The big national news yesterday was the announcement by Wesfarmers Chief Executive Rob Scott, that about half the Target stores throughout the country were either closing or being rebranded into the more profitable Kmart stores.

Mr Scott said “With the exception of Target, Wesfarmers’ retail businesses are well-positioned to respond to the changes in consumer behaviour and competition associated with this disruption.”

Of the 102 small format Target Country stores 50 will change to Kmart while the other 52 will close.

Why? Mr Scott explained his reasoning, “To convert stores costs money and there are some stores that are not commercially viable in the current structure,” Scott told Chanticleer on Friday morning. “In some cases, it's better to close stores than to keep pursuing unviable stores.”

This leads to the Goonellabah Target Country store located in the Village Goonellabah complex on Simeoni Drive. The questions being asked were "will it change to a Kmart or close its doors".

That answer came in the list of stores to close across Australia today.

Not listed under NSW but Qld, Goonellabah Target Country will be closing from early 2021 along with Casino (early to mid 2021) and Murwillumbah (early 2021).

While this will mean local job losses early next year, there will be more job opportunities in 2021 with a new business opening to replace Target Country in the Village Goonellabah space.

Village Goonellabah is owned and managed by McGees Property backed by Exceed Capital. It was purchased by the group 18 months ago.

Managing Director of Exceed Vaughan Hayne and co-founder Justin Clarke from McGees Property said "disappointed, yes we are but we did think it would go. The trade was not that great".

(inside Target Country Goonellabah)

"We have started looking at opportunities for the space which is 2000 square metres. We have identified a gap in the marketplace for a hardware store so that is one avenue we will pursue but we are open to other ideas too such as creating smaller spaces for a number of new businesses".

Village Goonellabah will have two new businesses opening up in the future with a laundromat and pizza place taking up leases recently.

So, while Target Country closing appears a negative there is an upside with an exciting opportunity around the corner.