wish they'd price their goods at the European prices in Australia - again I think we are being played for fools with the prices charged in Australia for the same goods. Will this bubble burst? How long can we blame high retail prices and costs of labour? Just been to Europe and served by multilingual people actually interested in making a sale ....

So it's been a year since this discussion and we have seen and bought. I believe that the majority of fashion savy customers have traveled around the world, putting visits to these shops high on their priority list when overseas.
The problem is, for those who travel, one can see that the collections on offer in the Australian branches of Topshop and Zara are inferior to the items on offer elsewhere in the world. One gets a sense that the company is off loading dead stock from seasons past. For example, whilst in Spain, a friend purchased a winter coat a year and a half ago from Zara and was proudly parading it, telling all she got it at Zara with all of us sighing and nodding (with a hint of jealously) our approval. Such is the respect Zara gets.. I just saw that same coat hit the shops here...

Kev you've obviously never been into an H&M. I for one can't wait for the likes of H&M and Uniqlo to come out here and give things a real shake...Aussie retailers have been fat & lazy for a long time now.
Amidst the usual cries and externalisation of problems that will no doubt occur as the marketplace goes through more growing pains, the ultimate winners will be the healthy businesses that should be sticking around (because they never stand still and they understand their customer and the changing market) and consumers as a whole. Good houses still sell in a depressed housing market, just as good retailers still grow in a flat market.

Ah Kevin... I'm afraid it's this mentality which is fast-tracking retailers to a slow and painful death in this country.

Please 'wake up and smell the roses' - holding out just won't do anymore. You've only got to read about the success of ASOS.com in this country to see what's going on... Australian consumers are crying out for international brands to break the monopoly this country has on retail and what's considered 'quality product'.
Whilst quality was important in the day, it's much, much more involved today.

We should look at the positives of this 'invasion'. The ultimate winner is the customer who's becoming more fashion-savvy and style-aware which should/can translate to purchasing more. For the players, it's upped-the-stakes on creating product which is on-trend, budget-considerate AND goes beyond the basic cuts and styles seen FOREVER in this country. This means moving away from rehashed backroom patterns and actually providing value for money - it's all in the detail.

We'll see many more retailers go under before retailers start to pay attention. And whilst some understand the need for change, in my experience 'talking' and 'doing' are two completely different things.

Those retailers innovating will ultimately win the day.

Kevin, if you have been to H&M you obviously have a different impression than me. The quality is good, service good, fashion good, prices fair and the brand us strong. Carrying a H&M bag out of a store is a proud experience rather than one to be ashamed of. They compete head to head with Zara and as the Melbourne store opening has shown, shoppers aren't viewing Zara as cheap and nasty, it's seen as fashionable and affordable. Australians will LOVE H&M.

the one missing quotient is that the australian consumer mentality is different from those other countries. and fast fashion should be read as low priced fashion. and as most any retailer who operates in that bottom dollar world will tell you, and that inside retail has written about often, is that cheap will never be cheap enough. if the merchants of higher quality can just hold on the cheap shops can actually help their business grow. it is a matter of value of product and value of customers. just like the friend that dates that person beneath them and you point it out, now is the opportunity to point out to the customer that they deserve more than cheap products that only work for today. quality will win out in the end. just look at your spouse or significant other. quality, comfort, compatible with lifestyle and reliability. that is what we should be selling. and that is just wrapped up in the product that you accept money for. cheap and fast fashion is like dateing. fun but not always in it for the long haul. australians do like quality and branding. they dont always want thier friends to know they do. like riding a moped. lots of fun but you dont want your mate to see you on one!