By Jedd Boyan
A redevelopment of a Woolworths Metro store in Brisbane’s inner-city suburb of Kelvin Grove is set to modernise shopping for customers this August.
Woolworths Kelvin Grove’s service manager Scott Wright said customers had a range of long overdue developments to expect.
“We’re getting a completely new fit out with new options for customers. We’re getting a sushi bar, new registers, an eatery, rest area and a café for customers to look forward to,” he said.
“This development comes from a mass revamp of existing Woolworths Metro stores across Australia, to suit the needs of modern city customers.”
QUT Business School Associate Professor Gary Mortimer said that speed, quality and convenience are becoming the most important factors for modern shoppers.
“Metro stores are a smaller format business. We’ve seen other businesses such as Coles and Ikea move into this space for cities without a lot of room,” he said
“Supermarkets are now looking to move away from strictly ‘product and price’ because it’s so easily replicable, particularly comparing Woolworths and Coles selling the same range of products and brands.”
Mr Mortimer says modern supermarkets are moving towards creating a more positive and engaging, ‘market-like’ experience for customers, where the only reason customers walk into a store is to get fresh produce.
“Café’s, fresh fish on ice, open butchery departments, observing bakers pulling bread out of the ovens in the morning, that type of theatre is really important to differentiate themselves from competitors,” he said.
Mr Mortimer predicts many more changes for shoppers are to come within the next five years.
“Stores will continue to get smaller and basic groceries will become a standard automated order that will turn up at your door,” he said.
“Future stores will start to use augmented reality on our smartphones to ‘hyper-personalise’ the shopping experience. Soon we’ll be able to hold our phones down the aisle and see products that match our requirements pop up on our screen.”
Mr Mortimer said developments such as those seen at the Woolworths store in Kelvin Grove are the future of shopping and will become the norm in the near future.
