Supermarkets and Retail

A Sainsburys or Walmart style store would be good in Australia.

We had it in the form of Woolworths Family Stores, Super Kmart and Pick N Pay. It flunked.

my local store (which was the smallest regular branded woolworths store in australia) closed about 12 months ago - it shut on a friday and re-opened on monday as an IGA with pretty much the exact same shop fittings - all that changed was signage such as the store name, isle signs and price tags.

funnily enough now itā€™s back as an IGA itā€™s back to itā€™s roots. it was an IGA prior to the bribane floods when it was flooded out.

than there is woolies toowong which not only has closed but will be demolished and turned into units

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How long ago was this though? I donā€™t know of those names at all (late 30ā€™s) except we had a Super K which was split up by the time I started shopping.

Perhaps after all these years it might be worth trying again?

At Penrith there is a Coles and Kmart side by side which together could make a hypermart of sorts, and similarly the Woolworths and BIGW at Chullora.

But whatā€™s the advantage?

Why canā€™t you just shop at Big W and then go next door and shop at Woolies?

Doesnt help that Woolies are sitting on a land bank that would not be returning much and attempting to sell it off would give either Coles or Aldi/Kaufland a leg up

Iā€™m surprised given that most of Colesā€™ supermarket exec are from the UK that they havent tried harder to replicate the style of supermarket in the UK - they put their toes in the water but seem to have walked it back in the last 18 months

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I really dislike those Mix fashion clothing sections that Coles has introduced over the past few years. I just donā€™t get the concept of having racks of clothes in amongst aisles of grocery items.

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I think thereā€™s only one store in Canberra that had mix. Theyā€™ve scaled it back a fair bit, and replaced it mainly with kitchen and homewares, plus a liquorland to replace the Coles liquor store aisle.

Woolworths family stores are going back a fair while now. Pick and Pay I think was only in Queensland (Aspley?), though I think the last two stores were relatively recent conversions to Coles.

In many cases, thatā€™s because it was a Super Kmart. One of the Canberra stores still had a temporary wall that didnā€™t go all the way to the roof between the Coles and Kmart until a few years ago when the Kmart renovated.

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Carnarvon WA had the old fit out when I was last there in 2009. Wouldnā€™t be surprised if it still looks the same.

Cumberland Park has a similar setup with Bigw/Wow. Itā€™s been there for decades.

Does Coles still roll out the Mix clothing to stores? Surely itā€™s a hit to Kmart as they are targeting the same market.

Yes they do, however they no longer stock any Menswear and they have closed their online portal.

I always remember looking at that store whenever my family visited Adelaide and drove past it. What became of the Garden annexe and the Auto bay areas?

The Cumberland Park store was renovated a few years ago, it now has an underground car park and a brand new Woolworths, they demolished half of the old building and started again.

The owners of Melbourneā€™s Jam Factory have lodged plans with the local council to redevelop the shopping centre. It is set for completion in 2020.

The complex was at one stage threatened with partial demolition due to the construction of Melbourne Metro rail tunnel.

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Funny thing here at big W in Albury is there is a team of people with black shirts that says stocktake team

Downside of losing an eBay auction - you didnā€™t get the item.

Upside of losing an eBay auction - some other numbnut has paid the ridiculous max price you bid for it. :rofl:

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Maitland had something similar IIRC in the Riverside mall - at least I think thatā€™s what it was, with a Coles and Kmart. The Coles became a Foodworks then a Aldi.

A new Kmart and Coles opened in Wodonga today both use the new store formats and Coles includes olive bar and bakery also in Albury a new subway opened using the new logo fully as well as new format which includes tv displays for the menu board

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Chullora originally prior to the late 90ā€™s was only just the Woolies and Big W and it has always perplexed me that Woolies or Coles havenā€™t looked back at the past for the future and bring back big box style format that combined the best (whilst getting rid of the worst) of both brands and formats.

Kmartā€™s in Blacktown, Mt Druitt and Penrith (which are all local to me) and originally had the coles as part of their building (albeit separated by a wall or not) are 24hr operations and honestly I think the supermarkets need to go to 24hr operations. Yes most people may work 9to5 but this is changing a fair amount to a lot of shift work, weekend work meaning when most of the shops are open, they are at work (just my opinion - please donā€™t shoot me. Used to work within the IR Industry until recently and have seen shiftwork grow even more despite the manufacturing industry slowing down).