With Our Cate gone, Thomas Dux is going

Superstar endorsements don’t come any bigger in Australia than Cate Blanchett, especially when the plug is unsolicited.

While Armani pays the equivalent of a Sydney house for Our Cate’s advertised blessing, suburban Lane Cove’s Thomas Dux shop has basked in the free recommendation of its most famous customer.

But with Cate packed up and off the US, Thomas Dux is going too and there’s nothing Oscar success might do to save it.

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It was reported last year that Woolworths was putting its up-market food chain up for sale but it now looks like Woollies is as good at selling shops as it is at hardware.

Woolworths hasn’t been able to find a buyer for what was an 11-store job lot, is now 10 and will soon be nine and on its way to six.

The Port Melbourne store is being closed and the leases on the Hornsby, Crows Next and Lane Cove won’t be renewed.

Lane Cove was where Woolworths’ foodie experiment started in 2008. Its biggest boost came from Ms Blanchett, then resident in neighbouring Hunters Hill, gave it a wrap as a top shop.

The locals may have lacked New Yorkers’ savoir-faire but did their best not to gaup if bumping trolleys with her. (Or, more likely, seeing the charmingly down-to-earth Ms Blancett with the family at Dux while they were on their way to the nearby Coles.)

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Ditching Thomas Dux reinforces Woolworths’ desire to get back to its knitting – mainstream food, booze and fuel – as it’s proven to be no good at everything else.

After years of losing money, Dux was allegedly profitable, but not profitable enough or scalable enough to persist with.

Yet there’s a positive aspect as well: confirmation of space in the retail jungle for small specialists, the deli done right, as the giants can’t do it all.

Michael Pascoe is one of Australia's most respected finance and economics commentators with over four decades in newspaper, radio, television and on-line journalism. He regularly appears on Channel 7's Sunrise and news programs and is a regular conference speaker, MC and facilitator.