H & J Smith

The Invercargill Department Store is the flagship store, with by far the most floor space (the store taking up the width of a city block) and largest offering.

Store departments include Cosmetics and Fine Fragrance, Ladies' Fashion, Men's Fashion, Lingerie, Accessories (including jewellery and watches), Footwear, Icebreaker, Paper Plus, Waxx surf shop, uproar streetware, and Armoury Fashion Boutique on the Ground Floor. The First Floor includes Furniture, KidsWorld (including Fashion, Nursery and Toys),[6] Soft Furnishings, Home Linens, Giftware (including Kitchenware tableware and Home Decor),[6] Function Room, Gift Registry, Mother's Room, Main Office and toilets. H & J's also sells School Uniforms and Luggage.[6]

The store also includes a café restaurant branded as The Copper Kettle on the upper floor, and MOOCH Espresso Bar on the ground floor.[7] The Invercargill store includes a Sky Bridge connecting the store to a paid car park building.

The Invercargill store was the very first H&J Smith store, the original store was located at 125 Dee Street in Invercargill and moved to 48 Tay Street in 1908 after the original premises was considered too small. In 1923 the Invercargill store was once again relocated this time H&J Smith's purchased the Price & Bulleid Building on the corner of Tay and Kelvin street, H&J Smith Invercargill remains in this location today. Since then the building has been extended several times stretching out to Kelvin street, a clock tower was added to the Tay street corner of the building in 1940, this was replaced with a digital clock in 1970 and the building facades were upgraded in 1969.

A car parking building was constructed across the road from H&J Smith's on the Esk street side, in the 1970s and a sky bridge between the car park and H&J Smiths was built in the 1980s.

H&J Smiths purchased the adjoining building on Esk street in 1989, at the time this was most recently used by the Invercargill Licensing Trust as a liquor store and before this was home to Watts & Greive Ltd, a Morris car dealer. This building was used for H&J Smiths Mitre 10 franchise between 1990 and 2004, H&J Smith's Appliance Centre between 2006 and 2011 and after extensive renovations were made to this building in 2014 the building is now home to Outdoor H&J Smith.

During the 2000s the Invercargill store was subject to major renovations including the addition of twin escalators, where in the past there was only one escalator going in the up direction.[8][9] A larger cosmetic department located in the centre of the Esk Street end of the store was added in 2003, as well as an extensive Fine Fragrance area.[10]

Dressmaking fabrics were removed from the store in 2009.[11] In 2011, the Invercargill Paper Plus franchise, which H & J Smith had purchased in 2010, was incorporated into the main Invercargill store,[12] replacing a Take Note franchise. Postal services were removed at this time, however in 2019 postal services were reinstated after the Invercargill Post Shop closed down.

An Appliance Department existed up until 2011, the original location was on the second floor but the department moved to the building next door in 2006 after Mitre 10 moved to its current Mega Store location. The appliance department was branded as H & J's Appliance Centre and for a time was a Betta Electrical franchise.[13]

Arthur Barnett prior to rebranding as H & J Smith Dunedin

The store, within Dunedin's Meridian Mall on the main shopping street of George St, is the company's second-largest after its Invercargill flagship. Departments include Cosmetics, Ladieswear, Menswear, Lingerie, Accessories, Childrenswear and Toys, School Uniforms, Casual Living, Home Linens, Furniture, as well as an in-store 'espresso bar' café. The cosmetics department offers H&J's largest selection of prestige beauty brands.

The Dunedin store is the result a take over of longstanding Dunedin department store Arthur Barnett in 2015. After a short period continuing under its original name, store was rebranded to align with H&J's other department stores. At the time of the H&J Smith takeover a section of the store was sub-leased to ToyWorld Dunedin, this arrangement had been in place since 2010 when the local franchise holder relocated from a ToyWorld store on Dunedin's Vogel street to a section of Arthur Barnett. This agreement came to an end in 2018 and the ToyWorld store closed with the section replaced with H&J Smith's toy department. [14] Following the rebrand from Arthur Barnett to H&J Smith the cafe was rebranded as Mooch Cafe, the same as the Invercargill store.

At its prime, Arthur Barnett operated 5 stores across Otago. By the time of purchase, it had declined to a store in Dunedin and an online store. The online store was reformatted into H&J's first foray into online retailing.

H & J Smith Gore

The Gore Store offers many of the services offered in the Invercargill flagship store but on a smaller scale. Departments include Ladieswear, Childrenswear, Mens/Boyswear, Lingerie, Giftware (including Kitchenware, tabletop and Home Decor),[6] Accessories, Cosmetics including Elizabeth Arden, Revlon, L'Oreal and Fragrance, Toys/Nursery, Soft Furnishings and Home Linens. A New Zealand Post and KiwiBank franchise also operates inside the store.

