November 7, 2026 — 7:30pm

For almost a century, they were the one-stop shop providing a sense of opulence and occasion that drew reliable foot traffic into shopping centres across Australia.

But the slow, then sudden, demise of David Jones has thrown into question the symbiotic relationship that underpinned decades of prosperity for both department stores and malls.

Westfield Bondi Junction, Sydney. Oscar Colman

Now, operators of suburban shopping centres are facing their own identity crisis, as they try to figure out how to re-engineer their offerings and layouts to thrive in an era without the anchor tenants that built them.

Thursday’s decision from David Jones’ chief executive and board of directors to hand over control of the company to voluntary administrators and receivers, and the looming closure of potentially most of its stores and thousands of associated job cuts, contained echoes of a trend seen across the world in recent years as the department store concept loses relevance.

World’s oldest…