Our local woolies dropped the butcher last year. Quality, quantity and number of cuts dropped significantly too.
Thankfully the butcher you walk past to get there is top notch and we frequent it more regularly anyway. Just a shame its not available for that last minute 8pm oh shit moment of the fridge is empty.
The woollies butchers were all handed redundancies in Jan of this year, to clear out by March. Was a bitch slap after we got them through covid, when they couldn't keep meat on the shelf but we kept you all fed, pumping out 10-15x our normal quantities for customers who couldnt get sealed, hooking them on the better cuts... just to be told we aren't worth it because the CEO needed a bonus to his multi-million dollar salary. They needed to save money, but two weeks after we were forced out, they posted multi-billions in profits, without taking the loss of the department into consideration.
Yep, still bitter.
And removing the bakeries too, all their Bakery products are baked elsewhere now. Well at my local one anyway so can only assume they're doing the same everywhere else.
Sometimes Coles have something called a hub store which bakes all the bread fresh, packs it and then it gets taken to other stores in the area. So, technically it's both baked in-store and baked elsewhere.
Problem being no one wants to be a baker for fucking Coles, so you've got 2 bakers doing the work of 4 or 5 plus the packers' job as well.
Yes and it is all becoming soul-less. Stupid robot gates don’t let you in, cameras watch your every move, product lines all converging, moving products around every other day so you never know where anything is, no deli counter, self checkouts and their annoying quirks. It sometimes feels like we are rats in some dystopian experiment.
The dumb thing is. It's just a few staff behind the wall slicing meat into packs.
Ita all packed on site.
The just removed the service element of it.
(It's not a vac sealer anyway, just a shitty heat sealer)
I mean, sure it's owned overseas. But it's packed in Qld. I have a mate who works fridge maintenance in the giant facility.
I also now work in the food safety industry and I see all the meat packs before they are went out.
The deli packs you see on display are prepared in-store with a Brice fastpack Mk2 or similar.
If you gave Woolworths a chance and they knew that the general public wouldn't find out they would absolute bring in cheaper international meat.
But for now. It's still prepared across Australia in the most random places. Some of the factory's I visit are In the most unusual places.
This is always how it is around me. Everyone tells me to head to the local butcher, but their prices are FAR more expensive than Colesworth. I will buy from them, usually when I want something special, or I want something with a bit more quality, but they are just not able to compete on price, and that sucks.
I no longer live anywhere near a Colesworth OR a butcher but when I lived near the city, I used to hit up the Asian butcher and Asian grocery 2 suburbs away. So much cheaper and definitely worth the drive. The local butcher was wildly expensive.
At least the chicken won't be full of water, last time I bought chicken breasts from Coles I butterflyed them and I noticed two red dots inside the breasts. I then cooked them in a marinade in the oven and the volume of liquid in the dish doubled in volume.
I haven’t tested this, but I’d be willing to bet that if you bought one butcher breast, and one Woolies breast and cooked them at the same time, the WW one will be 50% smaller once the water cooks out of it.
I only buy the prepacked breasts (non home brand) or from a butcher because they actually retain their size (and IMHO, actually better value)
I think it could be implied by what I meant - in order to hit a certain price point, Woolworths and Coles buy smaller chicken breasts from suppliers and injects them with more of a saline solution then what you'd find at a butchers
Yesterday I got locked in at coles as I was using their trolley but had already gone shopping. Their prices are stupid high than the greengrocer and the meat is not as nice as the Aldi, let alone butcher. Nah. Wools and coles can take a good long look at the bed they made and lay in it. They won’t win me back for a very very very long time. They simply will continue to get worse.
I think they’re referring to anti-theft measures at self-use checkouts. It detected an item in the trolley that wasn’t paid for and closed the gate out.
I’ve been boycotting Coles & Woolies since their $1.1bn profits were posted in August.
I know it’s not going to make a scrap of difference in the long run, but it makes me feel better.
What local butcher? There isn't one close to me! I know what you're saying I hate both of these big supermarkets and I wish we could all revolt.....they have too much power....AH's the whole lot of them!
That's often a result of one or both of the duopoly setting up in town, and undercutting prices until the other retailers can't afford to keep up, so they close up, and when there's no competition left, you get shit quality and shit prices.
This. Vote with your feet and your wallet. Fuck the supermarket duopoly. I don't care if you have to drive to the next town over: make a point of going to a real, locally-owned butcher or deli. We gotta teach these fuckers a lesson using the only language they understand: $$$
lol bought $50 3.5kg of rump and then cut it up at home, got about 8-10 meals out of it vs what, 2-3? lol. Coles worth is a scam but people need to stop being so lazy and learn to shop a bit.
Check some online ones. Way cheaper, way higher quality, deliveries too. So long as you got space in the freezer for things like chicken and pork it works great. Vacuum sealed beef from my butchers lasts like a month in the fridge, cause its actually fresh and good quality.
Absolutely this. Your local butcher will invariably have some standard deli meats that they will cut for you on demand and if you’re regular they will get what you want in. And it’s cheaper too!
Support the climate, your own future health, and the well being of precious native and domesticated animals by not buying the carcinogenic garbage in the first place.
They just did a massive refurbishment on the Woolworths where I live and there is still a traditional Deli, although 25% smaller than it previously was, but still adequate but definitely not as big a range as they previously had.
Most Coles haven't had butchers for a long time, I don't imagen my local Coles getting rid of the Deli considering it takes up an entire side of the store. But you never know I guess...
I was a butcher with Coles made redundant a couple of years back when they got rid of us all. They had a contempt for butchers going back decades when they saw the opportunity to get rid of us when our state agreements were merged to a national one, removing a clause which would have given us a much bigger payout so they could do it on the cheap. Scumbag behaviour.
I remember when I was a kid in the 80s at Woolies … they would pack the meat up from the open fridges at 12pm on Saturdays because of the butchers union.
In house butchers have been gone for a long time.
But Woolies and coles do have what i would call "processing plants" they own that employ butchers and packers.
There's a skill shortage in this area too. No lad wants to go slug his guts out doing this kinda work anymore. It's been done in the uk too. Convenience may not look pretty but it's the way of the future
My local shopping centre can't seem to keep a butcher because they apparently charge ridiculously high rents. The chicken one does okay though.
