The Reject Shop rebrand is killing something that only works in Australia

2 hours ago 1

Opinion

September 17, 2025 — 7.30pm

An iconic Aussie brand, a budget battler’s sanctuary and a brilliant photo op – it’s no surprise that the $259 million takeover of The Reject Shop by Canadian retailer Dollarama earlier this year sent ripples of anxiety up and down budget aisles nationwide.

Then a week or so ago, Dollarama chief executive Neil Rossy popped up in the media again – this time keen to share his “vision” for the chain’s 390-plus stores, which included removing the familiar red-and-yellow iconography and replacing it with a green-and-gold palette and shiny new name: Dollarama – effective immediately.

Then-prime minister Tony Abbott walks past The Reject Shop in 2015.

It didn’t take long for those ripples to turn into a giant wave of discontent. Shoppers flocked online to voice their distress, with 74 per cent of more than 12,700 readers polled by Yahoo Finance calling for the name to stay.

Sure, Aussies love a bargain, but as I too hit “stay”, I couldn’t help feeling that Dollarama was messing with more than just signage – this was sacred turf. And, no, not just because of those classic, accidental PM photo ops under the big yellow REJECT sign.

Launching in South Yarra in 1981, armed with the charming sales tactic of “stack it high, kiss it goodbye” and the “all you need is loose change” slogan, the Melbourne-born budget booster quickly established itself in the retail landscape.

To a teenager of the 1980s living in the north-western suburbs, The Reject Shop held an undeniable gravitational pull. Walking inside those doors with my bumbag jangling with coins (thanks to a summer job) I knew I’d find … well, something cheap and fun, but totally necessary.

Of course, it was some years ago and memory is fluid – as was, and is, The Reject Shop’s catalogue – so I can’t say with any certainty what I did walk out with, but I certainly would have been met with a cornucopia of choice, if this Australian Financial Review article from the early 1990s is anything to go by: “A recent Reject Shop catalogue promoted tracksuit pants, a compact disc rack, underwear, corn chips, packaging tape, toilet cleaner and spaghetti jars. Prices ranged from 50 cents for a bar of Lux soap to $40 for a pair of rollerblades.”

If I channel my 16-year-old self today, it’s likely I would walk out clutching pink lip gloss and a few packets of out-of-date Hubba Bubba, wearing a big smile on my face.

The real joy of shopping at The Reject Shop wasn’t just the ridiculous amount of choice or affordability – it was the frisson of expectation (“I wonder what I’ll find today!”), then surprise (“Oh look, they’ve got [insert low-cost product or cheap out-of-date snack]!”

It was an experience that was completely and utterly built around the shopper and what they needed – even if we didn’t know it. And this was years before a certain German supermarket chain brought us “Good Different”.

As Earle Sacher, then joint managing director and part-owner told the AFR, “with a name like Reject Shop, you cannot be distracted”.

“I don’t know what we’ll be selling next week. I don’t remember what we sold last week.”

Despite now stocking quality homewares and a dizzying selection of essentials from some of Australia’s most recognisable brands, you don’t need to be one of The Reject Shop’s regular YouTubers or TikTokers – and there are plenty of both – to appreciate its “new arrivals” and “hot buys” while also seeing it for what it is: a wonderfully impervious anachronism.

Sure, entering a store and being met with a riot of bargains might feel like sensory overload, but that’s the magic, isn’t it?

One thing you could never accuse The Reject Shop of is being showy – in fact, to this day it offers an honest shopping experience where the only thing not on special is pretence.

Herein lies Dollarama’s challenge. A slated reduction in prices across the board is a good start, but there’s a lot of work ahead for the Canadian parent company before – or if – we start feeling a gravitational pull en masse. To offer my own loose change worth of advice: lean into the green and gold – but not too much. Australians are pretty good at spotting a pretender. And you wouldn’t want the next reject to be you.