Woolies' reputation strengthens: Survey

Albereth said:
Milk and bread are probably ther two items that are purchased most often. The Woolies price on these items is ridiculous. I think 2l milk is around R26 whereas at the Spar it varies from R16 to R22. PnP is even cheaper.

I raised milk and bread as convenience plays a large role as to where you'll buy it. Woolies is convenient.

Washing powder and loo paper - well those are the monthly shop items. You can plan where to get those.
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Here's one thread where people compared:

http://mybroadband.co.za/vb/showthread.php/541785-Woolies-vs-Pick-n-Pay-Prices

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And another one where they're currently discussing it, albeit with a slightly confused OP.

http://mybroadband.co.za/vb/showthread.php/615764-Why-buy-Woolworths-You-ve-been-duped!

Albereth said:
I think we should also bring Woolies clothes into the discussion. I used to be a Woolies perfect match. I could buy clothes off the rack and they'd fit. So I may have changed shape slightly but I haven't changed into a chinaman. Also, you could by clothes that were so well made that they'd come back into fashion before you wore them out. Nowadays you need to check the seams before you leave the shop otherwise you could expect a return trip.
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I've generally had a good experience with their clothing. Got a couple of top notch things that have lasted me a long time. I always make sure to try whatever I'm looking at on first, though.

Albereth said:
Yes, their returns policy is good. But it isn't as good as it was. Maybe they did get scammed by staff stealing items and then having someone return it for a refund. But the process now is laborius. The girl child bought some boots and found some of the stitching on one of them wasn't done properly. You can't just return it and swap. No, it has to be scanned back, then the replacement scanned out and a whole filling out of a form story. The consumer ends up doing the admin. That admin should be done by the store. Like it was when Woolies was that much better.
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I've never had to return anything, luckily. They've been very helpful in tracking down things not in their store in my experience.
 
Azimuth said:
Some tangible things in Woolies favour, some of which I don't think other threads have touched on before:

- Refrigeration and temperature regulation. From point A to B and in the store. This is a golden rule.
- Woolies Rewards and combos. Sometimes you get free related stuff with a product you buy.
- Woolies is currently the cheapest in S.A. for Nescafé Cappucino. I'm talking ten bucks.
- Often cheaper for odd things like pool chemicals.
- Regularly cheaper for things such as the usual basket of goods and baby formula.
- Their fruit lasts and is the best of the crop.
- Sustained drive towards healthy living. Preservatives and salt are blasphemy.
- If there is a power outage they systematically start to remove all cooked food from display e.g. pies and chicken. They will give it to you but won't sell it to you.
- Free WiFi coverage throughout the store.
- Some of the best freshly made coffee.
- You actually get to know cashiers and vice versa.
- They engage with me on a regular basis in the form of satisfaction surveys.
- Their fresh flowers last really well.

Just some things that come to mind for me. I'm comparing to Spar and Pick 'n Pay.
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Exceptions to every rule I suppose.

I've had the All Saint's Woolies have a bombed out fridge with rather wilted salads. Asked staff and got a blank look. Had to call the manager who was clueless about the fridge not working but gave me the lettuce for free.
Victory Park Woolies has the worst pies of the lot - and the price is easily R2 more than the next highest - where they are dry. I've asked how long they've been out and was told 20 minutes. And it most certainly isn't convenient to reutn it seeing that convenience was why I was there in the first place.
Had coffee last weekend at the Northgate Woolies and it sucked. It was free from one of those VIP vouchers but it wasn't nice. But then I have a decent coffee machine at home. On that, maybe the Nescafe is cheaper but only if you buy it in the first place :p
Their flowers can last but I've had plenty of roses have their flowers fall off when opening the cellophane. It's to the point that I've been told not to buy any - but every now and then I get a bunch for free.
You need to wait for a two for the price of one special on their roast chickens before they become reasonable.
Fruit is not bad - until you find their ready to eat avos are a long way from being ready to eat.
 
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Dude I love the Nescafé Cappucino and I have a Saeco Syntia...
 
OrbitalDawn said:
I've generally had a good experience with their clothing. Got a couple of top notch things that have lasted me a long time. I always make sure to try whatever I'm looking at on first, though.

I've never had to return anything, luckily. They've been very helpful in tracking down things not in their store in my experience.
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In order for it to have lasted a long time means you bought it a long time ago - which was my point. Woolies was good. Not so much these days.
 
What I notice about Woolworths, is that floor staff will move to the tills when there are empty tills and queues of people. Checkers and PnP? Nope.
 
Albereth said:
I'd say that the only decent thing about Woolies is that one Woolies is pretty much the same as any other Woolies. Can't say the same for any of the other places.
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Have to agree, its the consistency that attracts people (and long lasting veggies in my case). Saying that, I can't ever remember buying rotten meat in Woolies, can't say the same about the other Grocery Stores.
 
Slootvreter said:
What I notice about Woolworths, is that floor staff will move to the tills when there are empty tills and queues of people. Checkers and PnP? Nope.
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Usually in the case of Woolies. Not always. They do give a number that you can call if you've been in the queue too long. Not always asnwered though.
 
The_MAC said:
Have to agree, its the consistency that attracts people (and long lasting veggies in my case). Saying that, I can't ever remember buying rotten meat in Woolies, can't say the same about the other Grocery Stores.
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I used to buy meat from only Woolies. I can't afford it anymore.

My favourite place at the moment is the Spar at Hobart. It's owned by the Broadacres folk, or is linked some way. Their meat looks just fine. Robindale Spar is also pretty good on meat but they also have some shocking looking stuff there too.
 
For me it's quite simple, every single time I go to PnP or Checkers I leave disgruntled. Either because of too few tills open, things being out of stock or till operators looking as if their entire family has just been killed, by you.

Every time I leave Woolies I have what I went there for and if I had to wait in a queue it at least looked like they were trying to sort it out.

If I have to pay more for that (which I don't think I do), I'll pay it with a smile.

Spar is usually more expensive and you get REALLY good Spars which are fantastic, and you get REALLY bad Spars, which are utterly horrible, there is no consistency.
 
RoosTa said:
All their ready-to-eat meals/desserts is expensive, but their fresh produce is quite competitive with PnP, Checkers etc
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Have to agree....the only thing I really buy from Woolies is their veggies....good quality and reasonably priced + with my Discovery set up, get 25% cash back on all my veggies ....being a juicer, get about 300 back per month.
 
yebocan said:
Have to agree....the only thing I really buy from Woolies is their veggies....good quality and reasonably priced + with my Discovery set up, get 25% cash back on all my veggies ....being a juicer, get about 300 back per month.
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People who use steriods eat a lot of veggies? Never knew that.

:p
 
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