I thought 30 Big W stores were meant to close around Australia, haven’t heard much since.
I haven’t been down that end of the city since March last year, but I suspect there would be a lot of new eateries in the redeveloped arcades at Wynyard station. I have been back to the city on three occasions in the past month.
My office is further up George Street near the Strand Arcade. The number of restaurants, cafes and shops that have permanently closed around there is really devastating for business owners and the CBD. I’m sure a lot of businesses have also gone bust in the Hunter Connection or not renewed their leases.
From Wynyard Place:
Wynyard Place:
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Rockingham maybe, Midland no chance. Midland, including Midland Gate regardless of socioeconomic factors is well known as some of the best performing retail in Perth due to it been the largest major centre in the East of Perth, attracting a significant catchment not only of the adjacent eastern / hills suburbs but also rural centres East of Perth through to Kalgoorlie.
I think Fremantle is most vulnerable to closure to be honest and I’m surprised it’s still open all things considered.
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It was getting discussed earlier in this thread, the money (impairment charge) has been set aside for such closures but Big W haven’t closed that many stores just yet, maybe 10 at the most. Some may speculate they’ve put the closures of some stores on hold if they have an adjacent closing Target store nearby, which considering those 30 stores were mostly to be regional locations may impact Woolworth’s ultimate decision when it comes to store closures.
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Sad to hear. There seemed to be a bit more activity in the area after the light rail finally opened in late 2019. Must’ve been devastating for business owners to survive that fiasco and then have to contend with the city shutting down due to Covid.
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Cheers, Thanks. Think i like the most at the moment is some new store fixtures that are white, Big W North Albury, a year or two ago got them for the womens and kids clothes section, looks stunning. hope north albury store gets more of those fixtures
Two main issues from the store side - you want your oldest stock up front to reduce the amount of stock that needs to be reduced or dumped, and the shelves need to be easy to fill so that your hours/wages are kept as low as possible. Both are costs passed onto consumers in the end.
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People will miss the cheap eats and what are basically the only low to mid-range small retailers left in Sydney’s CBD which used to be prevalent before the 2000s, but have been pushed out by high rents.
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I don’t remember there being a tunnel under George St connecting Wynyard Station to the Hunter Connection. Back when I was working at Chifley Square I would walk through that mall from Wynyard and I always used the pedestrian crossing on George St.
Cas or Gateway?
It’s Gateway
There have been a few store updates since 2017 (even before that when the price tickets were updated to just plain white an blavk instead of the yellow/black/white combination).
They brought in new fixtures for the men’s, ladies and kids (granted SOME of the old fixtures were retained and still used). Some stores got extra, I know of a few stores that also had new fixtures for the bra & underwear section (but the remaining stores got them during project phoenix last year).
There’s also another mini revamp happening in selected stores (that started late last year, mostly in the country areas) where certain areas got updated fixtures (eg: one store had new white fixtures for toys, another had the technology and shoe section updated, another store got new fixtures for confectionery).
We’ve been told that the whole store will get a fixture update within the next year to match the updates we’ve had over the last 2 years.
As for the closure of the 30 stores, nobody knows. Even their criteria for closing a store site is murky. I’m assuming stores with little time left on their lease will continue to be closed down.
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Another thanks for the info.
And probably got even more murkier when Target closed some of their stores - figured there was opportunities to fill the market’s need.
All I can say is, please keep going Big W. I like you. We don’t need any more Kmart - it’s like Tetsuo at the end of Akira - it just absorbs everything and looks plain ugly.
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I feel like Big W is back. Their displays look much slicker than a few years ago. Good range of Dyson vacuums there.
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I prefer the quality on home items at Bigw. I got dinner sets and kitchen stuff and seems to last the distance. They also have good promos and so on.
I stopped buying Anko home stuff quality it’s really just disposable stuff that lasts a year.
I don’t buy clothes at either not sure how they compare Kmart and Bigw anyone?
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I can only comment on the shirts (having purchased from both K-Mart and Big W in the past). The sizing is a mixed bag, for myself I get around in 2XL name brand clothing (think Nike for example). But with Big W/K-Mart I find 2XL too “hugging” around the gut… yet if I go for 3XL the gut is fine… but the neck hole is far too wide.
Big W is a good environment to work in, albeit with a few issues (think toxic workers that can bring the mood down). I avoid the dramas by focusing on the tasks I’m assigned or the extra things I give myself to do so I don’t get bored during a shift. The items we stock are better than other retailers, but then some of what we offer may not be as good as what other competitors offer. One key issue we have (especially with COVID) is stock availability. Granted shelves aren’t depleted like they were for toilet paper last year… but the oddest items could be out of stock for weeks. In addition the deliveries of items can be out of whack… quite frequently some catalog items would come in 1-2 days or even a week after a catalog’s start date. I know with mothers day last weekend, some stock we got in March/April last year… actually arrived 3 DAYS before Mother’s day this year… that was super annoying!!!
And yes BIG W is doing a lot better than it did a few years ago when things looked really bad. I feel as though they are more popular than K-Mart or Target (unofficially anyway lol) That said a number of BIG W stores that were crushing Target, have had a bit of a rough time since K-Mart replaced Target in the same shopping centre. Hopefully the K-Mart novelty factor wears off.
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I’ve always regretted buying stuff at either (usually just a t-shirt or pair of shorts while on holiday).
They always end up in the bin after a couple of months. Great if you’ve got growing kids or need something for a quick/cheap fix.
Really does seem to be a massive difference in fabric quality between them and say even a surf brand. You can just tell by the feel it of let alone wearing it.
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Similar jobs, similar retailers, different owners. That’s all it is.
It’s all good and fine to have a personal choice when it comes to retailers you like or prefer but don’t let the corporate rivalry nonsense that your middle and upper management push get to you.
Woolworths businesses seem really really bad with this for some reason compared to Coles / Wesfarmers - It was utterly insufferable especially during the Masters era, I’d go as far as to say the smug and arrogant corporate attitude within the business at that time is a major part of why they did so badly. They didn’t care about the harsh realities of trying to enter a market dominated by Bunnings, they only cared about trying to stick it to Wesfarmers.
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