David Jones' Cost Reset Erodes Service and Tradition

David Jones says it will reset its business while working with administrators, receivers and a secured lender, as the retailer sheds services and experiences that once defined its stores. Shoppers have already lost the food halls, Christmas windows and supermodel ambassadors. The company promises a reset; its record points to a thinner experience.

The service shoppers lost

Retail historian Matthew Bailey said David Jones once had thousands of staff on hand, including trained employees who advised customers on shoes, bras, fabrics and furniture materials. Some had worked in the store for 40 years and knew customers by name. Bailey said that detailed service began disappearing from the 1980s onward. Today, he said, the contrast with those earlier stores is stark.

David Jones brought in concession pads, or stores within stores, to cut costs. The model grouped products by brand rather than type, which Bailey said worsened service and the shopping experience. He questioned why shoppers would visit a Country Road concession inside David Jones when a larger Country Road store stood 50 metres away. The economics may suit a retailer trying to lower costs. They don’t bring back the service customers remember.

Bailey said labor costs marked the beginning of David Jones’s decline, while lower-priced goods and labor-efficient operations from Target, Kmart and Big W added pressure. Those forces helped eliminate many small suburban and country department stores and increased cost pressure on large traditional retailers. The article describes the market squeeze; shoppers have fewer places to shop and less service, while the company searches for a business model that can survive it.

A store built as a public spectacle

David Jones began as a Sydney drapery in 1838, opened by Welsh immigrant David Jones with the aim of selling “the best and most exclusive goods.” It became a “universal provider” 38 years later. Retail historian Matthew Bailey said department stores dominated Australian retail market share and sales until the middle of the 20th century, and developed their own manufacturing plants in the early 20th century, contributing to Australia’s industrialization.

David’s son Edward pictured customers browsing luxury accessories and eating gourmet meals while waiting for clothing to be tailored. Later, Sir Charles Lloyd Jones expanded the store’s cultural and retail reach. He opened the Elizabeth Street store in Sydney, established the David Jones Art Gallery, built connections with stores and artists around the world, and brought fashion parades featuring designs by Pierre Balmain and Christian Dior to Australia.

In a 1955 address to the Royal Historical Society, Sir Charles said the store kept the public “up-to-the-minute in the realms of fashion,” offered art exhibitions and shows, and brought “the treasures of the world” under its roof. Bailey recalled full-day family visits, with shopping, escalator rides, a toy section and food halls. Christmas window displays drew crowds; fashion shows took place on level 7 of the Elizabeth Street store. These were more than shelves and tills. They were distinctive experiences the current business has been losing.

The Christmas windows were cancelled in 2025, causing upset. The food halls disappeared, the windows went, and the supermodel ambassadors ended. David Jones and long-time rival Myer had earlier adapted to changing shopping patterns by acquiring smaller department stores, forming chains and moving into suburban shopping centres. But shopping centres expanded, department stores took a smaller share of their floor space, and category killers including JB Hi-Fi, Rebel Sports and Office Works emerged. Bailey called a shopping centre “a larger, more productive, more efficient, more flexible department store.”

The reset belongs to the boardroom

Current chief executive Erica Berchtold said: “We have a well-developed plan on how to reset the business for the future and will be working with the Administrators, the Receivers and our secured lender as we continue to pursue that reset of the business.” The statement names the institutions involved in deciding the retailer’s future. The article offers no detail about a grassroots or community response.

Experts cited in the article believed David Jones needed vision like Sir Charles Lloyd Jones’s to survive. Bailey’s final remark, about the store’s claim that “there is no other store like David Jones,” was shorter: “There might be a reason why.”