Woolworths’ new Mosman store a triumph over nimbyism

Mangoes, tomatoes

It is too early to tell if that is true, but the bustling aisles at Woolworths suggest even the prosperous appreciate a bargain. On Friday, mangoes were selling at $2.50 each, alongside tomatoes for $3.90 a kilo.

On the other side of Military Road, at Best Fruit of Mosman, mangoes were advertised for $7.99. Down the road, they were $2.99 at an IGA outlet. Tomatoes were $5.99 at both non-Woolworths stores.

Inside the Metro outlet, manager Juliany Wijaya proudly showed a reporter around, including a sign that invites customers to submit requests for food lines. So far, the interest has come for organic and gluten-free food.

The 47-year-old transferred from a 24-hour online order-fulfilment centre in western Sydney to Mosman because she saw the slimmed-down Metro outlets as a growth opportunity that would broaden her career.

Of her 50 staff, 40 are new Woolworths employees, many local teenagers who have never had formal employment before.

“We think it’s really important to be able to get this young talent,” Ms Wijaya said. “They’re all awesome.”

Competition

High school students are cheap, and often unpopular with older shoppers who prefer being greeted by the veterans who have run and manned the local food stores for decades. The bias towards small businesses is often made on moral grounds, even though large companies are the source of much of the suburb’s great wealth.

On one Mosman Facebook page, a person called Sarah Harding wrote this week: “I hate giving my money to big multinationals who’s [sic] employees don’t even remember my name even thou they have met me multiple times. Let’s support local.”

(Woolworths chief executive Brad Banducci, who reportedly lives in Bondi Beach, was too busy for an interview, according to a spokesman.)

Arguments that supermarkets kill shopping districts are common but highly contested. In other Sydney suburbs, Woolworths outlets have opened without visible damage to the local retail economies, including Bondi, Balmain and Double Bay.

In Mosman, the much-loved Oracle bookshop closed on Sunday, but the owner blames changes in the kind of books people are buying, and where from.

Mosman’s coffee shops do not seem to be under threat, though.

On Friday, around 11am, a young barista manning the Woolworths coffee stand said her morning had been “really busy”. The tally: 10 to 15 orders.

A couple of hundred metres along Military Road, at Cafe Mosman, most tables were occupied and the staff too busy to talk.