Woolworths 'secret' that reveals why shoppers pay more in these Aussie stores
Because the products on the shelf are not the same across Woolworths stores. Woolies has a ranking system for stores that determines which store gets which product.
Your local store could be Value, Core, or Up.
'Tailoring our stores to the needs of individual communities is also progressing well through our Value, Core and Up store segmentation,' the former Woolies CEO Brad Banducci said in 2023.
Up stores were growing fastest at that point.
But which store is which?
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Is your local a Value store? Or an Up?
Woolies is keeping this a secret.
They write on the sign if a store is Woolworths Metro, the small-format store.
But they don't write on the sign if it is a Value store.
I asked Woolworths about the system for Yahoo Finance and they said it's not public information.
In fact, they seem to have reduced public references to stores being Core, Value and Up.
But I got curious. Could I figure it out?
Value stores, it seems, are the ones where you find the cheapness.
Whereas Up stores are where you find things you might put out at a cocktail party.
What items are cheaper in different Woolworths stores?
There's some types of products at Woolworths that are seriously cheap.
The Woolies home brand pasta, for example.
It's only $1 for 500 grams.
But guess what?
That's not even the bottom of the barrel.
There's another even cheaper product.
The Essentials range sells the same amount of pasta for 90 cents.
I reckon if we go looking for the supermarkets that sell that pasta in the orange packet we will have found the Value shops.
Because not all Woolworths supermarkets stock it.
What about the other end of the spectrum?
This Swedish black caviar is probably a good clue.
At $6 for 50 grams, it's one of the more expensive products Woolies has for sale.
I bet if you find a supermarket that has the caviar but not the orange packet pasta, you're in an Up store.
I scrounged around on their website, and found the perfect example.
In Melbourne's inner-city Fitzroy, where investment bankers have crowded into the delightful terrace homes and pushed out the hipsters and artists, there is a Woolworths that stocks the caviar but not the pasta.
A further clue: It also sells the Cremeux d'argental cheese, for $65/kilogram, a product that is found in only a select few supermarkets.
The Fitzroy Woolies is a big one, it apparently has enough space for a 'Bronze-extruded' penne rigate that costs $6.95 for 400g, but not enough space for the cheap pasta!
It's definitely an 'Up'.
The Toorak store (in Melbourne's richest suburb) is the same.
There's lots of supermarkets that stock the cheap pasta but not the caviar in the outer ring of suburbs.
Deer Park, for example.
It is probably in the Value category.
And many big Woolworths that sell both, such as Spotswood in inner Melbourne. It would be the Core category.
Coles also segments its supermarkets but is much less secretive about it.
They have Format A for their fancy stores, Format B and Format C, plus Coles Local.
Woolworths Metro expanding footprint
Interestingly, there's another kind of supermarket that often stocks the caviar and not the cheap pasta, and that's ones that have been changed from regular Woolies to Metro.
It used to be only small Woolworths that bore the metro brand, but now they include some larger ones.
I was suspicious Woolworths might be changing supermarkets to Metro in order to lift prices in some local areas, while saying they still used national pricing in their regular supermarkets.
However it's unclear if that is happening, and CHOICE seems to think that it isn't (excluding some Metro stores based in CBDs and train stations).
At least not yet!
Cutting up customers
Three different tiers of supermarket is not the only way Woolworths is slicing and dicing the market.
They also have five different types of customers, which they call their 'CREST' framework.
Are you Conscious, Refined, Essentials, Saver or Traditional?
Woolworths say they made these categories to understand people's 'life stage and affluence,' among other things ,in order to change what they offer.
For example, they brought in 'convenient and high protein meals' for the 'conscious consumers' on the left.
Every time you scan your Everyday Rewards card they get data about you that they can track and they add it to their giant database.
That might mean your supermarket stops selling some products, but it can also mean they bring in new things too.
If you like caviar, I recommend stopping buying the cheap pasta!
Woolworths has been contacted for comment.
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