Retail brands / choices in Adelaide

[deano91]

I was in Coles at Aberfoyle Park this afternoon and I must say, it is one of the worst shopping experiences I've ever had. We were looking for a yo-yo because my sister needed one for school. We had no idea where it would be and so we asked a staff member who was just standing around doing nothing. He said he couldn't help us because "he wasn't working anymore." So we looked around for another person and finally found someone to help us. They then took us on a 5 minute hike around the store to try and find the yo-yos, even though they said that they knew where they were. After we finally found them, we went up to the express line, which was far from express! There were two staff members standing behind the counter doing nothing but joking around with each other, leaving only one person to serve, even though there were about 10 people in the line and a further 3 around the front in the cigarette area. After about 15 minutes, we FINALLY got served, and then ended up getting short-changed by 20 dollars, which meant we had to wait around at the service desk for a further 15 minutes to get served.

So, overall, I'm VERY unimpressed with Coles, I will definately be sticking with Woolworths as my first choice for quite a while yet.

[crawf]

As a former Woolies employee, I've seen that a few times at Woolworths. I remember a quite a few times management would decide to relocate stock and not advice any staff members which would become a major headache for the staff and customers. Communication and Organisation in that place was a joke!

Woolies is no angel either

[AtD]

Woolworths is run by a giant computer. All the staff are there for is unpacking boxes and having their ears chewed off by customers.

[peas_and_corn]

Did you know by the way that BiLo still operates in other states?

That's mainly because the conversions were done poorly and were halted almost all the way through (they spent all the money they made selling Myer on the conversions, BTW). They still exist in Qld and NSW.

Woolworths is run by a giant computer. All the staff are there for is unpacking boxes and having their ears chewed off by customers.

that's because of automatic ordering- Woolies took 10 years before it worked, so Coles decided to copy them. When it comes it, I have grave doubts that they have learned form the Woolies experience.

[peas_and_corn]

What is great is the previous CEO, Fletcher, after being paid $40m to drive the company into the ground, decided to not accept his $1.5m Christmas bonus because he is such a philanthropist. What a hero, good ol' Felcher.

Anyways in another thread was mentioned the lack of continuity with store 'look'. This is prevalent with the three retail brands in SA- Coles TTP and St Agnes both have the old signage- St Agnes being desperately out of date in terms of colour scheme it's ridiculous, and it does $1.5m sales a week- you'd think they'd spend money on such a high sales store, eh? Of course this isn't just a Coles thing- when Campbelltown became and IGA most of the Coles signage remained- augmented with the occasional IGA signage- it looks awful, because it was done on the cheap. Same for Foodland Modbury Triangle. As a result it keels kinda like a Coles, but with higher prices (I'm referring to the IGA Campbelltown).

TBH I really like the look of Coles Dernancourt, which is almost all the way through its renovation. The new checkouts look gorgeous IMO, and the wood floors look great. They need to get rid of 2/3 of their value added in fresh produce and replace it with spuds & onions (to increase the fresh food range) and when all the shelving is in bring in the new planograms- then it will be a great store.

[loud]

I know for a fact that Aldi have been approached on a number of occasions to open a store in Adelaide/SA, however they repeatedly said that they have no interest in having a presence here.

I currently shop at Coles at Castle Plaza and cannot get over how limited their product range is for such a large store. I have shopped at Foodlands of half the floorsize with a better range...

[muzzamo]

Where is coles in rundle mall going to be??

[AtD]

There is a supermarket planned for the basement of the new Harris Scarfe building. I don't think we actually know what chain will be the tenant.

Edit: Come to think of it, Woolworths may even be the tenant. Didn't they put in a development application to subdivide their Rundle Mall store? I would guess that store is one of the more expensive pieces of real estate occupied by a supermarket. Perhaps they've decided that prime piece of Mall frontage would be more profitable as a series of tenancies? It would be easy to argue that the "high turnover, low markup" business model Woolworths run doesn't suit such a grand location.

Just speculation. I hope I’m wrong. I don't know of any other supermarket in Australia where the check-outs are almost outdoors.

[Xaragmata]

Where is coles in rundle mall going to be??

If Coles returns to Rundle, it will be full circle. I think I first rode an escalator in that Coles store, down to where
the Reject Shop is now, when visiting Adelaide from Pt Lincoln as a child. Would the Cafeteria make a comeback?

[Omicron]

Where is coles in rundle mall going to be??

