There’s still several in Sydney (Sylvania, Casula, Blacktown, Mt Druitt, Penrith) and Wollongong (Figtree) that I can see but there used to be others in NSW and the ACT that are no more. Gorokan, Wallsend, Broadway, Belconnen to name some. Most are still open till 10pm though and some are midnight. I think most of the midnight closers also open at 7am.
As a shift-worker I miss the 24hr supermarkets myself. Pretty much all Woolies and most Coles stores that are in my travels are now closed by 10pm or earlier. It got worse with Covid. Used to also be handy to be able to duck in to the supermarket at around 4am before work as well lol
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That is correct, it is located at the corner of Burwood Highway and Blackburn Road. It was the first Kmart store to open in Australia on April 30, 1969 and has been at that location since, although the site was redeveloped as Burwood One in 2010.
During the peak of COVID pandemic in 2020, Kmart Burwood had its trading hours restricted. From my memory it opened at 7am and closed at 9pm every day, to comply with nightly curfews in Melbourne.
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I had a look a this not long ago in relation to 24 hour Coles / Woolworths store locations - Melbourne has 3 in total, Sydney has none (insanity!), Brisbane has 1.
In contrast despite government mandated general trading hours for the Perth metro area, Perth has 14 24/7 Spudsheds and 14 24/7 IGAs. I’m surprised we haven’t seen a bigger push in other Australian cities to fill that 24hr niche.
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Wouldnt be surprised if Covid killed off a lot of them - Woolies in particular seem to have used covid to change their opening hours on a raft of stores
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The biggest change is re-stocking. Stores used to be open until midnight or 24/7 because re-stocking was occurring during these hours (or in the case of midnight stores after close). But now, stores are re-stocking mainly during opening hours only. So if staff aren’t re-stocking after 10pm (to save the business money on penalty rates) then there’s less reason to keep said store open.
Between stores being constantly restocked during the day and aisles being filled with online orders being filled, supermarkets have become gross, and with Metro60 think it’ll only get worse.
At Woolworths at The Glen, I often see staff restocking between 6pm and 7pm, before the store closes at 10pm. It is chaotic with cartons, covers and plastic ties lying on the floor.
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It’s really annoying when you are shopping when they are restocking as they seem to dump the boxes in front of the shelf and leave them there when they arent actually stocking that section yet. Especially when you need to get stuff behind the boxes. If they close at 10 can’t they begin restocking then? Or do they have to pay the staff more from that time? If they do at all.
The stores near me Woolworths closes at 12 midnight in the summer months but around 10 in the winter with Coles staying open until 12. It never made sense to me why Woolworths hours change between the seasons. At Coles you don’t see that we’ll not the stores near me.
Yeah. I’ve been at my supermarket at various times of the day and there is always someone restocking something.
Sometimes it’s orderly and they keep the stock on a trolley, as they wheel it around the shelves. But other times there are cartons and stock strewn all over the floor, blocking the aisles.
After a fire at one of its customers and two others wrapping up business, RedCycle (found at Coles and Woolies) has been storing soft plastics in warehouses.
It’s now decided to stop the service - meaning it will be pulled from Coles and Woolies in the short term.
Where do we recycle the plastic bags now?
We don’t right now !
That’s the point I was trying to make. Management wants all restocking done whilst stores are open and whilst it’s cheap to pay for restocking. Certain penalty rates kick in at 10pm, which means that management have said restocking has to be done by 10pm.
Restocking staff were used as extra bodies in the store helping them stay open at minimal costs (ie could man a register if needed, or help customers on the floor, meaning only 1 or 2 dedicated staff for customers were needed). With them gone by 10pm now, that means having to pay 4-6 staff (depending on store size) to keep the store open after 10pm and they’ve decided for most stores that isn’t worth it.
LOL. Having worked for one of these supermarkets this is no surprise.
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Is this in a rural area?
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Yeah
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That trolley would’ve been from late 90’s/early 2000’s.
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Back when I was working in retail in a similar setting it got to the point where the trolleys would be updated or replaced at least every three years. They even had a separate storage area just for brand-new and no longer used trolleys. I guess it’s just a city v rural thing.
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Awesome, love finds like these! I found a couple similar ones in 2016. 
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I think i remember seeing that post.
Were the trolleys found at Mirrabooka shops? (I have not been to Mirrabooka since I was a little boy)
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