Excitement builds for retail giant Kmart’s Geraldton launch

There are just two more sleeps until Kmart powers up its Geraldton check-outs for the first time, with the store set to welcome a deluge of customers at Northgate Shopping Centre.

Kmart promises it will be well-stocked and one of the biggest stores in WA, but everyone and their dog has an opinion on the latest entrant to the local shopping scene.

Iestyn Rawlings has three daughters under 16 and is constantly buying new clothes for his growing family.

“Target has better quality kids clothes than Kmart,” he said before admitting Kmart had a better range.

He is concerned the building will be too small for Kmart after losing part of the floor space to Red Dot. “I wish they would have put a Kmart in one of the free spaces around town,” he said.

Carol Taylor was more excited about the new store. “It will be nice for a change and a lot of people have been waiting a long time for this,” she said.

“But I do wish we were getting a Big W.”

Jason Tarchini agreed, saying the new store would be a “good change for Geraldton”.

“We needed a good change in town,” he said.

The 5000sqm store will be one of the biggest Kmarts in WA and will follow the new format of having customer check-outs in the centre of the store.

Staff will gather for a ribbon-cutting and speeches at 7am before the doors are opened to the public at 8am.

“The team have been working incredibly hard to bring the new store to life and we can’t wait to share it with the local community ... it will be home to Kmart’s full product range,” Kmart general manager of stores Chris Renshaw said.

The new store will have almost 120 staff, including 49 retained from Target and 70 new team members.