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Big W is the second largest discount department store in Australia, with more than 120 stores located nationwide. It is a division of Woolworths Limited, the largest retailer in Australia. Its slogan is 'We Sell For Less', and it's motto is "Everyday Low Prices".
History Woolworths Limited's original Woolworths variety stores carried a range of general merchandise. Later, the scope of these stores grew to include groceries. Groceries became their focus. In the 1970's the company created two chains to separate out these lines - "Woolworths" and "Big W". This process was largely completed in 1989, however a few "Woolworths Variety" stores existed into the 1990's (such as the one in Rundle Mall, Adelaide). Now Big W has 120 stores, 25,000 employees, and is growing rapidly. Their future plans are to revamp more than half their stores and build/develop new stores. In 2006 Big W installed new LCD POS systems. Big W has recently opened several stores across Australia; in New South Wales one in Liverpool, in Queensland one in Chermside and another in Noosaville, in South Australia one in Seaford and in Western Australia one in Midland Gate. The Big W stores in Canberra, ACT and Geelong, VIC are opening soon. Business Being a discount department store, Big W sells a wide range of merchandise at low prices. Big W's main competitor is Kmart, owned by rival retailer Coles Myer. One of its key strategies is that of 'Everyday low prices'. The aim of this is to create a feeling amongst the public that thay may walk into a Big W store and buy a product at a low price anytime, without having to wait for a special offer. Thus, Big W never has storewide 15% off days as Kmart does. Nevertheless, Big W still has a weekly catalogue with specials, which generally runs from Thursday to Wednesday (coinciding with the period of Kmart's weekly catalogue). Many of the techniques used by Big W in promotions are nearly identical to the US chain Walmart, such as the in store "smiley face" and the "price rollback". Indeed, Woolworths CEO Roger Corbett has a mentor relationship with a Walmart executive. Stores Today, Big W has stores throughout Australia, in every state and territory. Traditionally, Big W stores have been located in suburban and regional locations. However, in recent years two stores have been opened in central business districts, at Macarthur Central (Brisbane) QV (Melbourne) and also a new store being presently constructed at the Canberra Centre in Civic (Canberra). Each store is divided into four departments, which consist of the following: Services available at each store include: Employees Big W employees are known as 'associates'. Associates work in a wide variety of roles, including: Pay and conditions for associates are governed by the Big W Certified Agreement 2003. This agreement was negotiated between the company and the union representing Big W employees, the Shop, Distributive and Allied Employees Association. An additional benefit of working for Big W is that associates can receive a staff discount card, which provides discounts of 5% at Woolworths Limited outlets (except for Woolworths Petrol where the employee may receive 4c per litre off unleaded petrol). In addition, part-time and full-time employees may receive a second discount card, for use by a family member living in the same household as the associate. Employees have the choice to wear blue OR white business work shirts while working. Store Management Big W associates report to persons within the Store Management hierarchy. Store Management Structure While all associates and management are accountable directly to the Store Manager, there are smaller accountability threads for each level of management. Operations Operations (Day) Operations (Night) Operations (Support) Although all employees are paid from Woolworths Limited's National Pay Office (NPO), Managers are remunerated by salary from the various Regional Offices located throughout Australia whereas Associates are paid in accordance with the SDA Agreement (detailed above) from the budget allocated to each store. The Store Management team is accountable to Area Management, who in turn are accountable to the management team at Regional Head Office, and then to the "General Manager - Stores" based in Woolworths Support Office (located at the Norwest Business Park in Bella Vista, NSW). This hierarchy is implemented identically across all stores, however, it is not uncommon for some positions to be left unfilled due to budget limitations in some regional stores. If stores do not have a full management team, they are able to 'charge-off' the manager's position by increasing their staffing levels beyond the store's allocated budget while the position is left unfilled (ie in the absence of a Business Manager Home, an additional full-time Service Associate for that department may be allocated)...... | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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