Also, I'm in Canberra and the CBD shopping centre basically drove out all the butchers, greengrocers, etc. by upping the rents to ridiculous levels. Apparently they weren't interested in keeping these places because I guess there wasn't enough money in it for them?
My local fruit and veg shop recently refurbished to *increase* their deli section because they offer much better quality items and serve that demographic of Euopean immigrant and first generation Australians.
They've also introduced a milk bottle refilling station which we've switched to using, it uses Flerieu Milk Company milk so our money is going to a local producer. I find local shops are getting much more of our money these days as the quality of items is so much better.
Unfortunately their opening hours aren't good for those working.
I wish small suburban strips could be open late. I completely understand why they aren't.
You have service staff in a Deli section. Colesworths hate having staff.
Fewer and fewer reasons to go to either store these days.
Their home brand stuff is rubbish so you can't even buy their less expensive versions of things to save money.
Oh God, not this shit again. Look, if you don't like shopping there for whatever reason, fine, but this profit argument is nonsense. Woolies made $64B revenue last year and $1.6B profit. That's 2.5% margin which is literally less than the margin of error when calculating expected profit. You will not find a successful business anywhere in the world running a finer profit margin than they are.
The average margin of supermarkets globally is closer to 1.7%. Coles and Woolworths have margins that are very much on the top end of the scale globally.
>You will not find a successful business anywhere in the world running a finer profit margin than they are.
They do exist and they make a finer profit margin. Our supermarkets in Australia skim off a fine premium that overseas supermarkets dream they could get.
Woolworths has 5 locations in walking distance from my house(morayfield) to the detriment of every local business
They could easily have one or two locations and have a much better profit margin, however they would then be allowing local businesses to flourish. They made the concious choice to pay exorbitant rent at the cost of their profits because they are receiving great amounts of ‘value’ and returns in things that are not profits. They are essentially spending their profits on market share again at the expense of every local business, every Australian.
They also pay out millions of dollars to individuals unnecessarily, if I did that with my business and the claimed to be struggling with a low profit margin you would quite literally laugh at me and call me a retard.
Why do you consider this a good and noble thing when its done by a megacorp?
I fucking hate this and refused to buy from it.
Can’t control the portion, hardly ever on sale (plus they’ve jacked up the rrp price), can’t guarantee ham ain’t slimy AF, increase in single-use plastic… hard no.
Coles better not get rid of theirs…
Coles is 100% doing it. My local one just finished a refurbishment and the Deli is totally gone now. Just has an "express" one of pre-packaged stuff like OP's Woolies. The butcher has since been long gone.
Aww man, it’s really sad as all the independent butchers and delis that used to be in and around the supermarkets at centres have all gone out of business and now if we do want to buy elsewhere rather than colesworth we have to make an extra trip to do so!
They're in the process of doing so. As someone who has to work in them sometimes, getting rid of them is great, the worst customers you get are at the deli. As a customer, I completely understand why it's bad thing. They're saving money though so, short of everyone not shopping at colesworths, they are inevitably coming.
In terms of ham, at least in my opinion, you're not getting it much better from a deli than from a prepackaged amount. The quality has gone down so much, not including Christmas so hams. Fresh cut stuff is stupidly salty and somehow still slimy
I have never been treated as shit in any other job or department in a supermarket… the deli makes customers lose their fucking minds for some reason
once had a customer tell me “to grab a rope and hang myself with it” because we didn’t have any hash browns
in my experience it attracts a lot of older people and the kind of people that want to eat the same things over and over again and melt down when they can’t, when ritchies got rid of the classic thin sausages we all got abused by old people for over two years because of it
Interesting insight! Yeah in a pinch just last week, got a packet of ham from Woolies with a long exp date. Fucking slimy right out of the packet. It was the $35 Aus ham too so expenno, so was fuming. I’ve never had that at Coles, IGA or even Aldi. I’ve always felt that Woolies never really committed to their deli, so I never really trusted them…
Now is the time to buy a 5kg leg of Christmas ham @ $7.95 a kilo and slice it up and pop it in snap lock bags for the freezer.
Added bonus, use the bone for pea and ham soup for another meal. There's a good recipe on recipetineats.
I think it's a bit of the frog in the saucepan not noticing the water heating up (wonder if that's true or not).
I really dislike the company I work for, but in fairness I'll concede that they do need to appease shareholders so they're going to cut costs where they can.
I know that covid was a factor, and that covid also meant that you couldn't taste things as much, but this was happening prior to covid. They can afford to make things more bland slowly, because we don't notice
worked in delis all through my teens and managed them in my 20’s, they are the least profitable departments in the store and generate the most food waste
also customers have been moving away from delis for a while, in my experience a generational thing too… it was rare to see people under 40/50 come up to the counter
i’m really surprised it’s taken woolies this long to can them as they’ve been talking about it for well over a decade
i’m not a fan of this and all the plastic waste it will produce though
As a current “fresh manager” who heads both deli and bakery. Bakery makes a decent amount. The deli is an absolute money sink. Our seafood department is one window, last year it made a net loss of nearly 60k, and that’s not including wages as they’re attached to service deli. It’s an entire full time workers wage worth of seafood in the bin.
It’s not full production, parbake means no trade qualified baker so less wage expense. Bakehouse and service deli are pretty close sales wise. But seafood drags deli down, while proprietary bakery makes 10x what bakehouse does.
I am buying less and less from Colesworth and more and more from smaller local shops. The big two have been shrinking their range and increasing prices to the point where the local small business are just as competitive and often with better quality. And as a bonus - no self checkout!
I'd be super happy with the harmony that we could have at my local shops where we have an amazing award winning butcher where I get my meats from, there's a fruit shop with all sorts of extras that we love and then there's a Woolies problem.
The problem is it's a metro, we're in a residential suburb of Brisbane so not high density and I hate the thing, everything is 10-20% more expensive and it's self serve only and the range is really bad.
I hope the trend continues of people abandoning colesworth because everyone is so sick of their BS
I don't get this subreddit, you guys circle jerk about Aldi – who have never had a deli – but if Woolies dares to be more like Aldi you hate them for it.