H & J Smith opened their second store in Gore in 1905 with the original location being the Criterion Hotel building, the Gore store was relocated to its current location on the corner of Main street and Irk street in 1913. The upstairs portion of the store once housed the Woman's Club and a dental surgery.[15] Upgrades to the Gore store took place in the late 90s with the Viking Restaurant replaced with a new cafe The Junction Cafe located at the front of the store. The shop main entrance was relocated to the corner of the building. In 2000 following the closure of the neighbouring Hallensteins store the Gore store was extended in size with the former Hallensteins store becoming the Menswear department.[16] In February 2019 the Gore store was consolidated to a single floor with the public toilets and Soft Furnishings the only parts remaining on the First Floor. The consolidation to a single floor saw the closure of the Junction Café in 2018.[17]

H & J Smith Remarkables Park

The Remarkable Park store is located in the Remarkable Park shopping centre in Frankton with the Outdoor Queenstown store in the same complex. The store is the newest and most modern, but still features the traditional cream interior colour scheme of the other stores. The store offers limited Cosmetics and Fine Fragrance, Ladies Fashion, Men's Fashion, Kids' World, Lingerie, Accessories, Footwear, Luggage, Giftware, Home Linens, Bedding, and Furniture. A major rival for beauty is Unichem Wilkinson's Pharmacy in central Queenstown, which has many of the counters and fragrances H & J has in the flagship Invercargill store.

H & J Smith Ltd has been operating in Queenstown since 1971 when H & J Smith purchased Queenstown Drapery store WH Wheatley, located on Ballarat street in Queenstown. In 2000 a new store was built in the Remarkables Park Town Centre shopping centre which in addition to H&J Smiths included retail space for an Outdoor store (originally known as Element) and Mitre 10. The Mitre 10 store was relocated to Shotover Park in 2015 as a Mitre 10 Mega store and this retail space is now occupied by Harvey Norman. [18]

H & J Smith Te Anau

The Te Anau store only includes the Apparel, Home Linen, Footwear departments offered in the other stores. The store is on a single floor.

H&J Smith opened in TeAnau in 1987 after The Ace Store was purchased. The building at this time was extensively remodelled and included the addition of a Temperature/Clock display similar to the one in the Invercargill store.

H & J Smith Balclutha

This store was opened after Dunedin based department store Arthur Barnett pulled out of the area with H & J Smith operating in the old Arthur Barnett store. The Balclutha store is small in comparison with H & J's other department stores, and carries a limited offering, but is large compared to surrounding retailers. The store offers Ladies', Men's and Children's Apparel, Revlon cosmetics, Giftware (kitchen and tableware), and Home Linens.

This store is a very small fashion boutique located on the main street of Mosgiel. This store offers Ladieswear

The Mitre 10 MEGA store in Invercargill is owned by H & J Smith. H & J Smith's Mitre 10 was first opened in 1988 next to the Invercargill department store. In 2004 H & J Smith indicated their intentions to upgrade the Invercargill store to a Mitre 10 MEGA store. The new store was built in the former Woolworths Supermarket which had only been operating in the Central Business District of Invercargill for 4 years. The Burger King restaurant next to the Woolworths Supermarket had to be demolished and rebuilt in another part of the car park to accommodate the Mitre 10 Mega store. The Mitre 10 Mega store was opened in March 2005.

H & J Smith also operate the Mitre 10 MEGA store in Shotover Park in Frankton. The original Mitre 10 store in Queenstown was opened in 1993 and was located on Gray street. The store moved to the Remarkable Park shopping centre in 2000. As early as 2003, H & J Smith revealed intentions to build a new Mitre 10 MEGA store in Frankton, and after several attempts to gain resource consent the MEGA store was finally opened in 2015.[18][19] [20]

Originally known as H&J Smith Electrical and located on Tay Street this electrical contracting business is now a Laser Electrical franchise located on Bond Street. The company offers an appliance repair service as well as a household and business electrical service. In the past there was also a H&J Smith Electrical business in Queenstown but this has now closed down.

This is a ladies' fashion boutique in store located in Invercargill, Dunedin and Queenstown. The Invercargill store is located at the Esk street side of the store; this store was formerly called Lifestyle. In Dunedin, Armoury is located in the Wall Street Mall, this store was previously called French Floozie. In Queenstown the Armoury store is located in a small store in the Remarkable Park shopping centre.

A sporting goods store, originally known as Outdoor World in Invercargill and Element in Queenstown. The Outdoor Invercargill store is located on Esk Street Invercargill next door to the H & J Smith Invercargill department store with an entrance between the two stores. The Outdoor Queenstown store is located in Frankton in the Remarkable Park Shopping Centre. H & J's Outdoor sells a range of outdoor clothing, camping equipment, sports equipment, bikes including a bikes workshop, hunting and fishing gear and firearms. H & J's Outdoor operates the franchise for Gun City in Invercargill and Queenstown.

Outdoor World opened in the former Thomson and Beattie drapery store at 27 Tay Street Invercargill in 1972, the original store was on 2 levels. In 2014 Outdoor World relocated to its current location on Esk Street and today the original Tay Street building is now used as a motorcycle museum called "Classic Motor Cycle Mecca." The Queenstown store opened in the early 2000s in its current location and was originally known as Element. In recent years both store were rebranded as H & J's Outdoor.

Big Scotty's was a furniture store operated on Clyde Street in Invercargill selling lounge, bedroom, dining and home entertainment furniture. In October 2010, it was announced that this store would be closing.[21]

H & J's Carpet World was a carpet store on Tay Street in Invercargill selling a large range of carpets, vinyls and mats. This store was taken over by Flooring Xtra.