Woolworths Supermarkets
Woolworths is an Australian supermarket chain owned by Woolworths Group. Founded in 1924, Woolworths is currently Australia's largest supermarket chain with a market share of 32.5% as of 2023.
Woolworths specialises in groceries, but also sells magazines, DVDs, health and beauty products, household products, pet and baby supplies, and stationery. As of June 2023, there were 995 Woolworths supermarkets and 90 Woolworths Metro convenience stores. Woolworths Online is a click and collect, and home delivery service for Woolworths supermarkets.
History
Woolworths Limited was first registered on 22 September 1924 by five Australian entrepreneursPercy Christmas, Stanley Chatterton, Cecil Scott Waine, George Creed and Ernest Williams. The first store was opened on 5 December 1924 in Pitt Street of Sydney's Imperial Arcade, called "Woolworths Stupendous Bargain Basement". Following the first store there were only 29 shareholders and there was little interest to accelerate the brand's growth. However, as trading continued and shareholders brought more capital, the dividends paid by the company increased from 5% to 50% after its third year of operation. Consumer interest in the company grew after December 1924, as more branches of the store were established across Australia. Woolworths stores began selling a variety of goods, claiming the lowest prices as well as money back guarantees. At the forefront of retail innovation in Australia, Woolworths stores became the first variety store in the world to install receipt printing cash register machines in 1926. The second Woolworths outlet was opened on 6 August 1927, on Queen Street, Brisbane. The first Woolworths store in New Zealand was opened in 1929. Following the opening of the Hobart store in 1940, Woolworths had a store in every state in Australia.With the company and its stores running successfully, Woolworths began to experiment with expanding their grocery rangemore stores began stocking fresh fruits and vegetables and a larger range of food. The first self-service store in Beverly Hills, Sydney was opened in 1955. In 1958 the first supermarket was opened at Dee Why, followed by the first purpose-built supermarket at Warrawong Plaza in 1960. This site closed in 2012, but reopened in 2024. In 1958 Woolworths Limited acquired all 32 Brisbane Cash & Carry stores, which was a popular Brisbane grocery store chain. These were then later rebranded as Woolworths stores. As Woolworths gradually focused more on groceries, the first Big W department store was opened in 1964 at Jesmond, New South Wales.
In 1982, Woolworths Limited acquired two Tasmanian grocery brands: Roelf Vos and Purity, which were converted into Woolworths stores in 2000. After the arrival of American supermarket giant Safeway in Australia in 1962, Safeway Australia was bought by Woolworths in 1985. Woolworths Limited acquired all of the Safeway stores and the naming rights in exchange for a 20% equity interest in Woolworths Limited. At the time of the acquisition, Safeway had 126 stores across Victoria, Queensland and New South Wales. All Safeway stores in Queensland and New South Wales were rebranded as Woolworths supermarkets, but most Victorian stores continued trading as Safeway. In 2008, Woolworths announced it would rebrand Safeway stores as Woolworths, and this process was completed in June 2017. This was when Safeway Wodonga was closed and rebuilt as a Woolworths, ending the company of Safeway.In 2018, Woolworths Group stopped providing single-use plastic bags during checkout at the same time as Coles Supermarkets, bringing them in line with Australia's third-biggest supermarket, Aldi. In the following three months, Australian's plastic bag use dropped by 80%, leading to 1.5 billion fewer bags going to landfill. Woolworths also committed to removing 180 tonnes of plastic packaging from their products in 2018.
In September 2021, Woolworths launched an online marketplace called Everyday Market. The marketplace allows customers to purchase products from partnered companies, including products not normally sold in the supermarket.
In May 2023, Woolworths acquired Milkrun, a fast grocery delivery startup which ceased operations the previous month and competed with the supermarket's Metro60 delivery service. Woolworths rebranded Metro60 as Milkrun.
In 2021, Woolworths and ARN launched Woolworths Radio which is powered by iHeartRadio. It plays in stores but also can be available to listen out of Woolworths Stores. It serves as a direct competitor to Coles Radio.
