Kmart Australia’s popular Anko Christmas products have launched in Target stores and many customers are furious.
Thousands across the country preferred Target’s exclusive products, which were described as higher quality “dupes of Adairs” but have been replaced by Kmart’s private label.
The two brands merged in July 2023 to create a $10 billion company with the aim of delivering greater value to customers and greater profits for Wesfarmers.
Ash, a regular Target shopper, was browsing the aisles of her local store and immediately noticed the difference.
“I need a Christmas miracle and this isn’t it!” she captioned a video of the new range stacked on the shelves.
Hundreds agreed and vented their frustrations in the comments.
‘Kmart’s range always looks like it comes from Kmart. Target had pieces that matched Adairs and Myer. Devastated,” one person wrote.
‘I don’t understand why they did this?! If we wanted Kmart stuff, we’d go to Kmart. The quality of the objectives was so much better,” said another.
Customers were furious after spotting Kmart’s Anko Christmas range in Target Australia. Thousands across the country preferred Target’s own exclusive products described as higher quality ‘dupes of Adairs’
The two brands merged in July 2023 to create a $10 billion company with the aim of delivering greater value to customers and greater profits for Wesfarmers.
“The intended Christmas range used to be fantastic,” writes a third. ‘I wanted to cry when I saw this.’
Anko, which stands for ‘A New Kind Of’, is well known among Kmart’s regular shoppers, and ‘represents the change the retailer has undergone since 2008’.
Long before the label hit shelves nationwide, the retailer offered an extensive range of items under multiple &Co brands such as ‘Home&Co’, ‘Kids&Co’, ‘Clothing&Co’ and ‘Active&Co’.
The different categories made the products ‘clearly recognisable’ in the stores – ranging from homeware and children’s clothing to clothing and fitness.
In 2018, the discount chain ‘&Co’ quietly transformed into ‘Anko’ after replacing the letter ‘c’ with ‘k’ as a ‘tribute to where it all started: Kmart Australia’.
Wesfarmers also confirmed that Target ‘remains profitable’ with ‘relatively stronger performance in apparel’. However, the house and toy trade was considered ‘challenging’ compared to clothing.
The company hopes to “leverage the scale of Kmart Group” to support Target in this area.
