The new Woolworths Marrickville Metro store.
Woolworths’ Marrickville Metro store in New South Wales is the latest Woolworths location to introduce the retailer’s new and convenient frontier in supermarket shopping.
The Metro store represents the largest individual investment by Woolworths in a store renewal since the program began in late 2015.
Main features of the new stores include an expanded fresh food offering where customers can pick their own heads of lettuce from the hydroponic set-up, grab a flame-roasted chicken, cheese from the cheese cave and find the ideal foods in the macro wholefood market aisle.
There is also a new ‘ready-to-go’ section at the front of the store, filled with ready meals, fresh sandwiches, salads and healthy juices, which caters for time poor customers looking for easy meal options.
Woolworths Supermarkets managing director Claire Peters said the Woolworths team had spent a lot of time researching the new store format.
“Our teams have spent a great deal of time understanding how our customers like to shop, looked across the globe for inspiration and designed the store with the local customer at the forefront to create this next generation grocery shopping experience,” she said.
“Every possible angle and aisle in this process has been revisited and the result is a rustic yet future-proof design with a real community spirit.
“Woolworths Marrickville Metro marks the next evolution of our journey to create a neighbourhood food store that provides a great shopping experience for our customers, good prices on products they want, a great fresh offer and the convenience they are looking for.”
There is also a full production bakery stocked with artisan bread, an in-store butchery and fish market, adding to the rustic feel.
Peters said the retailer is committed to reducing its impact on the environment and operating stores more sustainably.
“We’ve fitted out the store with LED lights to reduce power usage, switched to carbon-efficient refrigeration and air-conditioning systems and have an area in-store where customers can bring in their soft plastics to be recycled,” she said.
“Being part of the local community is very important to us, so we’re proud to support local schools and community groups via the store, and also help minimise food waste via our partnerships with Foodbank and OzHarvest to help provide meals to Australians in need.”
This story was originally published by Convenience & Impulse Retailing.