A missed opportunity

A couple of days ago, this brochure arrived in our letterbox. Of course I was not excited, but I did think that it might have some information inside that would be useful for a blog. And it did but not in the way I thought it might.

I should explain that Woolworths has been undergoing the same renovation process that Coles undertook some time ago, and that I'm sure is happening everywhere, with variable tweaks made according to the physical size of the store and the demographics of the area.

Supermarkets change their stores every few years to a greater or lesser degree. I suppose it's an attempt to keep you interested. This one, with its massive focus on walls of chiller cabinets, is also designed to give credit to their sustainability image, or more importantly perhaps and happily for them - save them money. Those chiller and freezer cabinets have doors and therefore, not as much of the chill is lost to the air all the time. So the power bill is lowered. Although you have to disregard the pretty massive investment of installing them and simultaneously redesigning the floor plan. This is happening all over Australia.

The process of doing this, of course, results in major inconvenience to the customers. In this particular case as well as the obvious annoyances of not knowing where everything is and a general air of chaos, Woolworths also lost at least a third of its carpark to the portable offices and equipment of the engineers, builders, etc. actually doing the work. Apparently Woolworths thought they could use the staff carpark - therefore only inconveniencing the staff for whom a solution would probably have been found - but the engineers insisted on being closer to the store. The staff carpark is just behind it. I suspect that during the whole process a few of their customers may have abandoned them for a while. But then again, maybe not.

It's a mildly personalised brochure in that it has Eltham in all the right places - easy to change for each store I guess, although it does make me wonder how far away from Eltham they distributed this brochure, because some nearby - and not so nearby suburbs may come into Eltham to shop because they do not have big supermarkets in their area. I guess Woolworths know who uses their store. Their Everyday Rewards card data would tell them that. So whilst you might well blitz every postbox with the postcode 3095 - do you blitz all of those in 3761 (the far flung St. Andrews) or the next door 3094 (Montmorency) which has other options?

Also briefly - they obviously want you to think that those happy workers on the front page are from your local store - but I'm pretty sure they are not. After all they must be using this same brochure for all of their stores which have been, are being and will be 'refreshed'. I don't think I recognise any of them, but yes, they are indeed sort of generic Woolworths staff. And yes the staff seem happy enough - as they do in all the other supermarkets.

Back to my title however. 'A missed opportunity', for when you open it up what you get is a whole heap of everyday kind of specials.

Because of the way I scanned this you also get a sidebar promoting the bakery and:

"Dinner made easy with a new range of convenience meals including pizza, pasta, salads, soups and menu items."

Which is not exactly 'fresh'. Woolworths is, of course, not alone in presenting this increasing group of products. Coles has done exactly the same, and possibly Aldi as well although I confess I do not pay as much attention to this kind of food. I should because at the very least it is definitely expanding, and of interest therefore to a foodie blog writer.

Because of the form of the brochure, actually when you open it up you see the Direct to Boot information panel. This is obviously extremely important to them. According to one site and a very brief look on Google, currently around 20% of people shop for food online. I'm guessing some then have it delivered, but some pick it up from the supermarket, and Woolworths has greatly expanded the dedicated car parking spots for this. I am told by friends that Woolworths is better at this, as they not only bring you your shopping but they put it in your car too. Coles brings it to you but does not unload it into your car - and they also only have ( think three) spots. Woolworths now has around 8. I should have counted. But obviously that - it was the first part of the 'refresh' to be finished - is important to them, and they obviously think it is going to increase. So far I have never seen more than three cars there at a time.

And as an aside - for all those who decried the loss of checkout chick jobs - those people - and more of them in fact - are fulfilling all those orders. And the rest are dealing with all us stupid oldies in the self checkout section - the second area to be finished and much expanded.

The back page? Two coupons for a $15 deduction if you spend more than $100 in the store. Valid until 7th July - so just over two weeks? Of course you have to take note of this and present it at the checkout when you spend your $100. And you know maybe I will this weekend because I am feeding the family - 11 people. The meat alone will be getting towards half of that. Generally though we are regular shoppers and spend nowhere near as much. Busy housewives however - take note.

