Big W

This article is about the Australia department store. For other uses, see Big W (disambiguation).

Big W

Type	Subsidiary
Industry	Retail
Founded	1970s
Headquarters	Bella Vista, New South Wales, Australia
Number of locations	168
Key people	Julie Coates, Director of Big W
Products	Leisure, Apparel, Home, Optometry
Revenue	A$4.16 billion (2011)
Operating income	A$177 million (2011)
Employees	25,000
Parent	Woolworths Limited
Website	BigW.com.au

Big W at Willows Shoppingtown September 2009.

Big W is one of the largest chain of discount department stores in Australia, with 168 stores. It is a division of Woolworths Limited, the second 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. An increasing percentage of later stores opened sold supermarket grocery lines, which eventually became the company's focus.

In the 1960s the company created an additional store type (Big W) to complement the Woolworths supermarkets and, ultimately, replace the extensive variety store network. The first Big W branded standalone store opened its doors in 1976 in Tamworth . The separation of Big W and Woolworths supermarkets was largely completed by 1989, although a few Woolworths variety stores existed into the 1990s (such as the one in Rundle Mall, Adelaide).^{[citation needed]}

Currently, Big W has 164 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, three trading in the Australian Capital Territory, three trading in Tasmania and one trading in the Northern Territory.

In 2006, Woolworths along with Big W rolled out new Retalix point of sale systems running on IBM POS hardware with LCD touch-screens throughout all its stores.

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 6 March 2008 followed by Top Ryde and Geelong. The new logo started appearing in advertisements, store dockets, and a redesigned Big W website on 24 October 2007. The former tagline, "We sell for less", was replaced with "Live big for less" which is now run alongside "Get it 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". 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 Wednesday to Tuesday.

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

New look Big W store in the Wagga Wagga Marketplace.

Old look Big W store in Westfield Whitford City.

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 at Robina Town Centre on the Gold Coast, Queensland.

Townsville's third store at Castletown opened October 2010 and a fourth store is planned for stage 2 of Fairfield Waters.

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 New South Wales. Big W also pioneered the Australian introduction of eight 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.

External links

• Official website