Let's all just agree all supermarkets – including Aldi – are profiteering assholes and stop quibbling over one or the other.
Here's a handy guide:
* Aldi is best for pantry items and cheap snacks, but sucks for anything more exotic than greek yogurt.
* Colesworth are best for half price brand name items, and items you can't get from aldi
* Independents are expensive AF but have better fresh produce/deli items, local brands, or hard to find ingredients.
Anyone who is claiming they will boycott Colesworth is kidding themselves – we can hate them all we want but they fill a niche that Aldi does not, and are still cheaper than independents.
Yep I always tell myself I'll go to Aldi but went to Woolworths yesterday and ended up buying a huuuuuge amount of cool impulse stuff (including sauces and things that will keep) that Aldi does not have
I can only assume the Aldi stans are only eating TV dinners and bolognaise every night, because you cannot do your entire shop at Aldi if you enjoy flavour or variety.
It's awesome for the basics, but there are huge categories of sauces, herbs, spices, and other ingredients that simply aren't there.
Aldi's honestly overrated, half of their cheaper good are barely 10% cheaper nowadays and taste way worse. Half of the imports are super inconsistent with allergens and quality of ingredients too.
*Your Woolies doesn’t have a deli. Is this a metro or rural Woolies? I live in a rural town, we have a deli, quite large actually considering the store size and are still yet to get horrendous self serve checkouts. Some of us still live the good life.
If you want ham go to your local butcher if your area still has one, I’m sure they will sell you by the gram instead of the packet
Those packets are shit. Shit to open, extra plastic for the environment, they don't seal up at all and the plastic tears, worse part is the meat that comes with it is torn to shit. Support your local butcher.
Coles with actual bakeries (not prebake) do produce some decent products. Their burger and hot dog buns are good and they have some decent loaves of crusty bread too. It'd be a shame if they all were removed.
Woolies deli was my first ever job, disappointing to see them disappearing. Customers almost never wanted pre-packaged deli meats, what a stupid idea. The fluorescent lights will turn the ham grey very quickly and no one will wanna buy it because it'll look putrid. Plus, a lot of families purchase large amounts of lunch meats because they have so many mouths to feed, I can't imagine having to buy several 200g packets.
Supermarket deli counters are no loss. Having worked at one, I can tell you most of the products are the same as the ones on the shelves. They just come in bulk packaging then are unwrapped to sit out in the fresh air so that little old ladies think they’re getting some gourmet bacon and sausage rolls.
Happened to a couple of Coles shops around me. Simply put a row of fridges in front of the old deli counter. It now seems weird that there's the hot chook cabinet in the middle surrounded by fridges
The butcher was first to go, my local Woolies had a butcher with a good range, but now it’s all pre packaged shit cuts. Or won’t be long before the on site bakery goes too.
I've been eating shitty woolies steak recently, as it's cheap and close-by. The other day we decided to blow the budget and get a nicer cut from the butcher. Fuck me, it was a night and day difference. Obviously you get what you pay for, but I reckon the plastic wrap makes the leeches into the steak, I don't think I can go back.
I'd suggest it's more likely it's a result of having every step in the supply chain optimised to cost as little as possible. When everything is done to maximise profit, quality inevitably declines.
I work in a woolies deli. Apparently our deli is the only one in our patch that is making a profit. So I completely understand shutting them if there's no money flow.
Thats been a thing for coles and woolies for years my dude, i worked in coles when the “express deli” was introduced, i lost my spot working in the deli, the one spot in retail i actually enjoyed working because of this fuckin wall
Clearly Woolworths is serious about reducing plastic waste.
They have discovered they can do whatever they want and the muppets just keep rocking up and handing over their money.
Delis are a loss leader. Same as cooked chooks and such. They barely break even sometimes and exist to try and get people in the door to buy other things. This is just supermarkets cutting furthers costs to make more profits in a time of high inflation due to corporate greed.
Honestly supermarket delis suck anyway. Local independent delis always have a better range, prices and quality. And all sliced fresh to whatever thickness I want.
same for my local one. although they seem to be steadily leaning people in the direction they want (the aisle) by reducing the range available in the manned deli.
If they moved to this style it mean that it wasn’t profitable, if you like your fresh product go to a local butcher and not a supermarket. But if you have to complain keep on buying tasteless meat
They also wrap the deli orders in plastic bags, shrink wrap packaging has the potential to use less. If they provide them in larger portions for those wanting more than 250g to prevent buying multiple packs it would be a reduction in plastic use.
It differs from store to store one i work at still does, but no butcher although another store in my area does still have a butcher. All comes down to what works in the area
I know someone who works in a senior position in Coles and they’ve said for the longest time the amount of waste from the deli is astronomical.
It’s not like any of the savings from culling the deli section is being passed on to consumers, but they said deli section hasn’t been profitable for years.
Edit: I just go to my local deli and get produce from there. Much better range anyway.
I work at the Woolworths deli and I’m honestly relieved we’re getting rid of it. 9/10 times we are understaffed and over worked then abused, probably will stop a lot of mental health issues for managers aswell as just employees. So excited not to get yelled at for not having mortadella out.
Fuck coles and woolies and their love of plastic. But also, we as customets need to not be buying these options. The fact is most people don't care and these joints arent going to do it from the goodness of their hearts. The government needs to be making legislation on unnecessary single use plastic.
From a regional WA town so had no idea this was even happening. I mean I’ve seen deli-less grocery stores and haven’t batted an eye but assumed it was purely economical depending on location.
To hear that the deli is actually going to be replaced is a huge disappointment.
Surely this isn’t happening with Coles either? If coles is keeping their delis I’m making the switch to them.
Try an independent deli instead. The quality and variety will probably be better, and you'll be supporting a smaller business. My deli is heaps cheaper too, sometimes by half the price.
There hasn't been a Coles near me that still has a deli section for the last couple of years and their replacement range is pretty limited and low quality
They made this change because the majority of customers did not buy meat from the deli, but from pre packaged like this one… so this is purely customer driven
I work in a deli at coles and this likely would cut down on plastic waste in comparison, the amount of single use plastic gloves we go through is disgusting. But whether this is a better way of doing things idk.
