I’ve always had a soft spot for David Jones. For 188 years, it has been a cornerstone of Australian retail, and most of us have memories of walking through those doors.

That’s why this week’s news was so disappointing. The Australian Financial Review reported that David Jones needed $10 million in emergency funding from its lender Hilco to secure enough stock for Christmas. The retailer had allegedly breached a lending covenant and missed payments to some concession operators, while the AFR also reported that CEO Erica Berchtold was reviewing plans that could see its 38-store network cut by more than half. That comes on top of a $95.5 million pre-tax loss for the year to June 2025, when sales fell nearly nine per cent.

The easy explanation is that the retail landscape and its customers have changed. Of course they have. They always do. Retail is like playing squash. You hit the ball, return to the centre and prepare to pivot again. No three- to five-year plan survives the first rally. But Myer is on the same court, so the landscape explains nothing.

I think the writing has been on the wall for years. Put simply, David Jones has spent too long extracting from the business when it needed to be adding to it. Here’s why.

There was a time when David Jones led with integrity. It had principles that guided its relationships with brands. The conversation wasn’t about what it could secure in a partnership agreement or how much margin it could strip from a supplier.

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