Dickson Woolworths - I hope you're not in a rush!

Kalliste said :

Yes! Trolley’s shouldn’t be allowed through self serve.. In Dickson it is especially annoying. Not to mention that people that usually try to do a trolley sized shop at self serves are the slowest people known to man!

Woolworths self serve checkouts used to be fairly decent until they increased the sensitivity of them and not they’re just painful “are you using your own bag?” and then there is no option for Yes… !!

They turned the scales back on. They turned them off for many years but then found they had too much theft. I’m guessing the assumption is through self serve checkouts. That said I bought some thing the other day that was so light it didn’t register and kept asking me to place the item in the bagging area. I put another item in the bagging area and it stopped. I took it out the scan (I wasn’t try to steal) and it told me to put the item back. I got one of the attendants over and showed them, not that they’d do anything, except enter the code to let me scan the item and pay for everything. However I can imagine people just stealing still if the scales work in their favour, plus it doesn’t stop the old cheap banana trick, where people would weigh there $17.99 per kilo post cyclone bananas as another cheaper fruit.

FYI Coles are not any better while I’m bagging out woolies and any shop at Aldi, usually means I still have to go elsewhere to get a few other things.

Isn’t the point of various redevelopments in the Dickson area that on the one hand the ACT Government promotes sustainable cutting edge retail & housing development, that have green open spaces, promotes solar & wind power, but on the other hand approves lame dreadful proposals that squeeze in the maximum number of shoddy units & lack creativity or sustainability.

Where are the rooftop gardens, passive designs, use of solar technology. Dickson could become worlds best practice instead of another crappy urban infill.

More on the Dickson Supermarket debate

The point is that the ACT Government has a policy to encourage alternatives to the usual major supermarkets. Residents were looking to the government to bring in a different supermarket into Dickson so that there would be an alternative – something different – not just more of the same.

Residents are not opposing a new supermarket – but they are opposed to what has been offered. It is an environmental monster. For a moment there residents trusted the government to deliver on their own policy. There’s no trust now. There is total disappointment in the ACT Government’s planning and development. The new proposal for Dickson fails the government’s own policy. That’s the real story.

Back to challenge of going into Woolworths and out quickly – I do so often. Very often.

I agree that it does get very busy. In recent years I have shopped in supermarkets in several Canberra suburbs, and in Vienna, London, Tokyo and Singapore, and my observation is that the Dickson Woolworths is as good as it gets. There are delays sometimes but no worse than most. Apparently the most efficient supermarket is in that other foreign country, Queanbeyan.

A survey in Victoria showed that people shop at such supermarkets very reluctantly – not necessarily by choice – but because the alternates have been driven out of business. I agree. I am no friend of Woolworths. And that’s why when I can I shop at the nearby smaller shops in Dickson – for fruit and veg, for meat and for fish.

I’m surprised that Woolies Kippax hasn’t had a mention. Seldom are there more than two checkouts open and always a queue through the store..

It’s quite simple really, Masters are costing Woolies a fortune and guess where savings have to be made to allow the hardware sector to survive? Thats right, the supermarkets are footing the bill. Oh and yes, shareholders demand a bigger dividend each and every year. Yes it is unfortunate, but like anything, you have choices so why not explore them.

watto23 said :

I think they could come up with a trolley self serve aisle with the conveyor belt so that people could unload the trollies and pay for them and pack them quickly, instead of stuffing around in a small space trying to get things out of their full trolley, scan them (much slower now the scales are turned on and everything has to be weighed before scanning the next item), bag them shuffle things around the trolley to swap bags etc…

Both Tesco and Sainsbury’s had these when I lived in the UK a good 8 years ago. Basically the conveyor was quite a bit longer to more or less hold a full trolleys worth of shopping and on the scan side it had a conveyor that I assume weighed your goods, then had a dividing bar you moved to direct shopping into two bagging locations. One location was for your shopping, the other was for the person who used it before you.

Or even better still when I visited the UK last year both these chains had scan as you go. Basically you carry a scanner with you, scan, then dock the scanner and pay and bag at your car. They then do random audits of your shopping to ensure your not nicking things. Also used this at a supermarket in The Netherlands circa 2009. The new Woolowrths trolleys look like they are designed to hold a scanner, so maybe it is on the cards.

Yep woolies at Dickson is busy, always has been. They would probably benefit from having more express and self serve checkouts to get people buying a small number of items through quickly. It appears that they’re fairly restricted in what they can do with the store being smaller than the average.

Allowing supermarkets to be stuck up on every corner until you have every brand in every centre does nothing. Plenty of Aldis around, they all have a reasonable price, terrible range and service with 1 or 2 checkouts open with lines a mile long. Coles match Woolies for service, both ok most of the time, except for when everyone shops at once. People choose one or the other based on their preference, some people can tolerate the terrible layout of Coles stores.