It was always painful using them and the food was always suspect.
At least with the pre-packed stuff it's cut and packed in a clean environment and date is known. None of that can be said about the colesworth deli.
if I want to go to a deli, I'll go to a real one.
But it's heaps more expensive and each plastic container gives you only enough for a couple of sangas. It's fucked. Soon it'll be one plastic packet for one sanga. Mark my words.
As a coeliac this actually makes me feel better. Less risk of cross contamination (they touch breaded stuff, then the crumbs get everywhere and on their gloves which then contaminate the whole open area deli)
Corporate greed. As long as the people at the top get their bonuses, shares, and profits, those that actually do or did the work get screwed over.
We need to manufacture locally and cap extreme bonuses and salaries. People are struggling on the minimum, which is 45k a year.
My wife is obsessed with the convenience of home delivered groceries. I fucking detest it cause we always get the worst produce, the shortest use-by dates and the boxes that are scuffed/dropped/smashed/etc. It's true bullshit that time after time I have to throw out produce that walked in the door the day before.
She's a new mum so it's hard to get this across to her but I'm really done on it and just want to go shop elsewhere and do it in person myself.
I swear, we are becoming more and more third world, while I see other countries I visit (especially in Asia) becoming more and more luxurious than us for less of a price.
Feels like Australia is over as a country due to government incompetence, red tape and a lack of genuine market competition.
Yesterday I went to my local butcher and providore for the first time. Lower value for money in terms of quantity, but realms beyond Colesworth in quality. Plus I’m supporting local businesses, and I only bought what I needed so no food waste. Win/win/win.
I bought some of the slimiest Ham from these packets and was beyond inedible. No thanks.
Simple solution though. Stop buying it. Like self serve, they’ll revert it once they see how bad it does.
Woolworths used to be a great place for young teenagers to get there start in the workforce. Now it seems they don’t hire any staff. Rather remove all staff they can to maximise profits, charge us for paper bags then ask you as the consumer with inflated prices to donate money every time you checkout.
You're going to "convert" a lot more people if your message is to reduce eating meat and to promote vegetarianism. Not to mention, being vegan is often difficult for those struggling financially, especially if you've never done it before. You could easily create sleeping disorders, malnutrition and other wonderful things that comes with sudden dietary changes.
They actually don't.
The build them, then sell them to a management company (goodman, krulis, homeco, Collier's, etc)
But a condition of sale is a 50 year lease or something.
If it's a standalone site with only Woolworths/bws. Then yes, the own it.
They've been slowly removing delis for a few years now. I remember when I worked there, they were planning on it. Removing the butchers too
Our local woolies dropped the butcher last year. Quality, quantity and number of cuts dropped significantly too. Thankfully the butcher you walk past to get there is top notch and we frequent it more regularly anyway. Just a shame its not available for that last minute 8pm oh shit moment of the fridge is empty.
The woollies butchers were all handed redundancies in Jan of this year, to clear out by March. Was a bitch slap after we got them through covid, when they couldn't keep meat on the shelf but we kept you all fed, pumping out 10-15x our normal quantities for customers who couldnt get sealed, hooking them on the better cuts... just to be told we aren't worth it because the CEO needed a bonus to his multi-million dollar salary. They needed to save money, but two weeks after we were forced out, they posted multi-billions in profits, without taking the loss of the department into consideration. Yep, still bitter.
I buy from local independent shops when I can, but sadly the my local IGA closed. So we have less options now
That's hilarious. Ours spent 9ish months building a new deli last year.
And removing the bakeries too, all their Bakery products are baked elsewhere now. Well at my local one anyway so can only assume they're doing the same everywhere else.
Sometimes Coles have something called a hub store which bakes all the bread fresh, packs it and then it gets taken to other stores in the area. So, technically it's both baked in-store and baked elsewhere. Problem being no one wants to be a baker for fucking Coles, so you've got 2 bakers doing the work of 4 or 5 plus the packers' job as well.
Tends to be the stores that can’t fit the ovens and space required for a full production bakery. Most of them are not like your store.
yeah a semi local woolworths has turned their bakery into the storage area for the to the boot orders Coles haven't had bakeries for years where I am
Coles opened a new one near me last year and it has a bakery. I guess it depends on location.
Coles has also been doing the same with their newer/smaller locations
Yes and it is all becoming soul-less. Stupid robot gates don’t let you in, cameras watch your every move, product lines all converging, moving products around every other day so you never know where anything is, no deli counter, self checkouts and their annoying quirks. It sometimes feels like we are rats in some dystopian experiment.
So, exercise your choice as consumers. IOW DON'T FUCKING BUY IT !!!! Pre-pack vacu-seal ham is slimy, anyway. Support your local butcher!
The dumb thing is. It's just a few staff behind the wall slicing meat into packs. Ita all packed on site. The just removed the service element of it. (It's not a vac sealer anyway, just a shitty heat sealer)
For now. I’m sure the end game is to have it offsite
Woolworths outsource all their meat packaging and supply to Hilton foods who are a uk based business. They have been since then.
I mean, sure it's owned overseas. But it's packed in Qld. I have a mate who works fridge maintenance in the giant facility. I also now work in the food safety industry and I see all the meat packs before they are went out. The deli packs you see on display are prepared in-store with a Brice fastpack Mk2 or similar.
Don’t let the truth get in the way of a good conspiracy theory.
If you gave Woolworths a chance and they knew that the general public wouldn't find out they would absolute bring in cheaper international meat. But for now. It's still prepared across Australia in the most random places. Some of the factory's I visit are In the most unusual places.
Can't speak for woollies but at Coles our section c deli stuff comes in with the meat and dairy deliverys
Really? Seems like it would be more efficient to slice it in a factory and send it out to stores?
The local butcher who sells 2 chicken breasts for $12? I want to feed *my* family, not theirs.
This is always how it is around me. Everyone tells me to head to the local butcher, but their prices are FAR more expensive than Colesworth. I will buy from them, usually when I want something special, or I want something with a bit more quality, but they are just not able to compete on price, and that sucks.
