The 145-year-old department store was the oldest and last survivor of a cohort of Queen St department stores like John Courts and Milne & Choyce, with George Courts on Karangahape Rd and the Farmers on Hobson St. Once household names, these became victims of the commercial mayhem of the 1980s.
But Smith & Caughey’s, a prudently managed family business, carried on. Its stately Victorian building with its art-deco frontage has housed a grand emporium of goods from around the world, and its Christmas window displays have been the delight of children to this day. It’s been a survivor of Auckland’s golden age, when Auckland was envied across the country, and Aucklanders used to actually boast about their city.
Last year, Smith and Caughey’s narrowly survived a near-death experience only by closing its Newmarket store and retrenching the Queen St operation. Some of the reasons were outlined by its chairman, Tony Caughey: a major decline in foot traffic on Queen St meaning a 40% decline in revenue; the after-effects of Covid, crime and safety issues; national economic downturn; online shopping, designer brands like Gucci choosing to open their own stores; and competition from malls like Westfield Newmarket with their lavish free parking.
But many of these factors are in play in Australian cities too, where department stores like David Jones and Myer are still very much in business. So what’s different about Auckland? Here, city centre foot traffic continues to decline, down 3.8% from last year, with shop vacancies nearly 10%.
Heart of the City’s Viv Beck points to the compounding damage done to retail by Auckland Transport’s removal of parking and loading zones, and increased parking charges, extended to 24 hours.
It’s an inconvenient truth for some, but Smith & Caughey’s closure announcement puts it bluntly: “The city centre has also faced significant disruption and change in the form of ongoing roadworks and the slow progress of CRL, causing traffic congestion. Similarly, perceived safety issues, a large decline in foot traffic on Queen St, and an increase in parking costs have all continued to impact the economic position of the business.”
In recent years, at enormous expense and disruption, for reasons vaguely related to “climate”, the council reduced Queen St to two narrow lanes now dominated by mainly empty buses and a cycleway, the enlarged footpaths the home of beggars and rough sleepers.
Now, even driving to and on Queen St is a mission. Indeed, from Wakefield St to the Civic Theatre, where two years or so ago, Auckland Transport set up what critics call a “revenue trap”, $20 million of fines have been issued to unwitting drivers.
Though the council’s “City Centre Master Plan” promises an “accessible, inclusive and prosperous city centre”, its “transformational moves” do the opposite; blockading and progressively hollowing out the city’s retail heart. The Wellesley St West “bus improvements” project, immediately adjacent to Smith & Caughey’s, has been dug up for a year now, with no end in sight.
Even more depressing, its objective is to permanently block access to Queen St for private vehicles. “Master Plan” zealots, seemingly indifferent to the damage caused, are now intent on extending this blockade, what they call the Queen St “AVO” (authorised vehicle only) from Mayoral Drive to Victoria St.
This is part of an Orwellian “A4E” (Access for Everyone) plan, intended to turn Queen St into a “ZEA” (Zero Emissions Area), “low-traffic neighbourhood”.
The City Rail Link, originally meant to enhance the quality of life in Auckland, is now seen almost desperately as a lifesaver. Unfortunately, its disruptive construction has taken more than double the time originally planned, costing at least three times what was stated in its business case. But the official assumption, almost an article of faith, is that once the CRL is opened, thousands of people will come flooding into the city.
That might well have been the case when construction began in 2016, but now why would they? Moreover, public transport is chronically failing in Auckland, with overall patronage since the 2019 peak down 11%, with rail patronage down 35%. Given challenging economic conditions, the council and AT should have done everything possible to keep Queen St retail.
Instead, it did the opposite. Sadly, Smith & Caughey’s, finally overcome by the odds, is in many ways the victim of the city for which it was for 145 years a stylish icon.
Things have to change.
