Big W
| File:Big W logo (2015).png | |
| Company type | Subsidiary |
|---|---|
| Industry | Retail |
| Founded | 1964 |
| Headquarters | , |
Number of locations | 186 |
Key people |
|
| Products | Ladieswear
Menswear Kidswear Footwear Underwear & Sleepwear Home Leisure Toys & Sporting Electronics Optometry Gardening Pets Party |
| Revenue |  A$4.11 billion (2015)[1] |
 A$114 million (2015)[2] | |
Number of employees | 24,000 |
| Parent | Woolworths Limited |
| Website | bigw |
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BIG W was Australia's first discount department store, opening in Jesmond Newcastle in 1964. It is a division of Woolworths Limited and currently has 186 stores, an online store at www.bigw.com.au and 24,000 team members.
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 BIG W discount variety stores to complement Woolworths Supermarkets and, ultimately, replace the extensive variety store network.
The first BIG W stand-alone store opened in 1964 in Jesmond.[3] A second BIG W opened in Kotara NSW in 1965 and by 1969 every state in Australia had a BIG W store.[4] The separation of BIG W and Woolworths supermarkets was largely completed by 1989, although a few Woolworths variety stores operated into the 1990s (such as the one in Rundle Mall, Adelaide).[citation needed]
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 opened on 6 March 2008, followed by the Top Ryde and Geelong stores.[5] The new logo started appearing in advertising, on store dockets and on a new BIG W website on 24 October 2007. The former tagline "We sell for less" was replaced with "Live big for less", which run alongside "Get it for less".
In June 2015 BIG W opened the Brickworks Marketplace store alongside sister retailers Woolworths and Dan Murphy's in South Australia with a new store format. The new store introduced department 'Gateways' to welcome customers into each area as well as having a strong focus on brands throughout. The new store has a much more softer colour scheme using a smooth brown finish floor as well as feature lighting on the displays compared to the last format which was heavy on bright white walls with blue department signs.
Stores
In 2015, there were 186 BIG W stores trading across Australia: 63 in New South Wales, 46 in Queensland, 34 in Victoria, 17 in Western Australia, 17 in South Australia, 5 in the Australian Capital Territory, 3 in Tasmania and 1 trading in the Northern Territory.[6]
Services
In 2007, BIG W began trialing the provision of optometry services in South Australia and since then, these services have been added to selected stores in Queensland, Victoria, New South Wales and the Australian Capital Territory.[7] BIG W pioneered the Australian use of self-serve checkouts, which were introduced in 2003 on a trial basis in two of Sydney's major stores and began expanding throughout Australia in late 2005.[citation needed]
August 2014 saw BIG W launch its first Party Store at their Rouse Hill store, and its second Party store at the newly refurbished Macquarie Centre in North Ryde, NSW in their newly renovated store in September/October 2014, this has lead to the roll out of Party stores around the country. As of December 2015 there are 134 BIG W Party Stores making BIG W the leading Party retailer in Australia [8]
References
- ^ Sales report. "Full Year Results - Financial Year 2014". Retrieved 10 November 2014.
- ^ Cite error: The named reference
2014 Full Year Reportwas invoked but never defined (see the help page). - ^ "First BIG W Discount Department Store opens".
- ^ "Big W Case Study - Streamline Catalogue Production" (PDF).
- ^ "Woolies plans to put big back in Big W". Australian Financial Review. 22 October 2007: 14.
{{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires|journal=(help) - ^ "BIG W Store Locator".
- ^ Big W Vision - Optical Locations
- ^ "Big W Party Store".
External links
- Video clips