Cootamundra-Gundagai Regional Council (CGRC), Mayor Cr Abb McAlister has had contact with a Target store representative in recent days.
Cr McAlister has been actively lobbying Wesfarmers and Target head office, to present a case to keep the Cootamundra store operating, beyond the planned closure of early 2021.
The mayor called for members of the community to write to Council voicing their opposition to the planned closure, these letters have been submitted to the company to show the communities support of the store.
Cr McAlister has sent an email response from the representative to CGRC Councillors, along with an overview of the discussion he also had with the same representative.
In short the future of keeping the store is grim, with the Cootamundra store not meeting the criteria for a conversion to small format Kmart store.
The representative said in an email to the Mayor that the Kmart conversions were selected on a range of criteria including how it fit into the network plan and the size of the store itself. The small format Kmart stores all need to be a minimum of 1000 square metres, Cootamundra’s store is 610 sqm. The positioning of Cootamundra is within approximately one hours travel to Wagga, where there is an existing Kmart.
The email from the representative went on to say the company’s main priority has been the supporting of the eight team members from the Cootamundra store and were looking for redeployment for the team members.
Cr McAlister put forward a positive case for the future with the Abattoirs and Inland Rail developments and the communities support of the store.
“The representative took these positives on board and said that could help in the future if trends turn around,” Cr McAlister said.
“Sadly once these big companies such as Wesfarmers make a decision it is hard to get it changed,” Cr McAlister added.
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