Adrian Barich: If David Jones goes, we won’t just be losing a store — we’ll be losing a little of ourselves

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The possible demise of David Jones is more than the collapse of a department store. It’s the loss of a little piece of Australia, where simply going shopping could be a special…

The possible demise of David Jones is more than the collapse of a department store. It’s the loss of a little piece of Australia, where simply going shopping could be a special occasion, an experience even.

Somewhere to wander, discover, meet people, enjoy a meal and occasionally fall in love.

The news that Australia’s oldest department store has collapsed into voluntary administration has made me unexpectedly sad.

Founded in Sydney in 1838, David Jones has survived almost two centuries of changing fashions, recessions, wars and generations of shoppers. Now its future is hanging in the balance.

In the 1960s and 1970s, my mum regularly travelled “to town” to visit the department stores, an expedition that could consume an entire day.

Before leaving home, she made sure she was immaculate, wearing a beautiful dress, hat, matching gloves and stockings.

She would dress me in smart clothes, perhaps even her favourite double-denim outfit, which my brother Justin had in a smaller version.

The toy department was magical, of course. Wind-up and battery-operated marvels walked, crawled and ran across the counters. One Christmas someone bought me a little wind-up car. Once released, nothing could stop it. It bounced off the walls at home. It was less a toy than a mechanical household pest.

Families gathered outside the magnificent plate-glass displays to marvel at mechanical Santas, elves, polar bears and little mice performing their festive routines. It was Christmas theatre, free of charge.

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