NZ not ready to go unisex, says expert
New Zealand isn’t ready for a gender-neutral shopping experience, according to an Auckland marketing expert.
Stockmann, Finland’s biggest department store chain, has announced it is creating a shopping floor with unisex clothing and suitable for anyone regardless of their gender identity.
‘‘We believe that men’s and women’s departments should function as guidelines to finding the clothes that best fit your shape and style rather than definite rules to follow’’, Anna Salmi, Stockmann’s chief operating officer, said.
But Bodo Lang, a senior marketing lecturer at Auckland University, thought that while it was a ‘‘brave move’’, a gender-neutral shopping floor might be a step too far for Kiwi shoppers.
It was a concept that would potentially work with a younger market. But the odds of it happening in New Zealand were ‘‘much less likely’’.
‘‘As somebody who was born overseas, I think our gender roles in New Zealand are very ingrained, and I think there’s a whole raft of reasons for that.
‘‘I think sports codes are one of them, I think single-sex schooling is another, and I think just the cultural divide that’s been there as part of the Commonwealth, the historical perspective, has separated the roles quite clearly.’’
Greg Harford, of Retail NZ, said store refits were expensive so Kiwi retailers would be watching whether Stockmann’s idea was successful.
‘‘If there’s customer demand for more inclusive shopping environments, it’s possibly something that may pop here down the track.’’
Having said that, he had been in a Dunedin department store recently where a rack of womenswear was displayed in the menswear section. ‘‘It’s just about positioning things to make convenient for the customer, whoever that customer is.’’
Retail expert Chris Wilkinson of First Retail Group said scale was New Zealand’s challenge.
‘‘That concept would be hard to achieve financial return in a market such as New Zealand.’’
But Toni Duder of Rainbow Youth said many young Kiwi transgender or gender nonconforming people would welcome retail stores where they could try on clothes in a safe environment.
‘‘I think it would be something amazing to implement here. I think a lot of our smaller Kiwiowned stores would do it far more easily . . . but it would definitely be the power of a big retailer doing it that would kind of make those ripples that are needed.’’
Dr Ciara Cremin, a sociology lecturer at Auckland University and a transwoman, said it was a ‘‘very small step’’ towards changing social views.
Although shops that had gender-neutral sections were ‘‘welcome’’, it was not the shops that were the problem, but an aversion among men towards anything feminine.
‘‘When I think of gender neutral, I imagine that the clothes that they sell are basically menswear. I would sooner that we moved beyond this and reached the point whereby we can say a dress, or make-up or tights, are not things we associated with women as such but things that anybody can wear.’’
However, finding safe changing rooms was a problem for transgender people, Cremin said.
‘‘In these circumstances, one needs to have a changing space without social ramifications.’’