Karen Walker closes concept store
Karen Walker’s The Department Store is closing after 10 years on the Auckland’s North Shore.
In a statement, Walker said competition from online shopping was one of the reasons for the closure.
‘‘The Department Store was created as a destination concept store and the idea of a bricks and mortar store being a destination/ concept store is no longer the relevant idea it was in 2009,’’ Walker said.
Concept stores had moved online and physical stores had become ‘‘billboards’’ that needed to be located where people were.
When it opened Walker described The Department Store as ‘‘a modern take on the traditional department store experience. Instead of breadmakers and knickers we’re going to offer three floors of modern luxury’’.
The store was originally a collaboration between Karen Walker and other brands including, Father Rabbit, Nature Baby and Coffee General Tearoom.
Walker said the current partners, Karen Walker and Nature Baby, would focus on other projects this year.
Walker said the idea of an everchanging, multi-brand retail experience was something that she had been doing for some years in Playpark by Karen Walker in Newmarket, Auckland.
She would build on that in her two new stores opening this year.
The Department Store had stocked a number of international brands including Topshop.
Walker subsequently opened short-lived standalone Topshops in Auckland and Wellington, which were put in receivership in 2017.
The Karen Walker clothing brand was one of few fashion brands still sold remaining in The Department Store.
All of the store’s staff would move to other areas of the business.
The store will close on January 26, when its lease in the old Takapuna Post Office ends.