news.com.au: How the Yo-Chi line in Melbourne and Sydney proves if you're rich or poor
Image Credit: Yo-Chi
Forget property prices and postcode prestige. A new metric is dividing Australian suburbs, and it comes in the form of a frozen yoghurt shop.
news.com.au reached out to RetailOasis this week to comment on the "Yo-Chi line," the observation, first made by podcaster Josh Fox on TikTok, that Yo-Chi stores in Sydney and Melbourne cluster heavily in affluent eastern and northern suburbs, drawing an uncanny parallel to the well known "Red Rooster line."
RetailOasis senior retail strategist Madeline Kulmar told news.com.au the pattern is no accident. "Sydney's eastern and northern suburbs over-index on exactly that profile: higher disposable income, dense cafe and retail culture, and a demographic that's primed to spend on small luxuries regularly. That's not a comment on the west lacking demand, it's that the data the brand has used to expand has, so far, pointed east."
On whether the line represents deliberate exclusion of western suburbs, Kulmar was clear. "It's more that site selection criteria such as income, lifestyle segment and proximity to other premium retailers naturally exclude those areas as a by-product, rather than a deliberate decision to avoid them. Where the data shows spend is highest, that's where the next site goes, which in turn reinforces the divide."
As for whether Yo-Chi could succeed if it expanded further west, Kulmar cautioned against blanket expansion. "The opportunity in the west and south west is real, it just needs a different catchment lens to the one that's worked in the east so far."