King William Road - empty shops

[Jessica Berry]

We went for tea last night on King William Road and afterwards decided to have a walk up and down the road. As we started walking along the road we noticed quite a few empty shops, so we decided to count them up! In total we counted 20 empty shops, which seems quite a lot as the shopping strip isn't that long! We noticed one of the restaurants we used to go to several years ago now closed at 6.00pm every day, which seemed early! I had a look on google and found the attached article from February 2015. It says in March last year there were 10 vacant shops, so that has now doubled.

 

http://www.adelaidenow.com.au/messenger/east-hills/king-william-rd-traders-concerned-the-retail-strip-could-die-due-to-high-rents-and-too-many-cafes/story-fni9lkyu-1227235182855

 

Just wondering if anyone else has noticed a lot of vacant shops in their area or when they have been out and about?

[NicF]

I have noticed that there seems to be a few empty shops on Magil Road when there used to be none. Most of the businesses have moved elsewhere rather than gone under but it does make it seem like things are a struggle.

[Toni]

King William Road has undergone a huge transformation since the mid 80's when I moved here. Quite a number of shops were quite large and they have split them into two or 3 or have knocked down homes and built more. There has probably been an addition of 20-30 shops. There has always been a turn over of shops since I can remember even the ones that do well as there is a well known developer who owns quite a lot of them and the rents increase massively - so they usually move out and go somewhere else. I am not sure what shop you are talking about but some of the cafe type shops tend to close earlier in the cooler months but in summer the place still has that buzz and they are open till late. There is one place that I am very surprised that has closed. It's called Jones The Grocer - it used to have massive amounts of people having breakfast on weekends but perhaps it didn't do so well during the week. They have also extended the shopping strip to include a few healthy eating places. It is always interesting to see what will open up. At one stage there was a bedlinen store that opened there and they were having a "sale" and I went in and quilt covers were $200 on sale so that shop didn't last long.

 

Also Goodwood Road which is not far at all from King William Road has really extended to include more interesting food shops/cafes so I think there is more competition there also.

Edited April 24, 2015 by Toni

[Diane]

i was going to say that I think high rents in Adelaide are what makes a lot of commercial businesses struggle. Apparently it was one of the reasons quoted in the shutdown of the Stag recently too. I was amazed when I found out what the rent charged on the building where I work is. Rents throughout Adelaide seem ridiculously high compared to house prices too - my daughter has been looking for a house share in or around Goodwood, and most places are charging upwards of $150 a week (plus bills) - often over $200 - for a small room in a house or flat often shared by three or four others. That's $2400 per month for the landlord, or $31,000 a year!! I get ads for houseshares come up in my FB newsfeed from an Australian Backpackers Group, and prices in the centre of Sydney seem to be cheaper than in Adelaide!