2m gaps distant memory as Nido opens NZ’s largest store
Pandemic fears have failed to keep punters from the opening of New Zealand’s largest homeware store, Nido, in West Auckland this weekend.
Around midday on Sunday, there were more than 200 people in the queue, with one punter telling the
Herald it took them around 50 minutes to get to the front — on top of 15 minutes negotiating a parking queue corralled by security guards.
The shopper said few were social distancing, and photos don’t show any Nido staff enforcing 2m guidelines.
Inside, however, shoppers were set well apart in the cavernous store — which was only partially opened at the weekend but will eventually cover 27,000sq m in Lincoln Rd, Henderson.
Nido general manager Julian Bottaro said the megastore’s social-distancing had been bolstered in response to questions from the Herald.
“We have a staff member monitoring the queue and reminding people to observe the 2m . . . rule. We also have a staff member at the entrance reminding customers of this and supplying hand sanitiser,” he said.
“In store, we have regular ... announcements running every 40 minutes to remind shoppers to socially distance [and since your inquiry we have] added another staff member to help police the unexpected queues we have encountered.”
It is being billed as New Zealand’s largest furniture and homeware retailer but the opening of Nido this weekend seemed like a hugely optimistic punt on an industry hit hard by the Covid-19 shutdown and consumer exodus to digital shopping.
It will carry more than 10,000 product lines and create 180 new jobs once it’s fully open for business and has its food outlet up and running.
Managing director Vinod Kumar, who cut his teeth at Mitre 10 and created the Nido concept, said the centre will feature more than 100 display rooms as well as a full-size three-bedroom show home.
Its more commercially slanted offering, Nido@work, will carry thousands of European and locally sourced commercial furniture products targeting everyone from small businesses to large-scale corporates and government departments.
There is no denying, however, that it is uncertain times for retail.
Forsyth Barr retail analyst Guy Hooper classed the outlook for the sector as “opaque.”
He said the full extent of lockdown policies remained unclear and consumer appetite for “bricks and mortar” shopping, even at less restrictive levels, was still uncertain.
He also said the deteriorating economic outlook might weigh on medium-term growth.
A number of retailers have already signalled either closures or restructurings. Last week furniture and appliances retailer Smiths City confirmed it would sell its 29 stores and finance operations to Polar Capital for $60 million, closing seven of its stores in the process.
The Warehouse Group, the country’s biggest retail group, recorded enormous losses across its Warehouse, Warehouse Stationery, Noel Leeming and Torpedo7 brands as a result of trading restrictions. It was one of the biggest recipients of government aid under its wage subsidy, receiving $67.7m, without which it said it would have to cut staff.
The James Pascoe Group, owners of department store chain Farmers, Whitcoulls and Pascoes, also said it would trim up to 160 staff. This was in spite of receiving a $23.2m subsidy for its 3597 staff in New Zealand.