The other problem with Woolies Dickson – and probably others is that they always seem to be stacking the shelves and cluttering up the aisles. They park their big trolley things right in front of the shelves that you are trying to get to, and make no effort to move them for you. At night it’s the worst you can barely get through the aisles. I can’t wait till Aldi and Coles open up there – It’s been a long time coming though.

Competition and choice certainly do help – in my observation service is better (less bad?) where you have at least 2 of Coles/Woollies/Aldi within easy walking distance of each other. Let’s just hope they don’t follow the lead of the banks and start (or try to….) charging people for the privilege of having the assistance of a checkout operator!

watto23 said :

Woolies at Erindale can be pretty bad as well. What annoys me most is people taking trollies through the self-serve checkout. The space is limited, it holds the queue up and there is often a couple of checkout people on and I use those because its quicker! I think they could come up with a trolley self serve aisle with the conveyor belt so that people could unload the trollies and pay for them and pack them quickly, instead of stuffing around in a small space trying to get things out of their full trolley, scan them (much slower now the scales are turned on and everything has to be weighed before scanning the next item), bag them shuffle things around the trolley to swap bags etc…

Yes! Trolley’s shouldn’t be allowed through self serve.. In Dickson it is especially annoying. Not to mention that people that usually try to do a trolley sized shop at self serves are the slowest people known to man!

Woolworths self serve checkouts used to be fairly decent until they increased the sensitivity of them and not they’re just painful “are you using your own bag?” and then there is no option for Yes… !!

In regards to Dickson specifically, I’m surprised you didn’t mention the deli.. it has to be the worst deli section in a supermarket anywhere in Canberra.. it closes at about 8:30 so there is no chance of going late and avoiding everyone and at other times there is just a massive queue. I remember one time I waited about 15mins just to get ham.. and although there were 10 or so people queuing one of the staff members went on break leaving another poor staff member alone to serve everyone.

The best time I’ve found for Dickson Woolworths is either around/after 8 and also mid morning, 9 – 11 as it’s basically empty.

I think it must be a Woolworths thing. I refused to go to Woollies Weston on my way home from the office, ever. Even in quiet times, they seemed to close down registers strategically to make it take just as long in quiet times as it would in busier times. I didn’t believe it when my brother told me Coles in Curtin was not like that, then I tried it – wow, back in my car with a handful of things within 5 minutes, even at 5:30pm! I figure it’s quicker to drive the extra distance to Coles in Curtin than to wait in a queue at Woollies in Weston. I figure they are trying to drive their customers to the opposition.

While we’re talking about Woollies, is it company policy for their service stations to have orange “out of order” tags hanging on half the bowsers?

Woolworths clearly has a policy of under-staffing the checkouts … simple cost-cutting presumably, with the added benefit (for them) that it tends to drive customers to the self-serve checkouts. This is why I only use Woolies when there is no ready alternative.

Dickson Woolies is particularly busy, so it’s particularly slow to get through.

It’s not rocket surgery.

watto23 said :

Woolies at Erindale can be pretty bad as well. What annoys me most is people taking trollies through the self-serve checkout. The space is limited, it holds the queue up and there is often a couple of checkout people on and I use those because its quicker! I think they could come up with a trolley self serve aisle with the conveyor belt so that people could unload the trollies and pay for them and pack them quickly, instead of stuffing around in a small space trying to get things out of their full trolley, scan them (much slower now the scales are turned on and everything has to be weighed before scanning the next item), bag them shuffle things around the trolley to swap bags etc…

I share your concerns watto.
The problem is that there is often no choice at Woolies Erindale but to use the self-serve ones when none of the manned checkouts are open. All their machines are a disaster.
It has become the same at Coles Chisholm.
Aldi Chisolm know how to do it efficiently and IGA Wanniassa are fast. The longer conveyor belts help.

Alexandra Craig said :

Ghettosmurf87 said :

If waiting 10 minutes is an issue, don’t go when Woolies Dickson is likely to be at its busiest, i.e after work from 5-7pm or midday-mid afternoon (12-3) on weekends when people are doing their weekly shop. It’s really not that hard.

I regularly drop past Dickson Woolies after footy training, so after 7:30 or 8 pm and can always get a park in the first row (closest to the library) and don’t have to wait longer than 5min in the line, though it’s usually only a minute or two.

If I have to drop in at busy times then I understand that I might have to wait 10 minutes or so.

But really, in the grand scheme of things, is 10minutes that long to wait? Slow down, take a breath, think about a few other things while you wait and before you know it you’ll be out of there.

BTW, how late were you getting those bananas? Because the fruit shop just past the chemist would probably have had no line if it was open. The old guy that runs it is a legend in my books. I came in one day looking for radishes because woolies didn’t have any. There were none on the stands, but he went out the back and got me the last bunch. Didn’t cost much at all either. Saved my dinner menu did he!

I’ve been at a variety of times – first thing in the morning, late at night, mid morning on a weekend, mid afternoon on a weekday. It’s always overflowing with people.

Re the bananas – it was at night time. Probably 8.30pm so I presume the fruit shop would have been closed.

