[quote]all new employees get the “Woolies welcome”.[/quote] but what about the customers? Everytime I go to a woolies, I get greeted with “yes please” or “yes thanks”. Whatever happened to greeting customers with a “hi” or “how can I help you”.
I’d appreciate more than one aisle open at a time.
A big problem with Woolies’ perception is that it appears to be very very upmarket (and thus you’ve got the perception that the prices are higher). These new stores are especially fancy looking.
They absolutely must rein in on that upmarket hipster styling they’ve been doing for the past few years.
One thing I’m curious about is why the two major supermarkets haven’t gone the American route over the past few years and opened combined discount department store (Kmart/Big W) and supermarket (Woolies/Coles). I understand these did exist in the 70s and 80s, but they were closed down and converted back. It seems like such a good idea, why didn’t they end up expanding on it?
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Yes, Queanbeyan had a Coles Extra back in the 1990s that had Kmart type merchandise, but it didn’t last.
I’ve been to a few Coles that are larger format ones, which seemed to add a clothing section and then just made everything else bigger - a much larger deli/butcher - more isles, etc.
It’s nice with the slightly bigger range, but I like the normal sized stores better.
We have one of those nearby that I prefer. The layout is better than other Coles in the area. In addition to the usual vertical isles there is also a large horizontal isle that runs through the middle of the store lengthwise splitting all the aisles in two. That means that the aisles are shorter so it is much easier to access anything. The food products are in the rear half so if that is mainly what you want you can zip up and down short isles that tend not to get blocked as easily. The other things like pharmacy, beauty, stationery etc are in the other half of the store that also includes a clothing area with change rooms. It seems to make it much faster and easier to get the grocery shopping done as it is easier to get from one end of the shop to the other.
This shows how the aisles are a lot shorter than usual.
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Agree. They’re not a niche player like a Waitrose in the UK that can trade on the perception of quality, but with increased prices.
We all know they sell the same products as Coles - no point trying to fool us otherwise - they need to compete on price.
I just find everything about Woolworths so horrible these days when it was the opposite 10 years ago. Even something as basic as their catalogues don’t really hit the mark - niche products, silly design etc.
Even their latest ad with the old codger who decides not to spend his $2 at Woolies is just so off the mark in terms of targeting people re: price.
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The largest Coles in Canberra had a fairly big clothing/homewares section. They recently scaled it right back and Liquorland took over half that space. (The store previously had one or two ‘Coles Liquor’ aisles pretty much in the middle of the store.
my local store (Mt. Ommaney in brisbane) is a testbed store for the new formats. it’s a pain in the arse to the honest.
when i was shopping there it always felt like i was interrupting some high level meeting because there are always people in suits standing around talking in decent sized groups (7 or 8) and they are always watching how we shop.
got to the point where it turned creepy and we switched to coles. - a coles that used to have the verical isle down the centre of the store but they got rid of this earlier this year.
on another topic i was at masters today for the “massive clearance sale” and noticed that one item in particular had actually almost doubled in price - the leatherman rev was $49 on friday. today it’s $89.
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Any good deals on LED light bulbs?
Typical liquidation sale then - everything reverts back to it’s highest sold price and the discount starts from that point.
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to be honest i didn’t look but the specials they have that i saw were very “meh” as my wife would say.
the prices were inflated and the discounts i saw were nothing more than what you could get elsewhere almost by asking.
Lowe’s has launched legal action in the Federal Court today, alleging that Woolworths engaged in unfair behaviour in its conduct towards its joint venture partner on the closure of Masters, and is seeking to have a liquidator appointed by the Federal Court to oversee the wind-up of the hardware chain, but Woolworths insists the fire sale will go ahead as planned.
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If only Aldi would pay its fair share of tax I would consider shopping in its stores. Evidently they own three businesses in Australia and only one of them pays any company tax.
Aldi - Make the switch and reduce government revenue.
Aldi - Smarter tax avoidance
Aldi - Like brands only pay no tax
Perhaps Aldi could give some tax advice to Apple or Google.
Went to my local shopping centre today and noticed that the Target there is closing down and is due to reopen as a Kmart by Christmas. Is anyone else’s Target store being closed to make way for a Kmart?
Also, Kmart in Campbellfield, Vic is getting a makeover. Along with the makeover, the in store Garden Centre has been closed to make way for a ALDI.
Wow, they’re doing that very quietly - I know that there was hints that Wesfarmers was going to do this to Target stores in the media but I didn’t expect them to start so quickly and with minimal fanfare. I can think of several Target locations here in Perth that could easily be shut down and converted to a K-Mart…
This reminds me of the Target store at Forest Hill Chase in Melbourne’s east which closed a decade ago and reopened as a Kmart a few months later.
Umm that’s the other way round, was originally Kmart now a Target.
Oops you are right, Kmart turning into Target, because there is already a Kmart close by (the 24 hour store at Burwood East, the original store).
I’d hate if this was done on a large scale, K-Mart is full of absolute rubbish these days.
Any news re: Perth stores?