My local Kmart is getting the new layout, or it may already have, I don’t shop there often.
I also noticed it is no longer open 24 hours, I wonder if any Kmart stores in Victoria or Australia still do?
EDIT: Quick check on the website shows another local Kmart is still open 24/7. It’s the one where the chocolates were locked up due to theft.
when a local 24 hour kmart got the update here, it had reduced hours during the change, then returned to 24 hours.
New or refurbed stores in Perth have had it for a long while. What was the story about exactly? I noticed Kmart sent a FB post about their new store layouts but didn’t realise it was in response to an ACA story.
People being confused by the new layout, some said they didn’t like it, though some did. They went into a store and secretly filmed a young shop assistant without her permission. During the camouflaged filming an employee of Kmart said they had noticed that sales had gone up since it was introduced as customers have to walk past more products to get to the registers and get more stuff on the way.
Woolworths shares are currently in a trading halt, with an announcement on the future of Masters looking likely
News this afternoon that Woolworths has announced it is selling off Home Hardware to Mitre 10. New Bunnings rival finalised as Home and Mitre 10 merge
Wesfarmers post 83% drop in profit, due to issues with industrials division & Target impairments.
Revenue up to $66 billion, Coles itsself up to nearly $40 billion.
Good result, but still a mixed bag/overshadowed for the conglomerate.
Woolworths Ltd is looking like a dark day tomorrow 
Metcash
Woolworths announced late this afternoon that it would close all Masters stores by the end of this year: http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-08-24/metcash-to-buy-home-hardware-from-woolworths/7781606
Having to go the closing down route is utterly embarrassing for woolies, albeit not surprising. They almost did the same with Dick Smith prior to the Anchorage buyout but Private Equity saved the day (albeit as we know, only for a few more years).
Don’t know how shareholders could trust woolies to run any of its business units effectively at this stage, albeit other retail businesses have staged turnarounds just as big, so it’ll be interesting to see what the future holds. My opinion? The Woolies business in 5 years time will be supermarkets (and maybe liquor) and nothing more.
Is a takeover (acquisition) on the cards, like what happened with the Coles Group 9 years ago?
Interesting article:
My local Coles still has the problem of empty shelves of popular lines from late afternoon, an issue that Coles says they fixed a few years ago. My local Woolworths never has that problem, though they also have far fewer customers. I really find little difference between the two chains, with notable local differences being Coles has a wider range of fresh in-store baked bread and has Mix clothing, while Woolworths has a wider range of ready made heat up at home fridge stable meals.
If I go further away to go to Aldi I still have to go to Coles or Woolworths in the same centre to get what I want.
It’s already pretty bad in Coles and Woolworths in relation to losing brand products, when I go to IGA I am surprised at all the brands not stocked in the major supermarkets.
Coles still have utterly terrible bread compared to even Woolworths (which themselves is nowhere near as nice as a bakery).
My local Coles has an open bakery (which is nice), I do love the speciality breads.
JUST IN
Woolworths post worst ever loss as public listed company, first ever full-year loss.
$1.2+ billion 
Yikes.
It will be hard for Woolworths to recover from that. And it’s not making it any easier that their restructure is taking longer than they expected… 
Going to make work very fun 