L&M Gold Star is the latest and greatest name in Gold Coast appliance retailing. To celebrate the official opening of the new shingle, the team at Mermaid Beach (also described as Broadbeach through its history) furnished us with a collection of memories from their combined 98-year history.
Trina Hockley’s uncle Neil Petch was the original founder of L&M Electrics, which was originally an independent retailer.Clare and John Starkey, the original owners of Gold Star Electrics, which first traded in 1969.Trina Hockley’s uncle Neil Petch (right) opened L&M Electrics in 1963. Here, Petch is pictured with Panasonic’s legendary founder Konosuke Matsushita. You can read more about Matsushita and his work here.Trina Hockley’s father Peter Hughes (pictured) purchased the L&M Electrics business from Neil Petch.Absolutely brilliant Gold Coast Bulletin vintage ad for L&M from August 1966. The weekly rental amount is expressed in imperial currency: 19 pounds/9 shillings per week, which is a bit odd because decimal currency had been introduced to Australia 6 months before this ad was published (if anyone can clarify, please feel free to leave a note in the comments box below). Based on the RBA’s inflation calculator, this rental plan in today’s money would be roughly $480 per week. Also of note are the brands — PYE, Kriesler, Thorn Atlas and Healing — definitely a blast from the past.L&M Electrics was a very famous name in independent retailing on the Gold Coast through the 1970s and 1980s.An interesting collection of Ye Olde National televisions on sale at L&M. National would eventually rebrand to Panasonic.L&M was an early seller of mobile phones: the Gold Coast store promoted its range with his creative external fixture.A look inside L&M showroom — chock-full of appliances and POS material — from its early days.L&M Electrics had a very strong commercial division. Hotels, motels and builders were invited to call ‘Brian’ for a free site inspection.L&M joined Retravision in the late 1990s and Trina Hockley would join the board a few years later.There something very charming about this ad to run-out excess stock from commercial order gone south.While a Retravision, L&M expanded to a Robina store in the 1990s.An ad for the Retravision store from April 2000.An ad promoting L&M’s rental service.The Dynamic Duo! Trina Hockley and her sister Joy promoting a new store at the Pacific Fair shopping centre. Hockley decided not to renew the lease on this property and to expand the long-held Broadbeach outlet into a premium kitchen appliance showroom.L&M Gold Star will host cooking demonstrations inside its showroom so consumers can get some hands-on time with their prospective new appliances.Nowadays a modern showroom, L&M Gold Star has a range of brand-focused areas, including this Smeg kitchen.Much admired German refrigerator brand Liebherr has its own space inside the new showroom.
