost a full
long side of the store. I don’t think it moved any faster than the other stores
so far, but it FELT faster. Frankly, if you can give that feeling to customers,
you are doing well. You do it by putting things for them to do along the way. Things
like the impulse shopping (nice wide aisles amongst Home goods for both queue
& customers walking through) helped to make the queuing more pleasant.
The other thing CH did better than the others
was managing to segregate sale goods from full price goods. As you moved around sale, you didn’t keep finding
yourself amongst full price. But you still don’t want to hie the full price
stock. When a store is in big clearance mode, the client base tends to be PRICE
FOCUSED. They are not interested in full price. When at full price, you get
back to the clients who are PPROUCT FOCUSED.
I also had a sense that they didn’t have as
much full price stock as Fairfield & Hillsale but I may be making that up.
They also had considerable empty space in various sections. Expected.
Even though I was annoyed with my encounter
with the door lady, after a few minutes in CH, chill. That’s a credit to the
store frankly.
What did I buy?
Well it wouldn’t be a TKM visit without
coloured pasta. I brought the uranium & other coloured Italian bows.
The ugliest puffa in the world, DKNY Jeans in
blue/khaki on sale.
I bought a Nautica brolly to replace the same
I lost recently. Best brolly ever.
The old one was navy with lime trim. This is black with Kermit trim.
I bought a black cotton casual Italian cardi
that looked worn, I mean treated to look worn.
 |
| The fabrication tags were at right. Lucky I had a sharp eye & feel to know it's cotton. |
An outdoor pot with blue & white tile
exterior which I had admired at full price - on sale.
A European cushion in many Mongolian sheepskin
A smaller rectangle cushion in navy Mongolian
sheepskin. Both on sale.
Men’s tan belt for me
Men’s black belt, same for me. Both these are for jeans - sturdy in the two best colours for versatility. The leather is pinched every 10 cm so when the centre back gets contorted, it won't show. Much.
A DR 2 black polyfester chiffon top – need to
make sure this works with a cami.
A men’s navy fine cord shirt for bumming around.
A duplicate white Italian linen vest with a
bias ruffle on each side. Dying
possibilities here.
A few random pattered bread/butter plates & bowls from
Portugal - on sale.
I'd love to see your finds.
