Maitland is set to hit the international fashion map when global fashion giant H&M opens at Stockland Green Hills this Thursday.
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The hoarding will come down on the two-storey shopfront on Wednesday before the doors fly open at 11am Thursday.
But even though shoppers will have to wait a few hours after other shops open for the day to get inside the 2,300 square metre store, queues are expected to start from when the centre opens at 8am.
When H&M opened at Charlestown Square in 2016, some customers lined up as early as 3am.
An international fashion retailer in Maitland – you wouldn’t have thought about it a couple of years ago.
- Stockland Green Hills centre manager Chris Travers
H&M is also offering 20 per cent off wristbands to the first few hundred people in line. Yes, you read that right – few hundred people.
“We’ll have the bollards out ready to go,” Stockland Green Hills centre manager Chris Travers said.
“I think there’s going to be a pretty good crowd.”
H&M is one of the biggest fashion retailers in the world with more than 4,500 stores across 69 countries. It offers men’s, women’s and kids’ fashion as well as homewares.
The major retailer is one of the final pieces of the $414 million redevelopment of Stockland Green Hills. Hoyts Cinema arriving in June will all but complete the project.
“You can really see the scale of the centre now,” Mr Travers said.
“We’re 99 per cent done.”
Mr Travers said it was a huge coup for Maitland to secure such a major global brand.
“An international fashion retailer in Maitland – you wouldn’t have thought about it a couple of years ago,” he said.
“It’s really satisfying that the big players are showing confidence in Maitland.”
Mr Travers said H&M would be another feather in the cap for the newly redeveloped shopping complex and would top up the centre’s retail offering.
To celebrate the store opening, H&M staff will dance up a storm in the company’s traditional “flash-mob” – a choreographed dance routine, and there will be a DJ in store on the day.
Stockland has also organised its own activities throughout the centre to celebrate the H&M opening including giveaways, entertainment and free styling sessions.