If Coles returns to Rundle, it will be full circle. I think I first rode an escalator in that Coles store, down to where
the Reject Shop is now, when visiting Adelaide from Pt Lincoln as a child. Would the Cafeteria make a comeback?

That's quite a nice building, that - existing tenants notwithstanding. Quite the notable building of its era with the curved corner and unique exterior finish. Any move to bring back cafeterias has my full support, too - any venture like that of IKEA's delightfully quaint restaurant would restore a bit of nostalgia to our fine CBD.

[Xaragmata]

Where is coles in rundle mall going to be??

If Coles returns to Rundle, it will be full circle. I think I first rode an escalator in that Coles store, down to where
the Reject Shop is now, when visiting Adelaide from Pt Lincoln as a child. Would the Cafeteria make a comeback?

That's quite a nice building, that - existing tenants notwithstanding. Quite the notable building of its era with the curved corner and unique exterior finish. Any move to bring back cafeterias has my full support, too - any venture like that of IKEA's delightfully quaint restaurant would restore a bit of nostalgia to our fine CBD.

I would go to a Coles Cafeteria for the nostalgia, and the food & coffee was good, from memory. I used "Revive on 5"
in the RAH when it opened, and still do if desperate, but apart from the view over the gardens, "Survive on 5" would
be a better name for it.

[jk1237]

that American Apparell shop has opened up in Rundle Street, and for me it was like WTF, with my first impressions as I went in to have a look. Id love to know everyones thoughts when they first walk in.

I thought Id walked into a very plain Big W or K-mart in the year 1991, however as I looked around closely, there were quite a few things I want to buy. Interesting shop, plain is better as far as their thoughts go.

[pushbutton]

Where is coles in rundle mall going to be??

If Coles returns to Rundle, it will be full circle. I think I first rode an escalator in that Coles store, down to where
the Reject Shop is now, when visiting Adelaide from Pt Lincoln as a child. Would the Cafeteria make a comeback?

That's quite a nice building, that - existing tenants notwithstanding. Quite the notable building of its era with the curved corner and unique exterior finish. Any move to bring back cafeterias has my full support, too - any venture like that of IKEA's delightfully quaint restaurant would restore a bit of nostalgia to our fine CBD.

How interesting to hear Ikeas restaurant called "Quaint"! I would have said it was very modern and contemporary.

[Omicron]

If Coles returns to Rundle, it will be full circle. I think I first rode an escalator in that Coles store, down to where
the Reject Shop is now, when visiting Adelaide from Pt Lincoln as a child. Would the Cafeteria make a comeback?

That's quite a nice building, that - existing tenants notwithstanding. Quite the notable building of its era with the curved corner and unique exterior finish. Any move to bring back cafeterias has my full support, too - any venture like that of IKEA's delightfully quaint restaurant would restore a bit of nostalgia to our fine CBD.

How interesting to hear Ikeas restaurant called "Quaint"! I would have said it was very modern and contemporary.

It is! Lining up with all these unfamiliar people jostling for foodly goods in a jocular manner; sliding your little tray along the bench; rows and rows of little plates with cute little portions; a jovial woman with a ladle dishing out gravy who also sneaks in an extra meatball or two if you're nice; sandwiches with unknown contents, unidentified meat, and obscure creations without a name; and a cashier drowning under the weight of single-serve condiments.

Ah, memories. Reminds me of Holly's at Kmart, and the Big W equivalent. Oh, and Castle Plaza's Redapple Restaurant, come to think of it!

[Prince George]

that American Apparell shop has opened up in Rundle Street, and for me it was like WTF, with my first impressions as I went in to have a look. Id love to know everyones thoughts when they first walk in.

I thought Id walked into a very plain Big W or K-mart in the year 1991, however as I looked around closely, there were quite a few things I want to buy. Interesting shop, plain is better as far as their thoughts go.

Well that's a brand that I wasn't expecting to hear about once we get back to Adelaide. It's not exactly good news (do we really need another generic global clothing brand?), but interesting still.

The AA stores around here are in places like the University District, and they are aimed at something like a late teen to early twenties market (college/uni age). The stores all look pretty spartan, white tiles and plain chrome racks, and the clothes tend to have a retro edge, so I can see how you're thinking "Big W of yesteryear". It seems that their market want to look like the people they see in old photos of themselves But their price point is well above Big W's; I don't know if they look like their quality is really up to snuff.