It's a missed opportunity I think, because this was a chance for Woolworths to explain the rationale behind it all, rather than just promote particular aspects of it. I'm guessing they don't have a sushi bar in all of their stores. Would that not be something to promote? Obviously it's rationale is to make more money - in all the ways you can make more money - but it was also an opportunity to push the quality and variety of their products more - a focus on the gourmet stuff? - and the sustainability, of it all - not to mention the convenience. What differentiates them from the competition. I suppose a bit of it was there but there could have been more. We didn't need the two pages of ordinary specials.

Coles did not spend money on a brochure. They left us to find out ourselves and had simple messages about sustainability, and suchlike posted around the store. I suspect this might have been just as useful.

So what does our fresh new look look like?

Today I took some photos. As you walk in - more or less - you see this - the bakery is out of the picture, and the rest of the fruit and vegetables. A quick aside on the vegetables - so far I have not been able to find their Odd Bunch vegetables which used to be together at the end of one of the aisles. There is an Odd Bunch fruit section but no vegetable one. Maybe they have redistributed them around with the vegetables on offer this way, although I haven't noted that either. But then maybe I'm just being unobservant.

And yes Eltham Woolworths has a sushi bar - I think it's outsourced to one of the local sushi bars. It always has (well for a few years now) - but it was a small stall at the end of this section - now they have an area on the side with a big name and a glossy kind of shop front. I don't think the area is any bigger, but it's somehow more professional. I should check out the Hot Food to see if there is more than roast chicken.

At the back of the store there are two sort of alcoves, under that Dinner made easy sign.

On the left is their expensive cheese and biscuit section, complete with all of those expensive extras like pâté and fruit pastes. Like Coles they now have three different cheese sections according to price - very expensive and mostly imported, medium priced - prestige local brands like Meredith goats cheese, South Cape and Tasmania Heritage, alongside cheaper imports such as Castello - and then there's the everyday cheese section of the cheaper Cheddars, sliced, pizza and creamed cheeses. The ones for sandwiches and cooking.

The second, larger alcove is full of the really upmarket gourmet stuff - Ottolenghi spice blends imported fancy pasta and olive oil, local fancy oils, vinegars, spice mixes and so on. Very useful for presents. Also in this section is an entire wall of dips and suchlike in their new chilled cabinets. And isn't it interesting how this particular foodstuff has expanded over the years? I'm afraid I didn't really notice, but maybe this is where all those conveniently prepared meals are as well - after all it does say 'Dinner made easy' in big letters on the wall. Expensive spice mixes don't do that.

Those two alcoves also probably demonstrate how Eltham is an upmarket area. It's population is generally well off - at least comfortable - and interested in other cuisines - or at least interested in giving 'posh' food as a present. Indeed I am currently considering buying some of them for my daughter- in-law's birthday (today). I am told, for example, that our friends who live in an outer Melbourne suburb in a different direction - do not have such things in their store, and if you go to Doncaster - which has a very high Asian population there are all sorts of wonderful Asian things from vegetables to sauces there. The demographics of an area have some influence on what you will find in the stores.

The last picture here is of the main chiller aisle - so neat and glossy. - and empty. Which is curious because here are all the staples - milk, butter, bacon, juice, yoghurt and so on. Maybe it was just that moment. And narrow? David tells me that in one of his many conversations with the staff he found that the rest of the aisles have been narrowed. Which will upset him because he has always maintained that he prefers Woolworths, partly because it is more spacious. No more. Somehow, however, the store seems bigger. I think it's those two alcoves at the back. One of them used to be the deli, and the other was part of the meat section. And those new cabinets have opened up space as they are much narrower than the open chilled cabinets.

Today, interestingly enough, when we went to the store - the engineers were all but gone - although I found one little group in the store near that expensive cheese section worrying over a leak from one of the cabinets. With the engineers gone, the car park was full to overflowing - we had to park across the road in Aldi's half empty one.

On reflection Coles probably copped the most flak on these major conversions. The renovation seemed to be faster than at Coles, but that's possibly because we had been through it all before at Coles and knew what to expect at the end. We had no whilst Coles were undergoing the transformation.

Have they done this to all those massive hypermarkets in France I wonder?

YEARS GONE BY

June 25 - Happy birthday Dionne

2025 - Nothing

2024 - Should I write it down?

2023 - Nothing

2022 - Too easy? - Can it possibly be good?

2021 - Missing

2020 - Missing

2019 - A birthday butterfly

2018 - A bunch of parsley

2017 - On holiday