Christmas from Kmart Australia

Australia's Kmart opened its first store in Australia 50 years ago next April as a joint venture between the G.J. Coles & Coy Company (now known as Coles Group, which runs the Coles Supermarkets chain) and the USA’s Kmart Corporation. Eventually the Americans were bought out, and the chain expanded to New Zealand, where the first location was opened in 1988. Today, the Kmart chain is owned by Western Australia conglomerate Wesfarmers, which also runs the mid-market retail chain Target in Australia, which, despite similar name and logo, has no connection to the USA’s Target nor to New Zealand’s Target Furniture.

I’ve been to Kmarts in both Australia and New Zealand, and they’re very similar. I don’t know about Australia, but here in New Zealand they’re generally positioned as slightly more upmarket than our own The Warehouse chain (which is part of The Warehouse Group), and many of the products they sell are featured in home magazines here. However, in my personal experience, the stuff with the nicest design are often available in their stores closest to more affluent areas or online—Kmarts I’ve been to in less affluent areas tend to carry less of the high design stuff featured in magazines. The New Zealand operations don’t advertise on TV very much.

These ads, for Australia, promote actual stuff the stores sell, and also feelings around Christmas. They’re interesting. While I don’t personally find them particularly Christmasy, maybe their target market will. The ad above is the most recent on their YouTube Channel, and the one below was the first they posted. Their YouTube channel has other shorter videos.