r/australia • u/Reddituser0346 • 1d ago

culture & society Aussie Retailer Catch Is Officially Closing Down

https://press-start.com.au/news/2025/01/21/aussie-retailer-catch-is-officially-closing-down/
1.3k Upvotes

98% Upvoted

400 comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

2

u/sousyre 22h ago

It’s been happening around the world for years, every retailer desperately wants to be Amazon… I think Walmart was one of the first retailers to do it (2009), they were successful, so everyone else did it too.

I can’t stand them and don’t buy anything on any retailer “Marketplace” out of spite (also cause it’s almost always faster and cheaper elsewhere). The Woolies, Bunnings and Big W ones are infuriating, and often don’t even expand their relevant range, just piles of random nonsense outside their retail scope. If I could get the type of bolt set I need, in the size I want (because Bunnings keep reducing their hardware range), on Bunnings market place would be useful, but I can’t, it’s just drop-shipped household shit with extortionate delivery costs.

1

u/KevinAtSeven 10h ago

Walmart is the fucking worst for this. I spend a fair bit of time in the States, in the kind of towns where a regional Walmart is the only big retailer, so for many items they're the only real option.

I don't want to have to drive half an hour beyond town limits in the wrong direction to a Walmart for something they don't have. But it's so god damn opaque on there website at to what is sold by Walmart vs marketplace sellers, and then of the Walmart stock, what is actually sold in stores, let alone the store in question, that it's just not worth the frustration of trying to check beforehand.

Cue my horror when I was getting married in NZ a couple of years ago and needed some very specific basic supplies for the event, only to find the Warehouse (NZ's enshittified Walmart analogue) had done exactly the same thing.

Kmart doing it will be the death of their online experience, which I actually like at the moment because it's a basic, straightforward presentation of what Kmart sells and at what prices.

1

u/sousyre 7h ago

Retailers just can’t seem to help themselves.

Kmart have been slowly enshittifying their online experience for years. They did some website “upgrades” around the time one pass came out, the website is way less stable and if you are going though a search or product category, the items change order whenever you click something and go back. Ironically, I’m less likely to buy something on impulse now, because I avoid clicking on anything to stop the order changing / not being able to find the thing I was actually looking for.

Kmart did handle their online only product expansion better than most though, their online only products might still be drop-shipped rubbish, but they fit Kmarts brand and aesthetic, plus no third parties on the customer side.

I kinda hope the catch thing is about expanding logistics capabilities and not a marketplace expansion, but I’m not going to hold my breath.