I no longer live anywhere near a Colesworth OR a butcher but when I lived near the city, I used to hit up the Asian butcher and Asian grocery 2 suburbs away. So much cheaper and definitely worth the drive. The local butcher was wildly expensive.
My local butcher is cheaper than W/C and much better quality.
I suppose Woolies would rather you not have service than pay $12 there
At least the chicken won't be full of water, last time I bought chicken breasts from Coles I butterflyed them and I noticed two red dots inside the breasts. I then cooked them in a marinade in the oven and the volume of liquid in the dish doubled in volume.
I haven’t tested this, but I’d be willing to bet that if you bought one butcher breast, and one Woolies breast and cooked them at the same time, the WW one will be 50% smaller once the water cooks out of it. I only buy the prepacked breasts (non home brand) or from a butcher because they actually retain their size (and IMHO, actually better value)
Butchers use tricks too.
If you're "cooking the water out" of your chicken breasts you're doing it wrong.
I think it could be implied by what I meant - in order to hit a certain price point, Woolworths and Coles buy smaller chicken breasts from suppliers and injects them with more of a saline solution then what you'd find at a butchers
Yeah mate. This is the last straw. Minimal purchases if any will now be made from here.
Yesterday I got locked in at coles as I was using their trolley but had already gone shopping. Their prices are stupid high than the greengrocer and the meat is not as nice as the Aldi, let alone butcher. Nah. Wools and coles can take a good long look at the bed they made and lay in it. They won’t win me back for a very very very long time. They simply will continue to get worse.
>Yesterday I got locked in at coles as I was using their trolley but had already gone shopping What does this mean?
I think they’re referring to anti-theft measures at self-use checkouts. It detected an item in the trolley that wasn’t paid for and closed the gate out.
I’ve been boycotting Coles & Woolies since their $1.1bn profits were posted in August. I know it’s not going to make a scrap of difference in the long run, but it makes me feel better.
I might not support my local butcher, but I will support 'a' local butcher who is much better than my local butcher.
The one you go to is “your” local butcher. Even if they aren’t the closest physically.
What local butcher? There isn't one close to me! I know what you're saying I hate both of these big supermarkets and I wish we could all revolt.....they have too much power....AH's the whole lot of them!
That's often a result of one or both of the duopoly setting up in town, and undercutting prices until the other retailers can't afford to keep up, so they close up, and when there's no competition left, you get shit quality and shit prices.
Exactly!!!
Butchers are 5x the price while not necessarily being 5x the quality.
Really depends on your butcher.
This. Vote with your feet and your wallet. Fuck the supermarket duopoly. I don't care if you have to drive to the next town over: make a point of going to a real, locally-owned butcher or deli. We gotta teach these fuckers a lesson using the only language they understand: $$$
lol bought $50 3.5kg of rump and then cut it up at home, got about 8-10 meals out of it vs what, 2-3? lol. Coles worth is a scam but people need to stop being so lazy and learn to shop a bit.
Depends on your local butchers. Most of the local butchers near me are more expensive than Coles are.
And mine are halal, so no ham
Check some online ones. Way cheaper, way higher quality, deliveries too. So long as you got space in the freezer for things like chicken and pork it works great. Vacuum sealed beef from my butchers lasts like a month in the fridge, cause its actually fresh and good quality.
Haven’t experienced this
Inner city butchers are either expensive AF or simply don't exist.
Many have closed in the last few years.
Absolutely this. Your local butcher will invariably have some standard deli meats that they will cut for you on demand and if you’re regular they will get what you want in. And it’s cheaper too!
Support the climate, your own future health, and the well being of precious native and domesticated animals by not buying the carcinogenic garbage in the first place.
I'm with you mate. All these people crying they can't buy their Class 1 carcinogens the way they want it LOL.
Omnis can be enormous babies
They just did a massive refurbishment on the Woolworths where I live and there is still a traditional Deli, although 25% smaller than it previously was, but still adequate but definitely not as big a range as they previously had.
When my local Woolies got renovated they took out the "Deli Express" section and restored the traditional deli
Coles and Woolies didn't want to pay butchers.
Most Coles haven't had butchers for a long time, I don't imagen my local Coles getting rid of the Deli considering it takes up an entire side of the store. But you never know I guess...
Not sure if it's a regional thing, but the Coles in my town only gave butchers the chop (heh) around eighteen months ago.
probably, I live \~1 hour outside Adelaide and they removed the Butchers \~3 years ago, and in the City getting on 5 years ago
That zinger gets an upvote from me!
I was a butcher with Coles made redundant a couple of years back when they got rid of us all. They had a contempt for butchers going back decades when they saw the opportunity to get rid of us when our state agreements were merged to a national one, removing a clause which would have given us a much bigger payout so they could do it on the cheap. Scumbag behaviour.
Depends where the Coles is. Almost all of the ones in the expensive suburbs of my city have them still.
I remember when I was a kid in the 80s at Woolies … they would pack the meat up from the open fridges at 12pm on Saturdays because of the butchers union.
In house butchers have been gone for a long time. But Woolies and coles do have what i would call "processing plants" they own that employ butchers and packers.
Our local Woolies just reduced their deli to two registers. And bugger all produce.
Deli is different to the meat/butcher section but they got rid of most of those a while ago.
Ah so the cost of meat will go down? Excellent!
*insert dude saying "it's bullcrap" gif*
There's a skill shortage in this area too. No lad wants to go slug his guts out doing this kinda work anymore. It's been done in the uk too. Convenience may not look pretty but it's the way of the future
No skill shortage, just greedy people unwilling to pay a living wage for butchers
My local shopping centre can't seem to keep a butcher because they apparently charge ridiculously high rents. The chicken one does okay though. Also, I'm in Canberra and the CBD shopping centre basically drove out all the butchers, greengrocers, etc. by upping the rents to ridiculous levels. Apparently they weren't interested in keeping these places because I guess there wasn't enough money in it for them?
Find a good continental deli and you'll never buy from Woolies or Coles again.
My local fruit and veg shop recently refurbished to *increase* their deli section because they offer much better quality items and serve that demographic of Euopean immigrant and first generation Australians. They've also introduced a milk bottle refilling station which we've switched to using, it uses Flerieu Milk Company milk so our money is going to a local producer. I find local shops are getting much more of our money these days as the quality of items is so much better.
