TWO Monash bookstores are closing as a result of the collapse of REDgroup retail, to the disappointment of some shoppers.
On Thursday, administrators for the group announced 38 bookstores – 37 Angus & Robertson stores and one Borders – would shut down across Australia over the next three weeks.
In Monash, two Angus & Robertson stores – the Mulgrave store at Waverley Gardens Shopping Centre and the Glen Waverley store at The Glen – will close. Twelve staff will lose their jobs across the two stores.
Shoppers had mixed reactions about the closures on Friday. Trish, who regularly shops at the Waverley Gardens store, said she was disappointed. “I find it quite upsetting actually. I always buy the books here,” she said.
A fall in book sales in recent years has been attributed to internet sales, but Trish said she still needed her local store. “I don’t have a computer, unfortunately. If I want books from overseas, I get the store to order them in.”
One of the first moves the company’s administrators made was to force customers who had gift cards to spend an amount equal to the card’s value if they wanted to redeem it.
A shopper with a $50 card, for example, would have to spend another $50 to redeem the card. “That’s one thing I find annoying,” Trish said. “I don’t like that at all.”
At The Glen, one shopper – who did not wish to be named – said he was not surprised about the closures.
“I was looking at a Jeffrey Archer book, and it was $50 in [Angus & Robertson],” he said. “It was $24 at Target – that’s what they’re up against.”
The stores have announced a 50 per cent-off sale store-wide in an effort to clear stock.
When the Weekly visited, the stores were busy, with queues of up to 20 people snaking throughout the book aisles.
