Sick & tired of Woolworths...

[Hans Tucker (Hans)]

Originally Posted by Larryp

Woolies Bankstown had the bread you want, Peter. I think different branches delete items that do not volume sell, and cater to their local populations.
I guess Bankstown has a far greater immigrant population than Menai.

Bingo...was his namo...well someone got the idea. Yes, the product line is based on what the locals want and what sells. It's got nothing to do with bean counters at head office...look to your local store manager. If you want to change it get enough people to oder the product in, search further afar, or move to an area that has a store that stocks what you want.

[multiweb (Marc)]

Originally Posted by Hans Tucker

Bingo...was his namo...well someone got the idea. Yes, the product line is based on what the locals want and what sells. It's got nothing to do with bean counters at head office...look to your local store manager. If you want to change it get enough people to oder the product in, search further afar, or move to an area that has a store that stocks what you want.

So cool. I guess the locals in my area want s||t bread and 9 months old fruit and tomatoes that rot from the inside out when they thaw out within 2 days. Awesome fresh food people.

[barx1963 (Malcolm)]

My beef with Woollies is that as I am a sufferer from Menieres disease (that is dizzy spells brought on by fluid issues in the inner ear) I am trying to keep to a low salt diet. Woollies used to stock a specific low salt bread. About 18 months ago it is no more! I asked at the counter, no longer available.
Salt is a majpr dietary health issue in this country, but in towns like where I live the supermarkets dominate so you are left with absolutely no choice.

Malcolm

[hotspur (Chris)]

Yes,woolies is not much fun,we have a catering business,and over the last twelve years,and their product line up,has gone down hill,we do not like to use ingredients from overseas-but these days,with all their 'select' brands -one spends lots of time reading the labels,to find Australian products.

Why does Australia have to sell everyone else's rubbish?,and all this made in china rubbish stamped 'product of NZ' its rather shameful.Sounds petty-but the only Australian peas I can get are Edgel-all others are from OS,and that goes on right through my list of stuff to buy.

I have no choice-its 72 Km's too and then back again.But I hope you-Peter,can travel around locally and get your bread.I would not even feed woolies bread to the ducks-its awful.

[Hans Tucker (Hans)]

Originally Posted by multiweb

So cool. I guess the locals in my area want s||t bread and 9 months old fruit and tomatoes that rot from the inside out when they thaw out within 2 days. Awesome fresh food people.

No...I am only talking brand product line availability. The crap fruit and vegetables is another issue. I wouldn't advise anyone to buy fruit and vegetables at either Coles or Woolworths. The trouble is that due to price that people want to pay the two big companies were allowed to force/price the local Fruit/Veg vendors out of the market or local area and now the selection is restricted. Consumers have to share some of the blame.

[Kunama]

I love my rye bread and luckily for me, my Australian born wife loves all things Finnish and bakes all the Finnish breads and cakes I love so much.

We buy the rye flour in bulk and a loaf ends up costing about $1 each.

There's nothing quite like fresh bread straight out of the oven with butter melting into it !

[Peter Ward]

Originally Posted by Kunama

I love my rye bread and luckily for me, my Australian born wife loves all things Finnish and bakes all the Finnish breads and cakes I love so much.

We buy the rye flour in bulk and a loaf ends up costing about $1 each.

There's nothing quite like fresh bread straight out of the oven with butter melting into it !

Arrrrgh!!! You lucky bugger!

Sadly I don't think if everyone on IIS withdrew their support for Woolies, that they'd even notice. (sadly, ~12k subscribers is just a pimple on the WW butt)

But.. if you tell just a few friends/relatives then the effect becomes exponential...

[Gruffalo]

Our local NoWorths stocks very even handedly, but I despise shopping there - HORRENDOUSLY inflated prices, limited stock choice and that banal, nauseating 1920's style "theme song" they play that drives you insane.

So, I shop Aldi (GOOD range of Deutsches und europäisches produkt) at good prices. Also will shop at Coles because of their VERY extensive range.

NoWorth's get's my dollar only when absolutely necessary, like late night where it's 5km closer to WW than Coles (soon to change, URAH!). I even prefer IGA when I can so as to help the Mum and Pap businesses, despite the slightly higher price.

[DJT (David)]

Am on a mission to not have to shop in coleies if at all possible. Have got it down to PG Tips, sugar, cat food and laundry products.

Local Harris farm works fine for me. Not sure about the Helgas products but they do stock Delbas.

I reckon I can get them to stock sugar though as I know someone who knows the buyers. Great ethos that place.

[Gruffalo]

Oh yeah, as to bread, we make rye and Baradinski here all the time, with a smattering of Sourdough. I keep a starter of Baradinski constantly.

