Inside the tiny new ‘express’ JB Hi-Fi convenience stores that offer huge bargains on the commute home



ZOE ZACZEK
26 November 2019
DAILY MAIL AUSTRALIA

JB Hi-Fi has opened its smallest store in the country in Southbank, Melbourne

The Australian retailer unveiled the 68sqm small-format shop on Tuesday

CEO Richard Murray said the retailer has seen success with mini airport stores 

JB Hi-Fi has opened its smallest store in the country in a bid to reel in city workers who can carry the electronic goods during their commute home. 

The Australian retailer unveiled the small-format shop, which is about 19 times smaller than the retailer’s typical 1350sqm stores, in Melbourne’s Southbank precinct on Tuesday. 

JB Hi-Fi’s CEO Richard Murray told The Australian the idea for the conveniently located ‘Express’ store had been partially borrowed from their mini airport stores.

‘The Express store will carry audio, phones. It’s small cash and carry, and it’s more impulse purchases, but in fairness there are tonnes of apartments around here. There is the hotel. Southbank is flying, to be honest,’ Mr Murray told the publication.

‘And we will see what works and switch out what doesn’t work, and keep refining it. It will also teach us lessons for our big stores.’

The new store is JB Hi-Fi’s smallest retail space, filling 68sqm at the bottom of an office tower which is closely located to the retailer’s headquarters.

The two mini stores at Sydney’s Domestic Airport are 75sqm. 

‘Those airport stores at Sydney domestic terminal are going very well and we are talking to ­airports around the country about rolling those out, and we have lots of interest from the airports,’ Mr Murray said.

In Sydney, supermarket giants Woolworths and Coles found popularity with metro stores across the CBD, while David Jones opened a miniature department store at Barangaroo. 

If the Express stores are successful, JB Hi-Fi could look to expand the range, The Herald Sun reported.

‘We constantly evolve our offers and we constantly challenge ourselves,’ Mr Murray said.

‘Sometimes things that work in small formats and they teach us things about our big formats.

‘This is another example of us challenging ourselves and innovating.’

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