Thread: Woolworths enters the hardware business

An interesting comment re Woolies and petrol.
Where I live there were at one point 7 petrol stations before Woolies made a hint of entering the local market. Of those 2 stations 2 were marked for definite closure.
There was a huge cry from the petrol station owners about Woolies going to come in with cheap petrol and force them all to close.
The 2 station marked for closure went and then the local taxi company started selling to the public. A further place closed for various reasons so we went from 7 to 6 to 5 and only a threat from Woolies.
Woolies came along and we went back to 6 petrol outlets. As for the cost of fuel, well they all happily sell at exactly the same price.
Who lost, us the consumer.

So will the Woolies/Lowes make much of a real difference?
Initially there may be a bit of a price war, but in the long term probably all back to normal.
Who wins, not the consumer again.

Country scepticism.


As for hardware stores we have 4; Home Hardware, Thrifty Link, Stratco and a small ‘local’ store.
Will a Woolies/Lowes or Bunning fit in, I doubt it and I will still have to travel an 800 Km, (round trip) to get anything serious.

So, why did the consumer lose? You still have 6 petrol stations, if they all sell at the same price, at least the Woolies one will accept their 4c dockets.

Therefore you can buy petrol at 4c below what you could before Woolies entered the market, I ask again, how then does the consumer lose?

In my country town, Bendigo, Woolies is almost always the cheapest with both petrol and LPG. Mobil is always the highest, sometimes by as much as 10c a litre on bothe petrol and LPG.

A recent ACCC report even stated that Woolies in most markets is the cheapest fuel seller, how does the consumer lose because of Woolies?

When Woollies first entered the market for petrol there were several discount vouchers available= 4c, 6, and sometimes 10c. the 4c?ltre. represented more than a 4% discount at that time.

Now Woollies offers only 4c discount and the percentage has dropped to well below 2.5 Z% on average. This is easily chewed up if you go looking for the cheapest petrol.

If I shop at Aldi I figure I can get a 30% discount WITHOUT a voucher.Woollies is a bloody fraud.

Getting back to Woolies and the hardware business. Guess where a lot of the "trained" staff will come from. I can't see them hiring all their staff off the street and training them up themselves. So will we see Bunny's quality of staff fall lower for at least a year or so.

Originally Posted by artme

When Woollies first entered the market for petrol there were several discount vouchers available= 4c, 6, and sometimes 10c. the 4c?ltre. represented more than a 4% discount at that time.

Now Woollies offers only 4c discount and the percentage has dropped to well below 2.5 Z% on average.

2.5 % Only if you are paying $1.60 for petrol!!!!

THey had a recent offer of I think 20c but all the servos went to the ACCC and lost. They sometimes also offer an extra 4c for in store (servo) purchases, as well as bonus discounts to rewards card holders for certain purcahses

Woolworths and powertools is nothing new for them the Original Woolworths was a Variety store you could buy Black & Decker tools back then from them. They were not grocery of course they also own BigW which sells powertools.
Now becoming a major player in the hardware chain thats got to be good somehow but lets hope they don't just put their irons in the USA pot it would be a shame or is that a sham.

Originally Posted by BobR

Getting back to Woolies and the hardware business. Guess where a lot of the "trained" staff will come from. I can't see them hiring all their staff off the street and training them up themselves. So will we see Bunny's quality of staff fall lower for at least a year or so.

Good point Bob, I for one hope that Bunnies take a closer look at the way they treat their "team members". It's damn hard to get put on full time when they keep hiring casuals.