Gone in 60 seconds? Not quite, but it wasn’t far off!
Turning 35, Ezibuy celebrated by giving it’s local Palmerston North community a $30,000 birthday present.
Constructing an enormous washing line which was decked out with more than 450 items from its 2013 fashion and homewares range, locals were invited to “unpeg” an item to take home or, if they were feeling generous, donate to one of three charities – The Cancer Society, Dress for Success and The Salvation Army – which many did.
The queue started outside EziBuy’s Palmerston North store before 7am this morning, in anticipation of the gates opening at 8am. Then it was first in, best dressed as the crowds swarmed the washing line to find their favourite item.
“Our 35th birthday is a national celebration but we wanted to do something special in the city where EziBuy began. It’s about thanking the local Palmerston North community for being with us from the start,” says EziBuy Chief Executive Simon West.
“We managed the crowds carefully and everyone was very well-behaved but they were certainly quick at making their choice – from when the gates opened to when the last item was claimed didn’t take very long at all,” says West.
“This was a great event for bringing the local community together and thanking people for their ongoing support. We’re delighted that our birthday celebration has been such a hit in Palmerston North.”
EziBuy’s evolution has been impressive. It opened its first store in Palmerston North in 1978, its first e-commerce site in 1998 and launched into Australia in 1992. It expanded its homewares offering in 1995 and, in 2006, opened the largest Distribution Centre in the Southern Hemisphere at 25,000m2.
From here, EziBuy has grown to be the largest fashion and home decor multi-channel retailer in Australasia, distributing over 15,000 items per day to customers on both sides of the Tasman. Its website gets around 18 million visits a year, with 480,000 orders received each month.