In a life she can barely remember, Myer sold aspirational products to Hobart’s middle class from behind a pretty brick facade on Liverpool Street. That was before the fire. “I felt this burning sensation in my cosmetics department, and was like, ‘what the? Then it was just like FOOM and that was it”, she says of the fire that destroyed her Hobart storefront eight years ago.
Homeless and charred, Myer found refuge in nearby Murray Street; but there wasn’t room in this makeshift shopfront for her homewares department, and the two were forced apart. “I’ve felt really safe here on Murray Street, but I kinda knew it wasn’t going to be a long term thing, I mean, it’s kind of restrictive, and I really miss my homewares, plus the windows here are so small, and the ceilings are pretty dull …
After the dust settled I really started to feel like a second class trader, like a Target, even a Kmart … that central staircase is so like, parochial, you know? It’s been a house for me, but never a home.”
Today, Myer makes the journey back to Liverpool Street, where a modernist low-rise has sprung from the ashes of her gorgeous old home. “I’m excited,” she says of the $100 million Icon Complex, “…when they showed me that little white model of the building I stopped mourning the past and got excited for the future. Yeah, I’m still bummed about my old building, but it actually lacked any real historical significance, I mean like, we painted the bricks a bunch of times … Have you seen the ceilings at the new place? I mean, that’s proper destination retail.”
She recalls the trepidation she felt eight years ago while making the 100 metre journey from Liverpool Street to Murray Street. Today she is brimming with self-confidence; rounding the corner, homewares department in tow, she stops briefly to glance over the window display at Betts Shoes, then walks on. Once a Georgian jewel, then a burned husk, and now a Style Hub™ for shoppers from Hobart and beyond; Myer’s new “long term thing”.
Target was unavailable for comment.