NOTHING beats Baradinski with just some olive oil with crushed rock salt... DELISH!

[multiweb (Marc)]

Originally Posted by Hans Tucker

Consumers have to share some of the blame.

hmm... not really. Wollies plays real dirty at best. I've seen all the local shops dying in my area over the past 15 years. So there's one coles on the left of the arcade and one woollies on the right. The argument at the time was that the price war was between wollies and coles but it's all BS. They're the one and the same. Just an excuse to bottom out pricing. Now nobody's left the war is over and both sides have similar pricing. They check each other every morning and price adequately for the day making sure they don't undercut each other. It's good cop bad cop. One day you, one day me. Hand in hand. Business as usual.

[Hans Tucker (Hans)]

Originally Posted by multiweb

hmm... not really. Wollies plays real dirty at best. I've seen all the local shops dying in my area over the past 15 years. So there's one coles on the left of the arcade and one woollies on the right. The argument at the time was that the price war was between wollies and coles but it's all BS. They're the one and the same. Just an excuse to bottom out pricing. Now nobody's left the war is over and both sides have similar pricing. They check each other every morning and price adequately for the day making sure they don't undercut each other. It's good cop bad cop. One day you, one day me. Hand in hand. Business as usual.

Yep, that is what the store manager had me do when I worked for Coles as a junior 30 years ago. My god...did I say 30 years ago...now I feel old.

[asimov (John)]

IGA hire better looking check out chicks dudes...End of story

[acropolite (Phil)]

I'm in the same boat, there are several products I can no longer buy at Woolworths.

What the bean counters can't factor in is that often I visit an independant or the opposition who still stock the item and they (woolies) miss out on more than the sale of one item.

I once had a conversation with a lady who had complained in writing to them for removing an item from the shelves, they actually restocked the item following her complaint.

[Kunama]

I wonder what it would be like to have a choice !

We are 7klms from the Woollies, Coles is 52 klms down the road, ALDI 53.5klms!

[Peter Ward]

Originally Posted by Kunama

I wonder what it would be like to have a choice !

We are 7klms from the Woollies, Coles is 52 klms down the road, ALDI 53.5klms!

Aye carrumba.

All I wanted was some decent rye bread.

It seems elsewhere (like Canada/USA) the board of Woolies/Coles duopoly would be behind bars.

How stupid are we?

[Stardrifter_WA]

Originally Posted by AndrewJ

Actually, i think its a two edged sword, as i reckon they also find things that genuinely sell well, bring in their own version and slowly cull the original.
Getting harder and harder to find some of the good stuff these days as the direct "clones" have taken over. ( Clones in all but taste that is )

Andrew

Although I know where you are coming from, as Coles is moving more and more to its own brands as well, and finding alternative sources is getting harder and harder, considering Coles and Woolworths have high market share. I like a certain brand of pickle, which is no longer sold here, so I import it directly from England, by the grate load.

But, also consider this; is it all in the mind?

As part of my marketing studies I conducted a survey to see which brand people like the most. In this case it was coffee, of which there were three well known brands, one good name, one mediocre and a low cost brand. However, they could see each coffee jar that they were sampling and nearly everyone chose the Maccona brand. Only problem was, all the jars contained the same brand of low quality coffee.

Most wondered why it wasn't a blind test and questioned why they saw the brands they were tasting. The exercise was actually to determine if brand names affect peoples perceptions. Out of the 30 odd people who participated, only 1 realised it was actually the same coffee in all jars.

This exercise was conducted a few times, with other products, with similar results. Conclusion, whether correct or not (statistically its a small sampling) was that a lot of people have certain perceptions about brand names without realising the actual differences in the products.

Obviously, this would not have worked for all products.

However, I am no different as I prefer, without any real basis, or comparisons, certain products. Marketing works, the amount of money spent on advertising and promoting products is enormous. They wouldn't do it if it didn't work.

Cheers Peter

[Stardrifter_WA]

Originally Posted by Peter Ward

Aye carrumba.

How stupid are we?

Well Peter, seems most Australians are pretty stupid really, as if they simply didn't buy those products, Coles and Woolies would soon change that policy.

The question then becomes, should business be heavily regulated by the Government? Personally, I think not. We all have the power, if only we used it collectively, we could change their policies.

Coles got rid of my favourite bread too. Fortunately, I have sourced a replacement elsewhere.

Cheers Peter

[Gruffalo]

The ONLY store that stocks the type of Gherkins we eat is Aldi, and they are the cheapest. NO sweet Gherkins here thanks! Salty with a TOUCH of vinegar. Sweet Gherkins make me dry heave.

[UniPol]

Looks like you might have the bread flown in Peter, an air drop perhaps ?