Kmart Australia’s popular Anko Christmas products have launched in Target stores, and many customers are furious.
Thousands across the country preferred Target’s own exclusive products which were described as ‘dupes of Adairs’ of higher quality but have been replaced with Kmart’s home brand.
The two brands merged in July 2023 to create a $10billion business aiming to offer better value to customers and greater profits for Wesfarmers.
Ash, a regular Target shopper, browsed the aisles at her local store and instantly noticed the difference.
‘I need a Christmas miracle and this is not it!’ she captioned a video of the new range stacked on shelves.
Hundreds agreed and vented their frustrations in the comments.
‘Kmart’s range always looks like it’s from Kmart. Target had pieces that matched Adairs and Myer. Devastated,’ one wrote.
‘I don’t get why they did this?! If we wanted Kmart stuff, we would go to Kmart. Target quality was so much better,’ another said.
‘Target Christmas range used to be fantastic,’ a third wrote. ‘I wanted to cry when I saw this.’
Anko, which stands for ‘A New Kind Of’, is well known among regular shoppers of Kmart, and ‘represents the change the retailer has undergone since 2008’.
Long before the label appeared on shelves across the country, 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 identifiable’ in the stores – ranging from homeware and children to clothing and fitness.
In 2018, the discount chain quietly transformed ‘&Co’ to ‘Anko’ after replacing the letter ‘c’ with ‘k’ to ‘pay homage to where it all started – Kmart Australia’.
Wesfarmers also confirmed Target ‘remains profitable’ with ‘relatively stronger performance in apparel’. However, the trading of home and toys was deemed ‘challenging’ compared to clothing.
The business hopes to ‘leverage the scale of the Kmart Group’ to support Target in this area.
