Remember Woolworths? Well there's a different* one that still exists in Oz. Telstra wants NBN Co to help shove fibre in it In one of its first major wins in the enterprise market, NBN Co** has confirmed it will pull fibre to Woolworths' properties in support of a Telstra contract with the supermarket giant. The Australia-wide deal was first reported by telco newsletter Communications Day, which said the contract covers 3,000 supermarkets, Big W …
Yes, AFAICT, Foot Locker is *technically* the same business as the original American Woolworths. But it's not really "Woolworths" in the sense we know it. (Apparently it shut down the final remains of its declining flagship chain in the late 90s and focused on its more successful sportswear retail subsidiary.)
There *are* Foot Locker stores in the UK, but those have no direct connection to the (former) UK Woolworths stores. The UK Woolies was spun off as an entirely separate business from its US parent during the 1980s, long before it went bankrupt in 2008.
You're correct that the Australian "Woolworths" is unrelated to the American company... beyond the fact it spotted that the name hadn't been registered in Australia and grabbed it first(!) I don't think it has anything to do with Morrisons, though.
According to Wikipedia, the Safeway connection is that Oz Woolworths bought their Australian business in exchange for a 19.99% shareholding. Morrisons only bought the UK Safeways, so has nothing to do with that (on top of which- like the UK Woolies- the UK Safeway chain had been a separate business with no connection to its former American parent since being sold off during the 1980s anyway).
None of which are related to Wellworths, the chain of N.Irish supermarkets, the smaller ones became SuperValu (pronounced super value) the larger stores bought by Safeway, very very briefly a Morrisons before they decided NI money was no good to them, then brushed off to ASDAs.
Strangely the logo looked like Batman symbol - http://roevalley.com/newsbrowser/newspics99/santa.jpg
@AC: "The UK Woolies was spun off as an entirely separate business from its US parent during the 1980s"
IIRC (I was a Saturday lad working for them around this time) Uk Woolies was bought by 'The Kingfisher Group' which owned a few other highstreet (well, out of town megashop) brands, like Comet, and B&Q etc. This spelled disaster for the classic Woolies stores. When I started, Woolies sold everything, from Pick 'n Mix and cigarettes at the front of the store, kids clothes, records, computers, TV, 'HiFi', (in quotes 'cos we sold Amstrad), Watches and Jewellery, cameras and photo processing, bicycles, lighting and electricals, furniture, there was a cafe, soft furnishings and curtains, toys, hardware and tools, a butchery dept, and groceries. But as some of these items were sold by other outlets the same group had, they were removed from sale at Woolies (someone didn't understand the soap powder paradox*) and we had far fewer lines in store. Then they ended up with sweets, toys and records, and of course, eventually went bust.
(* There are many and various 'brands' of detergent, but only a few manufacturers, so when a customer changes 'brand' the more brands you have in the marketplace, the more likely you are to retain a customer. So a 'lost' sale isn't really a loss, if they back on another of your brands. Woolies didn't understand this, that a highstreet outlet, and an industrial estate outlet covered two markets, and therefore doubled their chance of a sale.)
> Then they ended up with sweets, toys and records, and of course, eventually went bust.
Interesting read, thank you. Only thing I'd say is that it appears that Kingfisher bought them in the early 1980s, and they didn't go under until 2008, so I'm not sure how strongly one can claim a connection there.
@ AC: "and they didn't go under until 2008"
This is true, but one thing that helped kill Woolies (or whatever collection of parent companies) was that they became a major distributor of music media and when 'Zavvi' (Formerly 'Virgin Megastores') had financial troubles and the wheels came off, that left Woolies in trouble as a source of revenue was gone. Although it wasn't a good time, financially, for anyone iirc.
Not that they'd have survived if they'd retained their business model, HMV eventually ran out of rope. I do however wonder how Woollies would have fared if they'd remained more diverse.
Safeways is Morrisons in the UK now, yes. They bought them around fifteen years ago and phased out the name.
The Safeway trucks you saw recently are likely something to do with a revival of the name by Morrisons for use as a brand for products sold through third-party stores like McColl's.
Aha, that makes sense, although I was going up North on the A1 end of last year, and at one point overtook a lorry which had had 'Hofmeister' written down the side (in shabby faded text, admittedly).
So I had to go Google, and apparently, it's a thing again (although not in that lorry, which was an 80's original, by the looks, and also looked like it had perhaps been buried, and dug up).
Wow, an article about Woollies getting fibre connections but all we get so far are numpty commentards rabbiting on about the bloody name.
If NBN are going to run the fibre, I hope the $600 application fee has to be paid by each of the stores that didn't have the fibre lottery win pass by their front door.
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