When I lived in Braddon, I used to either do a quick shop at Ainslie IGA, or for a bigger shop I’d drive out to Belco and for emergency things go to the dreaded Dickson Woolies.

I found with Dickson, you needed to go after 8pm, better still closer to 9pm to avoid the queues. Not sure what you are talking about regarding it being busy first thing in the morning, if you are there between 7-7.30am there is only a handful of people there

The lines at Dickson Woolies aren’t a new problem either: http://the-riotact.com/the-pain-of-woolworths-dickson-and-the-need-for-a-market-driven-solution/7673

The Dickson Master Plan includes plans for an additional supermarket and basement parking, so perhaps this won’t be an issue for too much longer.

Alexandra, you raise some interesting points, which to me goes to the heart of the Governments supermarket policy. A point I tried to make in a thread about the new development at Dickson, but was apparently censored as my post never appeared.

Anyway as you say, Woolworths Dickson is the only major (read Coles or Woolworths) supermarket in the inner north, the remainder are suburban IGA’s (Lyneham, Turner, Ainslie and Hackett) and of course Supabarn and IGA in the city and a couple of other smaller supermarkets at North Lyneham and Watson.

Yet here we have the one and only major in the area, which is far from the biggest and best Woolworths I’ve ever set foot in yet it is still so busy. With so much other competition around you really have to ask why is this Woolworths so busy? Of course the answer is many people are making the choice, yet elsewhere the Government pushed by the Canberra supermarket mafia want to limit competition by excluding majors, even though elsewhere in Canberra people are shopping with their feet and choosing the majors.

Anyway never mind in Dickson your problems will be solved once they start the new Coles development. Woolworths without a doubt will be the biggest looser out of that development. Not just because of new competition, but by the fact that it is going to be rather inconvenient to shop at Woolworths, both during construction and once it opens. Looking at the plans people will need to park in the Coles undeground car park, then come up and ramp and cross the road to get to Woolworths. But for Coles and Aldi, it will be just up the ramp and your their.

The other options for Woolworth shoppers will be to park next to the Tradies and again cross the road, or maybe park in the small carpark near the post office/NAB.

End result is it will be quieter at Woolworths Dickson.

Woolies at Erindale can be pretty bad as well. What annoys me most is people taking trollies through the self-serve checkout. The space is limited, it holds the queue up and there is often a couple of checkout people on and I use those because its quicker! I think they could come up with a trolley self serve aisle with the conveyor belt so that people could unload the trollies and pay for them and pack them quickly, instead of stuffing around in a small space trying to get things out of their full trolley, scan them (much slower now the scales are turned on and everything has to be weighed before scanning the next item), bag them shuffle things around the trolley to swap bags etc…

Ghettosmurf87 said :

If waiting 10 minutes is an issue, don’t go when Woolies Dickson is likely to be at its busiest, i.e after work from 5-7pm or midday-mid afternoon (12-3) on weekends when people are doing their weekly shop. It’s really not that hard.

I regularly drop past Dickson Woolies after footy training, so after 7:30 or 8 pm and can always get a park in the first row (closest to the library) and don’t have to wait longer than 5min in the line, though it’s usually only a minute or two.

If I have to drop in at busy times then I understand that I might have to wait 10 minutes or so.

But really, in the grand scheme of things, is 10minutes that long to wait? Slow down, take a breath, think about a few other things while you wait and before you know it you’ll be out of there.

BTW, how late were you getting those bananas? Because the fruit shop just past the chemist would probably have had no line if it was open. The old guy that runs it is a legend in my books. I came in one day looking for radishes because woolies didn’t have any. There were none on the stands, but he went out the back and got me the last bunch. Didn’t cost much at all either. Saved my dinner menu did he!

I’ve been at a variety of times – first thing in the morning, late at night, mid morning on a weekend, mid afternoon on a weekday. It’s always overflowing with people.

Re the bananas – it was at night time. Probably 8.30pm so I presume the fruit shop would have been closed.

If waiting 10 minutes is an issue, don’t go when Woolies Dickson is likely to be at its busiest, i.e after work from 5-7pm or midday-mid afternoon (12-3) on weekends when people are doing their weekly shop. It’s really not that hard.

I regularly drop past Dickson Woolies after footy training, so after 7:30 or 8 pm and can always get a park in the first row (closest to the library) and don’t have to wait longer than 5min in the line, though it’s usually only a minute or two.

If I have to drop in at busy times then I understand that I might have to wait 10 minutes or so.

But really, in the grand scheme of things, is 10minutes that long to wait? Slow down, take a breath, think about a few other things while you wait and before you know it you’ll be out of there.

BTW, how late were you getting those bananas? Because the fruit shop just past the chemist would probably have had no line if it was open. The old guy that runs it is a legend in my books. I came in one day looking for radishes because woolies didn’t have any. There were none on the stands, but he went out the back and got me the last bunch. Didn’t cost much at all either. Saved my dinner menu did he!