Great news for savvy shoppers after a bargain – Kmart will slash clothing prices following the retail giant’s announcement it has begun manufacturing in Java, Indonesia.
“Customer expectations are rising at an incredible rate,” Kmart managing director Ian Bailey told A Current Affair last night.
“We sell 800 million things a year. You don’t have to make a lot of money on each thing for it to still be a very profitable business.”
The current affair’s program reported some of Kmart’s clothing would be reduced by more than 20 per cent – with shoppers set to save hundreds of dollars each year – as designers claim they can order on a much larger scale for less but of better quality.
The popular discount retailer promised it would not produce “cheap and nasty” clothing items as it increased sales by keeping prices low.
Bailey told A Current Affair that many Aussies were “doing it tough” and a few dollars saved on clothing could make a difference.
This comes less than a week after Target announced it would most likely shut its doors for good following low sales and a decline in popularity.
Read more: Say goodbye to one of your favourite department stores.
However, Kmart has showed no signs of slowing and promised it would not let profits cloud its commitment to protecting the environment.
“All of us are looking for factories that do the right thing and pumping waste into rivers is no good to anyone in the long run. No good to us, no good to the community,” Bailey said.
Bailey said Kmart’s shift of operations to Java from China as a result of rising wages did not mean slave labour conditions would occur at the company’s new facility. .
“There’s a minimum wage which is set by the area, which all these people are governed by, and many are paid more than that because they do a little bit of overtime and their base hours are a 40-hour week, Monday to Friday,” he said.
Other items set to be reduced include board games, exercise mats and kitchenware.
The first 320 reduced-price items are expected to hit shelves this week, with hundreds more to come throughout the year.