Big W

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Big W

Type	Subsidiary
Founded	1970s
Headquarters	Bella Vista, New South Wales,  Australia
Key people	Julie Coates, General Manager
Industry	Retail
Products	Leisure, apparel, consumables, homewares, optometry
Employees	25,000
Parent	Woolworths Limited
Website	www.bigw.com.au

Big W at Willows Shoppingtown September 2009.

Big W is the largest chain of discount department stores in Australia (by revenue and profit), with over 140 stores. It is a division of Woolworths Limited, the largest retailer in Australia. Its main competitors are Kmart and Target, both owned by Wesfarmers.

History

Woolworths Limited's original Woolworths variety stores carried a range of general merchandise. Later, the scope of these stores grew to include groceries, which then became their focus.

In the 1970s the company created two chains to separate these lines: Big W and Woolworths supermarkets. Australia's first Big W store opened in Tamworth, New South Wales in 1976 and from then Woolworths continued to expand this service throughout Australia. By 1989, the separation process was largely completed, although a few Woolworths Variety stores existed into the 1990s (such as the one in Rundle Mall, Adelaide).^{[citation needed]}

Currently, Big W has 158 stores trading across Australia, with 58 trading in New South Wales, 40 trading in Queensland, 26 trading in Victoria, 14 trading in Western Australia, 13 trading in South Australia, 3 trading in the Australian Capital Territory, 3 trading in Tasmania and 1 trading in the Northern Territory.^[1]

In 2006, Woolworths along with Big W rolled out new Retalix point of sale systems running on IBM POS hardware with LCD touchscreens throughout all its stores. ^[2]

In October 2007, Woolworths announced a $1 billion makeover of Big W, including a new store format, logo and slogan. The first store with the new format is located in the Rouse Hill Town Centre in New South Wales, which first opened on March 6, 2008. ^[3] The new logo started appearing in advertisements, store dockets, and a redesigned Big W website on October 24, 2007. The former tagline "We sell for less" was replaced with "Live big for less".

In December 2008, Julie Coates took the general manager position after it became apparent Greg Foran would take over running the supermarkets and liquor division in Australia and New Zealand from Naum Onikul, who stepped down from the position.

Business

One of Big W's key strategies is "everyday low prices".^[4] Thus, Big W never has storewide percentage-off days. Nevertheless, Big W still has a weekly catalogue advertising these "everyday low prices", which generally runs from Thursday to Wednesday (coinciding with the period of Kmart's weekly catalogue).

Many of the techniques used by Big W in promotions were nearly identical to the US chain Wal-Mart, such as the in store "smiley face" and the "price rollback".^{[citation needed]} Indeed, former Woolworths Chief Executive Officer and former Big W Managing Director, Roger Corbett, has a mentor relationship with a former President of Wal-Mart, and has been appointed to the board of the American retailer.^{[citation needed]} However Big W has begun to establish their own promotional slogans coinciding with their transition to a new look example: 'low prices everyday' (a Wal-Mart slogan) has been replaced by 'Low Prices The Whole Shop The Whole Time'.

Stores

Most Big W stores are located in suburban and regional locations. However, in recent years three stores have been opened in central business districts, at Macarthur Central in Brisbane , QV in Melbourne , and the Canberra Centre in City Centre, Canberra.

In April 2009, Australia's largest Big W store (with a floor area of 10,000 m²) was opened in the new $300 million redevelopment^[5] at Robina Town Centre on the Gold Coast, Queensland.

Construction on a Big W store in Inverell, New South Wales is underway, with the store expecting to open late next year (2010).

Services

Services such as lay-by, parcel pick-up, home delivery, photo processing and price checkpoints are typical of most Australian discount department stores. In 2007, Big W began trialling the provision of optometry services in South Australia and since then, these services have been added to selected stores in Queensland, Victoria and Top Ryde City in Ryde, New South Wales. Big W also pioneered the Australian introduction of self-serve checkouts, which were first introduced in 2003 on a trial basis in two of Sydney's major stores and began expanding throughout Australia in late 2005.^{[citation needed]}

Sales

Big W has several major sales annually, most coinciding with sales held by its rivals Kmart and Target.^{[citation needed]} The largest is the July toy sale. The July toy sale is a key indicator to business and retail performance measurements for the new financial year.^{[citation needed]}

Big W has annual mid-year and Boxing Day sales. Big W also has special events to bring in seasonal clothing ranges and new homewares. The launch of Christmas trading in early to mid-November also sees special offers and store centered marketing.

References

External links

• Big W