Bargain hunters descend on Docklands

Bargain hunters descend on Docklands

These three amigos from St Albans were up before the sun to stake their place in Docklands history as the first three shoppers to Australia’s first Costco store on  August 17.

Kaylene Johnson, Helen Leighton and Josephine Gauci arrived at the store at 4.45am to take their place at the top of a queue of hundreds before the doors opened at about 7.45 am.

By the time the dignitaries had spoken and the red-ribbon had been cut, a couple of young males with super-sized trolleys had managed to push past the intrepid trio to steal line honours.  But by then Melbourne’s TV and radio stations had already immortalised the three friends as the city’s shopping champions.

For the other contenders who had braved the pre-dawn chill, the prize was the bargains they had been told lay within the 14,000 square metre monolith.

Lord Mayor, Cr Robert Doyle, assured the awaiting masses that they would find something of value between the cheapest toilet roll and the store’s most expensive item, a $160,000 diamond ring.

Helen Leighton said her motivation to get down to Docklands by 4.45am was to buy a television for her son.  Her friends were joining her in the adventure, lured by the prospect of finding a great deal on something they, hopefully, wanted.

Costco is new to Australia but, with 557 similar stores around the world to refine the formula, it knows a thing or two about this territory.

For us, the prospect of a store which:

Bakes its own bread and cakes;

Contains an optometry department;

Sells and fits car tyres;

Carries Calvin Klein, Prada and Versace; and

Extends to selling baby grand pianos … ALL UNDER THE ONE ROOF ...

is truly a novelty.

To much of the rest of the world, Costco is just another part of the landscape. 

For Docklands, Costco is a much-needed drawcard to bring people and their wallets to our Frontier Land small businesses.

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