The country's largest Kmart – and the first to debut the new Plan C+ format with checkouts at the front – will open its doors to the public tomorrow.
The huge 6700sq metre site at Westgate Town Centre will be the discount retailer's first Plan C+ format in New Zealand, and its third 24-hour store after Sylvia Park and Manukau.
Ahead of the official opening at 8am on September 10, 1News was given access to take a look around, and tested out one of the 17 new self-checkouts.
KMart's property general manager Ben Smith said the "exciting new format" was based on customer feedback in Australia and New Zealand.
"This will be our first Plan C + store in New Zealand. It's going to be 24/7, so we're going to keep the store open seven days a week, almost every day of the year, and so we'll be open when our customers want to come and shop us any day of the week.
"We've made a few changes from the format that customers in New Zealand will be familiar with across our existing network.
"So we brought Beauty to the front, which is super exciting. There's lots of colour and energy as you first come in through the Kmart door.
"We've expanded on our women's wear, our kids' wear departments, and we've got a great flow which we feel is intuitive to the way the customer likes to shop our stores," Smith said.
"As a result of those changes, we've also moved our checkouts to the front, which allows our customers to pay and exit quickly."
The changes at the store which will offer around 50,000 products, are "designed to make shopping simpler and more convenient for customers".
Smith said "value has never been more important than it is today" given cost of living pressures.
Asked about the rise of online shopping, Smith said physical stores were "a really important part of our omni-channel experience for our customers".
"The great thing about having a physical store in the Westgate community is customers can still shop online. Then they can come and click and collect that product in store, or if they just want to go around and drive their car through.
"We'll pop the product in their boot, and they can get it get on with their day. So we think the two work really well together," he said.
The store opening creates more than 200 jobs for the company, which currently employs more than 3000 people nationwide.
"We'd love to deliver this new format on our 27 other stores across New Zealand, which will of course take take some time," Smith said.
The company, owned by ASX-listed Wesfarmers, opened its first New Zealand store in Auckland's Henderson on October 17, 1988.
The largest Kmart in Australasia is just slightly bigger than the new Westgate outlet – a multi-level 6800sq metre store in the centre of Melbourne.
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