Chemist Warehouse continues store expansion, set to open one of its largest stores yet
The discount pharmacy retailer which has over 300 stores throughout Australia and New Zealand and estimated to be worth AU$5 billion ($5.5b) is gearing up to open one of its largest stores in New Zealand this year.
Construction for a 800 sq m store is under way at 155 Queen St, on the corner of Queen and Wyndham St, in Auckland CBD. It will be the retailer's first inner city store. Chemist Warehouse director Azman Haroon said the store would be one of the company's largest in New Zealand when it opens, and attract tourist and city office worker catchments. A date for the store opening is not yet known. "The city centre is an amazing place for shoppers and [Queen St] seems to be one of the key landmark streets in New Zealand, so we wanted to make sure that we had a very good offering there," Haroon said, adding that it took "a while" to find "the right site" for its first city centre store. "We wanted to make sure that we had one of our best [types of] stores in that area."
The CBD Chemist Warehouse store would be bigger than its large format stores located in Albany in Auckland's North Shore and in St Lukes. Chemist Warehouse will also open a store in Westfield Newmarket, next Thursday, when the first stage of the mega-mall owned and operated by ASX-listed Scentre Group opens to the public.
The retailer currently operates eight stores in New Zealand, it plans to have 12 trading by the end of the year. Haroon could not say where the other two stores in the pipeline would be located. Haroon said Chemist Warehouse wanted to open more stores in Auckland, and other major cities throughout New Zealand.
"We would like to see somewhere between 50 and 70 stores [here], based on our research," he said. "We want to partner with pharmacists and open as many stores as we possibly can." Chemist Warehouse, which offers free prescriptions, would open stores wherever the consumer wanted the brand, he said. Heart of the City chief executive Viv Beck said Chemist Warehouse would increase foot traffic and activity on Wyndham St. "Chemist Warehouse will likely be a popular option for customers, and will bring more choice for our growing city centre community. This will also bring new activity to Wyndham Street, which is a key connection between Queen Street and Albert Street," Beck said. First Retail Group managing director Chris Wilkinson said Chemist Warehouse's entry into the inner city would force prices down at competing pharmacies in the area. "The move will almost certainly see neighbouring pharmacies reduce or remove the prescription fee, as has happened in other areas Chemist Warehouse has opened in Auckland," Wilkinson said. Auckland CBD could accommodate up to three Chemist Warehouse stores, he said. "I would imagine the downtown area will be next in their sights, particularly as Commercial Bay comes on-stream."
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Poll: Should drivers retake the theory test every 10 years?
Drivers get where they need to go, but sometimes it seems that we are all abiding by different road rules (for example, the varying ways drivers indicate around a roundabout).
Do you think drivers should be required to take a quick driving theory test every 10 years?
Vote in the poll and share any road rules that you've seen bent! 😱
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49.5% Yes
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48.6% No
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1.9% Other - I'll share below
Here's Thursday's thinker!
I am lighter than air, but a hundred people cannot lift me. What am I?
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Why make picking up reserved library books harder? What do you think? Challenge: Write the last stanza for the first poem attached below.
Once books are reserved in Auckland Libraries books, when they are available no longer go alphabetically by customer but instead go into a Holds pickup shelf number based presumably somehow on when each book needs to be picked up by.
I had two books reserved that arrived on two different days in the Blockhouse Bay Library and hence each book has a different shelf number. Hard to find unless you knew the shelf number in the notification email. Even if you knew the shelf number I found myself three books by the same author on the two shelf numbers.
More recently yesterday a book I reserved was on a different shelf number than was specified in my notification email (see image below).
Sadly it is clear from library staff that a numerical system for reserves is here to stay.
I suggest that so that all books for each person has the same shelf number, the shelf number becomes the last digit of a person's library card (0-9).
Within each shelf number a book is found under the day the reserve arrives in the library (01 to 31, hopefully the same date the email is sent).
Since a customer appears to have 10 days to pick up a book, ten days of the month would appear to be required at any time (for each digit 0-9).
Once there are 10 days used the next day's reserves could go back at the beginning of the shelf number after any remaining books not collected (hopefully none) are removed (along with the old day number and the new day number (01 to 31) inserted) after the last day available and future days' books remaining moved forward to make room.
Each day number (01-31) would appear once for each shelf number (0-9) before the first book on that day- perhaps cover an old withdrawn book with paper with each day number on the spine?
When a reserved book arrives in the library the last digit of the library card could be placed on a piece of paper in the book to be removed when it is put on the shelf, to be recycled the next day.
What do you think?
See the image below and page 3 below for a letter appearing in the Western Leader on 9 September:
www.neighbourly.co.nz...
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