David Jones
There has been so much hype about David Jones opening an Auckland store that I made it a point to show up on the 21st to check it out. People were saying its the Nordstrom equivalent, and man do I miss Nordstrom. I spent some time perusing the website prior to the store opening, and I was excited to see some bags I have my eye on. I was fully prepared to do some damage on Thursday.
David Jones is located in the new Westfield shopping market in Newmarket, and the closest parking garage is the orange garage. (If you’re on the New Zealand app store, you can download the Westfield+ App for 2 free hours of parking. If you’re like me, and still on the US store and halfway through a Real Housewives season pass, you’re going to be stuck paying $6 an hour for parking.) I’ve been to the new Westfield twice now, and I have to agree with all of the other reviews: its mostly empty, and the stores that have opened are the same shops that are everywhere else. There really isn’t a lot that is new. That’s one reason why I was so excited about David Jones. It was supposed to have tons of different brands and lots of new choice.
So here I was, racing through a mall to get to David Jones, only to find that it mainly carries ALL OF THE SAME BRANDS THAT ARE IN THE MALL. At one point I was staring at the Politix section on the second floor while simultaneously looking at the Politix store that just opened up not a hundred feet away in the mall.
There were a number of American brands, like Tommy Hilfiger, Calvin Klein, and the North Face, but most brands weren’t very exciting. (With the exception of a small shelf of Paige jeans, which are my favorites - yeah! Alas, not many styles, but still better than nothing.) After looking for some time, I found one rack of Rixo dresses and one rack of Nanushka clothing. I think the Rixo rack had about 20 items on it, and the Nanushka rack had three different pieces hung up. Neither had a huge offering.
There were a number of beauty counters set up, including a Dyson station to let you play with the new Airwrap. It was interesting to see that while the store was packed with potential customers and staff, the higher-end areas, like the La Mer counter and the Gucci beauty counter were all but abandoned at 11:30 in the morning.
The most disappointing sections were the purses and bags and shoes. I clearly went in with the wrong expectations. There were a couple of premium bag brands, like Strathberry and Mansur Gavriel, but none of the high end brands touted on their website. Specifically, I was looking for a couple of Chloé bags, and while they had See by Chloé, they didn’t have any Chloé. (Which I had to point out to my husband - who I dragged along on this adventure - that these are totally different lines and shouldn’t be confused.) The shoe section was far, far from Nordstrom level. It was tiny and seemed to heavily favor Superga, which don’t fit my feet well.
So will I come back and go shopping? Probably. There are a few brands that I haven’t seen anywhere else, and now that I know what I’m in for, I will come back with the proper expectations. I’m still let down that Westfield as a whole is more of the same, and David Jones is just all of the mall stores in compact form. There aren’t enough sad, crying emojis to express my disappointment. I was really hoping for a little variety.