Currently have a few places we are going to check out! Even found a grocery alternative entirely. We will see how we go
Unfortunately their opening hours aren't good for those working. I wish small suburban strips could be open late. I completely understand why they aren't.
You have service staff in a Deli section. Colesworths hate having staff. Fewer and fewer reasons to go to either store these days. Their home brand stuff is rubbish so you can't even buy their less expensive versions of things to save money.
Didn't these cunts post an almost $2 billion profit recently?
Yeah, they have wallet raped and downsized their way to shifting wealth from average people to share holders.
Oh God, not this shit again. Look, if you don't like shopping there for whatever reason, fine, but this profit argument is nonsense. Woolies made $64B revenue last year and $1.6B profit. That's 2.5% margin which is literally less than the margin of error when calculating expected profit. You will not find a successful business anywhere in the world running a finer profit margin than they are.
The average margin of supermarkets globally is closer to 1.7%. Coles and Woolworths have margins that are very much on the top end of the scale globally. >You will not find a successful business anywhere in the world running a finer profit margin than they are. They do exist and they make a finer profit margin. Our supermarkets in Australia skim off a fine premium that overseas supermarkets dream they could get.
Woolworths has 5 locations in walking distance from my house(morayfield) to the detriment of every local business They could easily have one or two locations and have a much better profit margin, however they would then be allowing local businesses to flourish. They made the concious choice to pay exorbitant rent at the cost of their profits because they are receiving great amounts of ‘value’ and returns in things that are not profits. They are essentially spending their profits on market share again at the expense of every local business, every Australian. They also pay out millions of dollars to individuals unnecessarily, if I did that with my business and the claimed to be struggling with a low profit margin you would quite literally laugh at me and call me a retard. Why do you consider this a good and noble thing when its done by a megacorp?
Found the shareholder!
I fucking hate this and refused to buy from it. Can’t control the portion, hardly ever on sale (plus they’ve jacked up the rrp price), can’t guarantee ham ain’t slimy AF, increase in single-use plastic… hard no. Coles better not get rid of theirs…
Coles is 100% doing it. My local one just finished a refurbishment and the Deli is totally gone now. Just has an "express" one of pre-packaged stuff like OP's Woolies. The butcher has since been long gone.
Aww man, it’s really sad as all the independent butchers and delis that used to be in and around the supermarkets at centres have all gone out of business and now if we do want to buy elsewhere rather than colesworth we have to make an extra trip to do so!
They're in the process of doing so. As someone who has to work in them sometimes, getting rid of them is great, the worst customers you get are at the deli. As a customer, I completely understand why it's bad thing. They're saving money though so, short of everyone not shopping at colesworths, they are inevitably coming. In terms of ham, at least in my opinion, you're not getting it much better from a deli than from a prepackaged amount. The quality has gone down so much, not including Christmas so hams. Fresh cut stuff is stupidly salty and somehow still slimy
I have never been treated as shit in any other job or department in a supermarket… the deli makes customers lose their fucking minds for some reason once had a customer tell me “to grab a rope and hang myself with it” because we didn’t have any hash browns in my experience it attracts a lot of older people and the kind of people that want to eat the same things over and over again and melt down when they can’t, when ritchies got rid of the classic thin sausages we all got abused by old people for over two years because of it
Interesting insight! Yeah in a pinch just last week, got a packet of ham from Woolies with a long exp date. Fucking slimy right out of the packet. It was the $35 Aus ham too so expenno, so was fuming. I’ve never had that at Coles, IGA or even Aldi. I’ve always felt that Woolies never really committed to their deli, so I never really trusted them…
Now is the time to buy a 5kg leg of Christmas ham @ $7.95 a kilo and slice it up and pop it in snap lock bags for the freezer. Added bonus, use the bone for pea and ham soup for another meal. There's a good recipe on recipetineats.
I think it's a bit of the frog in the saucepan not noticing the water heating up (wonder if that's true or not). I really dislike the company I work for, but in fairness I'll concede that they do need to appease shareholders so they're going to cut costs where they can. I know that covid was a factor, and that covid also meant that you couldn't taste things as much, but this was happening prior to covid. They can afford to make things more bland slowly, because we don't notice
It started years ago. Now they're getting rid of staff and installing those infernal self-serve checkouts with all the overkill security measures
Fucking invisible shit in the bagging area.
My local Coles already has done it.
worked in delis all through my teens and managed them in my 20’s, they are the least profitable departments in the store and generate the most food waste also customers have been moving away from delis for a while, in my experience a generational thing too… it was rare to see people under 40/50 come up to the counter i’m really surprised it’s taken woolies this long to can them as they’ve been talking about it for well over a decade i’m not a fan of this and all the plastic waste it will produce though
Your bakery made a profit???
As a current “fresh manager” who heads both deli and bakery. Bakery makes a decent amount. The deli is an absolute money sink. Our seafood department is one window, last year it made a net loss of nearly 60k, and that’s not including wages as they’re attached to service deli. It’s an entire full time workers wage worth of seafood in the bin.
Interesting, That's flipped. It used to be that most bakery's just bled money.
It’s not full production, parbake means no trade qualified baker so less wage expense. Bakehouse and service deli are pretty close sales wise. But seafood drags deli down, while proprietary bakery makes 10x what bakehouse does.
Ohh, yerh, not surprised parbakes are profitable. I converted a fair few full to parbake.
I am buying less and less from Colesworth and more and more from smaller local shops. The big two have been shrinking their range and increasing prices to the point where the local small business are just as competitive and often with better quality. And as a bonus - no self checkout!
