Given Big W are a regular source of electronic gaming and food bargains, this is probably the end of an era. 30 Big W stores and 2 distribution centres to close. Might be some crazy ferrero rocher deals coming up.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-6871373/Woolworths-…
For reference, there are 186 Big W stores around Australia, apparently.
If you must know, I was reading Married at first sight gossip.
It's not aussie jobs, it's moving forward in technology. Bring back the blacksmith or printing typesetter. Everyone will have a job but everything will cost more. It's a balance the politians are trying to balance.
do we know which stores are closing?
not announced (yet)
The company has not revealed which specific stores will be closing but confirmed the distribution centres in Monarto in South Australia and Warwick in Queensland will be shutting down
Just speculating, these distribution centres are closing because the stores they support will be closing.
DC closure is completely unrelated to store closure — Monarto services WA, SA, VIC, TAS, so would be a poor heuristic for determining closures. They will just close unprofitable stores that haven't turned around despite their latest changes.
When I worked there, they were moving to containerisation of loads, yet had plenty of dead space in every TEU. Big W are/were poor operationally, so my thinking would be their recent emphasis on growing their BI-smarts has shone a light on it systemically, so they'll move to a national distribution network with smaller, local cross docking facilities to service a portion of their lines, which will save them $$.
Yep, Worked for them in IT when they had a separate IT department to Woolies. Was also very familiar with Woolies having come from them for the last 8 years.
Big W was massively underinvested in technology and process. Stores had/have big issues with out of stocks and pricing errors due to the system they use.
Warehouses were full of shit because Buyers got discounts on buying in bulk which made them look great, and they weren't accountable for the stock the was held.
Haven't worked there for a couple of years now, so might be a little better, but they left it too late to fix.
Example
Woolies - Ticket system in store used some very complex logic to calculate whether a ticket needed to be printed and put up. If it printed a ticket, you can guarantee there is some change on the ticket that requires someone to go and put it up on the shelf.
Big W - Yeah, here's a 600 page PDF with 12 tickets per page. Some of them are changed, some may not… meh who knows.
Is this the beginning of the decline of traditional shopping malls?
APRIL FOOLS!!!1!!
Yes, it is april, we are all fools to be played around by the higher powers, and no this is not a joke.
Does anyone know if they're gonna do the Friends and Family offer soon?
I just don't understand how Woolworths management can't see clearly how stupid their Big W stores are ran.
Whats really got me is neither Woolworths or even better positioned Coles Group has either made a proper competitor to Amazon. They are each uniquely positioned to do so, again more so Coles Group with their range of different stores. For instance Woolworths Group needs to come up with a catchy name for their "online service" that you can buy anything across their brands from. Not Woolworths Online, not Big W website… A new thing, a new app, a new name. This works much better for Coles Group/Westfarmers (not sure with their demerger though now).
Just my 2c anyway. I hope good luck to them as always been a great store much better than Target or Kmart to me. Wish they'd bring back the mix lolly cups.
Yeah a lot of Big W style stores are just huge areas of wasted spaces.
Really the only thing you need to keep available in store now are either perishables or absolute necessities where ordering online is more a hassle than a convenience.
In the world of online you need your store to have an edge whether it be trying furniture and physical items in person or perishables that wouldn't work being sold online like some fruits and stuff.
Otherwise makes no sense having stuff that can be easily delivered in a store to be picked up especially with walking into store being out of the norm with so many online alternatives.
Having said that all that can't wait for the mega discounts from the closing down stores from having excess inventory and what not.
Heard Dalby Qld was one of the ones lined up to go. It's a shame as now people in rural areas will have to drive an extra hour for a department store
This represents around 1 store in 6.
https://www.news.com.au/finance/business/retail/woolworths-a…
"Mr Banducci said he could not give a number on how many staff were affected at this stage.
Big W has 18,000 staff across Australia, Hong Kong and Bangladesh, and the stores will operate as normal until closures are announced."
How are we all feeling about this?
I personally really like Big W and think it's a sad day for Australian owned retail. They regularly had great prices on PS4 games and switched on staff.
It was good to walk in a pick up off the shelf and to have some employed people earning a living wage with reasonable (non-Amazon sweatshop) conditions.
The end is nigh
I imagine that this is primarily due to costs, versus sales income at the physical stores. There are, obviously, not enough people buying enough stuff at the stores to make it feasible to continue to operate those.
why the dailymailUK link?
its been reported in the australian press, ABC News etc etc?
Maybe thats why Aussie jobs are on the line everywhere