Culture

Melburnians Flocked To Kmart At Midnight, And The Footage Is Both Inspiring And Terrifying

Melbourne can have a post-lockdown Kmart run at midnight as a little treat.

by Michelle Rennex  28 October 2020
kmart melbourne midnight

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After almost three full months of stage four lockdown, which shut down all non-essential retail stores in Melbourne, Kmart finally reopened their doors at midnight last night.

The long-awaited re-opening came after Victorian Premier Dan Andrews announced that the state would move into the third stage of the lockdown roadmap.

This announcement came after the state recorded zero new cases and no new deaths for the first time since June 9th. Along with non-essential retail, restaurants, pubs, and beauty services were also given the green-light to resume operations after shutting down in August.

While the 25km travel limit and regional border closures still remain, everyone in Melbourne was mostly just excited by two things in particular: Being able to get back on the beers and returning to Kmart for the first time in months.

Even though every Australian loves Kmart, the unanticipated excitement for the re-opening of the retail giant meant that some locations were even forced to implement a booking system to ensure a safe and socially-distanced shopping experience.

In an attempt to limit the number of customers in store at any one given time, 38 Kmart stores have offered the new booking service to get shoppers in for a guaranteed 20 minutes during peak periods.

“Either use the app before you leave home to save your spot in store, or if there’s a line when you get to store, use the app to save your spot without lining up,” the website reads.

However, despite this very smart and organised appointment system, a number of keen Kmart fanatics flooded stores at midnight last night, when doors opened for the first time.

Documented all over Instagram Stories and TikTok, the clips show massive lines of shoppers waiting outside the infamous Kmart roller doors as the clock ticked down to 11.59pm.

According to Ian Bailey, Kmart’s Managing Director, around 10,000 people flocked to Melbourne locations from midnight to 6pm.

“In most of those stores we had about 500 people through in the first half-hour or so, and between midnight and 6am, about 10,000 in total,” Bailey told 3AW.

While the excitement and buzz can really be felt through all the clips, some people became worried that such a large amount of people in such a confined space could possibly be the cause for a third wave.

Even national treasure Magda Szubanksi pleaded for Melburnians to: “Please Please Please Please Please Please Please Please Please Please Please Please… don’t go crazy and undo all our hard work”.

But it should be noted that everyone featured in these clips are wearing their masks and that Kmart is limiting the amount of people allowed in their store at any one time as per social-distancing requirements, so it all looks to be pretty safe.

So let’s allow Melburnians to enjoy their silly midnight Kmart runs as a little treat, they’ve earned it.