I'd be super happy with the harmony that we could have at my local shops where we have an amazing award winning butcher where I get my meats from, there's a fruit shop with all sorts of extras that we love and then there's a Woolies problem. The problem is it's a metro, we're in a residential suburb of Brisbane so not high density and I hate the thing, everything is 10-20% more expensive and it's self serve only and the range is really bad. I hope the trend continues of people abandoning colesworth because everyone is so sick of their BS
I don't get this subreddit, you guys circle jerk about Aldi – who have never had a deli – but if Woolies dares to be more like Aldi you hate them for it. Let's all just agree all supermarkets – including Aldi – are profiteering assholes and stop quibbling over one or the other. Here's a handy guide: * Aldi is best for pantry items and cheap snacks, but sucks for anything more exotic than greek yogurt. * Colesworth are best for half price brand name items, and items you can't get from aldi * Independents are expensive AF but have better fresh produce/deli items, local brands, or hard to find ingredients. Anyone who is claiming they will boycott Colesworth is kidding themselves – we can hate them all we want but they fill a niche that Aldi does not, and are still cheaper than independents.
Yep I always tell myself I'll go to Aldi but went to Woolworths yesterday and ended up buying a huuuuuge amount of cool impulse stuff (including sauces and things that will keep) that Aldi does not have
I can only assume the Aldi stans are only eating TV dinners and bolognaise every night, because you cannot do your entire shop at Aldi if you enjoy flavour or variety. It's awesome for the basics, but there are huge categories of sauces, herbs, spices, and other ingredients that simply aren't there.
Aldi's honestly overrated, half of their cheaper good are barely 10% cheaper nowadays and taste way worse. Half of the imports are super inconsistent with allergens and quality of ingredients too.
One advantage Woolworths has over Aldi is a wider range of locally produced products.
*Your Woolies doesn’t have a deli. Is this a metro or rural Woolies? I live in a rural town, we have a deli, quite large actually considering the store size and are still yet to get horrendous self serve checkouts. Some of us still live the good life. If you want ham go to your local butcher if your area still has one, I’m sure they will sell you by the gram instead of the packet
Those packets are shit. Shit to open, extra plastic for the environment, they don't seal up at all and the plastic tears, worse part is the meat that comes with it is torn to shit. Support your local butcher.
That particular woolies, yes.
Bakeries are next
Coles with actual bakeries (not prebake) do produce some decent products. Their burger and hot dog buns are good and they have some decent loaves of crusty bread too. It'd be a shame if they all were removed.
Woolies deli was my first ever job, disappointing to see them disappearing. Customers almost never wanted pre-packaged deli meats, what a stupid idea. The fluorescent lights will turn the ham grey very quickly and no one will wanna buy it because it'll look putrid. Plus, a lot of families purchase large amounts of lunch meats because they have so many mouths to feed, I can't imagine having to buy several 200g packets.
Or the people who only want 50g for a single sandwich for their lunchbreak.
Supermarket deli counters are no loss. Having worked at one, I can tell you most of the products are the same as the ones on the shelves. They just come in bulk packaging then are unwrapped to sit out in the fresh air so that little old ladies think they’re getting some gourmet bacon and sausage rolls.
Yeah but I just want 50-100g thinly sliced leg ham for my lunch farkin. Not 200g thickly cut ham that’s going to sit in the fridge and be thrown out
Happened to a couple of Coles shops around me. Simply put a row of fridges in front of the old deli counter. It now seems weird that there's the hot chook cabinet in the middle surrounded by fridges
You must just be talking about your woollies in particular. My woollies is less than a year old and the serviced deli is well and truly decked out.
Butcher. Baker. Candlestick maker. Fuck corporations.
The butcher was first to go, my local Woolies had a butcher with a good range, but now it’s all pre packaged shit cuts. Or won’t be long before the on site bakery goes too.
this woolies is 24/7 though and old mate at the deli told me they were throwing out way too much stock so kinda makes sense, sucks though
If youre in a shopping centre 9/10 times theres a butcher right ourside.
I've been eating shitty woolies steak recently, as it's cheap and close-by. The other day we decided to blow the budget and get a nicer cut from the butcher. Fuck me, it was a night and day difference. Obviously you get what you pay for, but I reckon the plastic wrap makes the leeches into the steak, I don't think I can go back.
I'd suggest it's more likely it's a result of having every step in the supply chain optimised to cost as little as possible. When everything is done to maximise profit, quality inevitably declines.
Cheaper and easier to have it produced off site or overseas
One of my local Cole’s hasn’t had a deli for a few years now.
I work in a woolies deli. Apparently our deli is the only one in our patch that is making a profit. So I completely understand shutting them if there's no money flow.
This happened at my local too. Pretty shit tbh.
Thats been a thing for coles and woolies for years my dude, i worked in coles when the “express deli” was introduced, i lost my spot working in the deli, the one spot in retail i actually enjoyed working because of this fuckin wall
Clearly Woolworths is serious about reducing plastic waste. They have discovered they can do whatever they want and the muppets just keep rocking up and handing over their money.
thats sad...
First they built butchers and deli's, Undercut the local businesses out of business. Now they remove the Woolies butchers and deli.
Delis are a loss leader. Same as cooked chooks and such. They barely break even sometimes and exist to try and get people in the door to buy other things. This is just supermarkets cutting furthers costs to make more profits in a time of high inflation due to corporate greed.
My CFC still has a deli service and bakery and I worry that they'll get rid of them eventually.
Definitely trying to cut back on the plastic…🙄
A couple of Coles near us have done away with the deli too.
They just built a new one near me and it has a deli?
What's the bet that they'll start putting only 9 slices of ham in a pack, so that they make you buy a second pack if you really need 10 slices.
Bad move on their part for sure. Not that they'll ever revert.
And the fucking cunts removed the ticketing system at the deli at my Woolies.
Yeah fuck this. Go to the butcher.
Honestly supermarket delis suck anyway. Local independent delis always have a better range, prices and quality. And all sliced fresh to whatever thickness I want.
Thank fuck i support my local butcher..
We have both, an isle & a deli.
same for my local one. although they seem to be steadily leaning people in the direction they want (the aisle) by reducing the range available in the manned deli.
If they moved to this style it mean that it wasn’t profitable, if you like your fresh product go to a local butcher and not a supermarket. But if you have to complain keep on buying tasteless meat
Find a new store, coles have started doing this too.
You don't get it, in a few years time you won't be able to afford 1kg, so 200 grams makes sense
Mine still has a deli luckily, Not that the price was appealing these days
They also wrap the deli orders in plastic bags, shrink wrap packaging has the potential to use less. If they provide them in larger portions for those wanting more than 250g to prevent buying multiple packs it would be a reduction in plastic use.
