I was devastated recently when the Kensington Salvo’s closed down. I love all Op Shops, but this one was particularly good because I often run out of places to go for my daily walk on my lunch break and this Op Shop had such high turnover that practically each day one could go there and find something new to look at. While Racecourse Road still has the Parish Bargain Shop and one other Opportunity Shop, the Salvation Army store stood out with its well presented visual merchandising and layout. It was always easy to see what was on display and what was new. It reminds me of a friend from college who used to change her room layout every few weeks (very easy with only a few pieces of furniture!) just to shake things up and get a new perspective.

My other favorite place to browse is Cheaper Buy Miles, a discount grocery retailer that makes NQR (Not Quite Right) look like David Jones. I like it because you can’t really go there with something in mind that you want to buy, you just have to go there with an open mind. For example, you might be looking for orange juice, but instead come home with a laundry hamper, soap and shampoo, six boxes of peppermint magnum icecreams and a cruiser bike. Other great finds I have had include small goods (ham, bacon), pasta, 1kg Easter eggs, soft drink, chips and chocolate. It is definitely not the place to do your weekly shop (no produce for one thing!) but it is a fun place to shop because you never know what is going to be there, and it is displayed and arranged in such an illogical and untidy sense that it is literally a ‘hunt’ through the store.

Like Op Shops, CBM also creates a sense of urgency because the stock may not be there when you next return. While some retailers such as Zara and Top Shop have played with this tactic by ordering and selling only small batches of certain lines of clothing, most business success is built around high volume sales of a select range of goods.

I wonder if other businesses could bring a bit more surprise, urgency and novelty to their offerings by rearranging their layout and stock more often. It is time consuming and labour intensive, but if your shop front looks the same each day, shoppers are likely to conclude the contents of the shop are the same as well.