Operations
Current store formats
Woolworths
This is the standard supermarket format.Woolworths New Zealand
is the trading name in New Zealand. Woolworths also operated supermarket brands Foodtown and Woolworths until November 2011, which were rebranded as Countdown.Woolworths Metro
is a chain of small format grocery stores launched in 2013. The first store opened in Sydney, and the chain now has over 90 stores across Australia as of August 2023. Three of them are former Thomas Dux stores, while others are mostly placed within central business districts.Defunct store formats
Ampol Woolworths MetroGo
Ampol Woolworths MetroGo was a chain of smaller Woolworths Metro convenience stores launched in March 2022, and were found exclusively in some Ampol service stations. These stores were owned and operated by Ampol, and were first launched in November 2019 as Woolworths Metro stores. The chain had over 50 stores across Australia. On 28 August 2023, it was announced in the 2023 Half Year Results that all 50 Ampol Woolworths MetroGo stores would be rebranded to Foodary.Caltex Woolworths
, a joint venture with Ampol, operated service stations across Australia. Woolworths sold the operation to the EG Group in April 2019 which has since been renamed EG Australia. Woolworths and EG entered a 15-year agreement that would maintain its fuel discount redemption across the network, and enable Woolworths Rewards points to be earned on fuel transactions across its network. The sites were rebranded to EG Ampol.Caltex Safeway
Caltex Safeway operated service stations in Victoria until it was converted to Caltex Woolworths in 2008–2010.Countdown
On 18 July 2023, it was announced by Woolworths Group that all 194 Countdown stores will be rebranded to Woolworths from early 2024.Flemings
was a chain of supermarkets in Sydney and the Central Coast. On 19 May 2020, the final store in Jannali closed and was replaced with a Woolworths Metro store.Food for Less
was a discount supermarket chain located in Queensland and New South Wales. Since 2010 stores were either closed or rebranded to Woolworths, with the last store rebranded in 2018.Foodtown
Woolworths operated supermarket brands Foodtown and Woolworths until November 2011, which were rebranded as Countdown.Macro Wholefoods Market
Macro Wholefoods Market was founded in 1983. It operated for over two decades as an independent retailer before its acquisition by Woolworths in 2009, establishing a brand reputation in the health and organic food sector. The market's retail proposition centered on providing customers with unrefined, nutritionally healthy products at affordable prices, catering to the growing consumer demand for organic and health-conscious food options.Purity and Roelf Vos
and Purity were trading names used in Tasmania prior to being rebranded as Woolworths in 2000.Safeway
was the trading name of Woolworths for most of their Victorian stores until 2017, when the last store in Wodonga, VIC rebranded to Woolworths.Safeway Liquor
Safeway Liquor operated liquor stores in Victoria with stores attached to its supermarkets, until it was converted to BWS in 2012–2013.Thomas Dux
was launched in 2008 in two New South Wales locations. The stores had a larger fresh food offering than traditional Woolworths stores, along with a larger delicatessen section. At its peak the chain had 11 stores. From 2014, the stores gradually closed and the chain ceased operation in late 2017. Three of the stores were retained under the "Woolworths Metro" brand; the other seven were either closed entirely or sold to other businesses. In 2021 however, the former Thomas Dux site at Black Rock, Victoria, which was retained as a "Woolworths Metro" store, was closed and is thought to be being replaced by a BWS or Dan Murphy's liquor outlet.Woolworths Liquor
Woolworths Supermarket Liquor was a liquor division of Woolworths with stores attached to its supermarkets, until all 475 stores were rebranded as BWS in 2012–2013.Slogan
In 1987, Woolworths launched the "Fresh Food People" campaign after implementing new company protocols for their fresh food departments. The slogan changed slightly in 2012 to "Australia's Fresh Food People" to promote the fact that 96% of fresh produce sold in Woolworths supermarkets is grown in Australia. In 2014 the original "The Fresh Food People" slogan returned with a new lineup of television commercials. Various other catchphrases have been used in recent advertisements, including "That's Today's Fresh Food People", and "Get Your Woolies Worth."Animal welfare
Woolworths has committed to phasing out battery cages from its supply chains, and to end the sale of caged eggs by the end of 2025. Progress toward this goal has been reported, with own‑brand whole shell eggs already fully cage free and 89% of vendor‑brand whole shell eggs sourced from cage‑free systems as of July 2025.In New Zealand, Woolworths NZ has indicated that its supermarkets are on track to have all on‑shelf whole eggs sourced from cage‑free systems by the end of 2025, and in 2025 was reported to have achieved this milestone ahead of schedule.
In Australia, Woolworths did not meet its cage‑free egg commitment, citing industry supply challenges amid avian flu outbreaks. The company has not announced a revised deadline, and animal welfare groups have called on it to uphold the original 2025 target.