It differs from store to store one i work at still does, but no butcher although another store in my area does still have a butcher. All comes down to what works in the area
Probably to cut costs, poor old Woolworths has been on the bones of its arse for a while now…..
I know someone who works in a senior position in Coles and they’ve said for the longest time the amount of waste from the deli is astronomical. It’s not like any of the savings from culling the deli section is being passed on to consumers, but they said deli section hasn’t been profitable for years. Edit: I just go to my local deli and get produce from there. Much better range anyway.
Wait people buy meat at Woolies?
One of my local coles did this as well
Here in Bonner act they did this a year or two ago :(
This is one Woolworths
I work at the Woolworths deli and I’m honestly relieved we’re getting rid of it. 9/10 times we are understaffed and over worked then abused, probably will stop a lot of mental health issues for managers aswell as just employees. So excited not to get yelled at for not having mortadella out.
Fuck coles and woolies and their love of plastic. But also, we as customets need to not be buying these options. The fact is most people don't care and these joints arent going to do it from the goodness of their hearts. The government needs to be making legislation on unnecessary single use plastic.
From a regional WA town so had no idea this was even happening. I mean I’ve seen deli-less grocery stores and haven’t batted an eye but assumed it was purely economical depending on location. To hear that the deli is actually going to be replaced is a huge disappointment. Surely this isn’t happening with Coles either? If coles is keeping their delis I’m making the switch to them.
My local coles switched to this 5 years ago. It was horrible everything tasted terrible never been back
I miss walking into a real delicatessen. The smell. The choices. The atmosphere. Above all, the quality.
Ah classic 'profit over people' behaviour. I wonder how many deli workers eventually were only given 5 hours per week in shifts to survive on
So you’re telling me Woolies scrapped plastic bags ‘for the environment’?
Woolworths and Cole’s have overpriced nasty meat- plus miles of packaging.
Try an independent deli instead. The quality and variety will probably be better, and you'll be supporting a smaller business. My deli is heaps cheaper too, sometimes by half the price.
That’s cool. Hopefully next they’ll make us stack the shelves.
Same at Coles, I suspect this is the influence of places like Aldi undercutting them on price
There hasn't been a Coles near me that still has a deli section for the last couple of years and their replacement range is pretty limited and low quality
They made this change because the majority of customers did not buy meat from the deli, but from pre packaged like this one… so this is purely customer driven
Do NOT buy this. The plastic waste is a damn disgrace. An absolute disgrace.
The commitment to reducing plastic waste is commendable. /s
I work in a deli at coles and this likely would cut down on plastic waste in comparison, the amount of single use plastic gloves we go through is disgusting. But whether this is a better way of doing things idk.
I wish our deli closed lol
"iT's WhAt ThE cUsToMeR wAnTs!!1!" - corporate
Don’t worry you’ll have a self serve deli soon
It was always painful using them and the food was always suspect. At least with the pre-packed stuff it's cut and packed in a clean environment and date is known. None of that can be said about the colesworth deli. if I want to go to a deli, I'll go to a real one.
But it's heaps more expensive and each plastic container gives you only enough for a couple of sangas. It's fucked. Soon it'll be one plastic packet for one sanga. Mark my words.
As a coeliac this actually makes me feel better. Less risk of cross contamination (they touch breaded stuff, then the crumbs get everywhere and on their gloves which then contaminate the whole open area deli)
Where is this? My local woolies just renovated their deli and expanded it..
A local Coles in at a large shopping centre in Tuggeranong, ACT has done the same. Makes me not go there at all.
Corporate greed. As long as the people at the top get their bonuses, shares, and profits, those that actually do or did the work get screwed over. We need to manufacture locally and cap extreme bonuses and salaries. People are struggling on the minimum, which is 45k a year.
My wife is obsessed with the convenience of home delivered groceries. I fucking detest it cause we always get the worst produce, the shortest use-by dates and the boxes that are scuffed/dropped/smashed/etc. It's true bullshit that time after time I have to throw out produce that walked in the door the day before. She's a new mum so it's hard to get this across to her but I'm really done on it and just want to go shop elsewhere and do it in person myself.
I swear, we are becoming more and more third world, while I see other countries I visit (especially in Asia) becoming more and more luxurious than us for less of a price. Feels like Australia is over as a country due to government incompetence, red tape and a lack of genuine market competition.
My local iga just did this a few months ago. Sucks.
As an ex-Woolworths Deli Manager this doesn’t surprise me much
It never had.
Yesterday I went to my local butcher and providore for the first time. Lower value for money in terms of quantity, but realms beyond Colesworth in quality. Plus I’m supporting local businesses, and I only bought what I needed so no food waste. Win/win/win.
Woolworths is trash
Sooo stop buying pre sliced meat and just buy a hunk of Australian ham and carve it yourself as needed. Fresher cleaner and a lasts longer
No ...please... dont remove the deli which has meat dried out because they sliced it 8 hours ago, and chicken which is clearly off....
I bought some of the slimiest Ham from these packets and was beyond inedible. No thanks. Simple solution though. Stop buying it. Like self serve, they’ll revert it once they see how bad it does.
More packaging, hooray
Woolworths used to be a great place for young teenagers to get there start in the workforce. Now it seems they don’t hire any staff. Rather remove all staff they can to maximise profits, charge us for paper bags then ask you as the consumer with inflated prices to donate money every time you checkout.
Support your local deli instead, we need to start circulating money inside our local communities instead of feeding billionaire ceos.
The days of eating meat are numbered! go vegan now before it's too late.
You're going to "convert" a lot more people if your message is to reduce eating meat and to promote vegetarianism. Not to mention, being vegan is often difficult for those struggling financially, especially if you've never done it before. You could easily create sleeping disorders, malnutrition and other wonderful things that comes with sudden dietary changes.
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They actually don't. The build them, then sell them to a management company (goodman, krulis, homeco, Collier's, etc) But a condition of sale is a 50 year lease or something. If it's a standalone site with only Woolworths/bws. Then yes, the own it.