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Appendix 6 - Time Line of Retail Grocery Trends
Early
1900s
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1914
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First Coles store opens in Melbourne
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1920s
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Suburban sprawl leads to ordering of goods and home
delivery
Experimentation
with different retail formats in food departments
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1924
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First
Woolworths store opens in Sydney
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1930s and 1940s
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Depression
and World War Two austerity stifles retail innovation
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1941
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Franklins
open branch stores in Sydney metropolitan area
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1949
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Food
departments of department stores increasingly convert to self service
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1950s
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Establishment
of independent supermarkets across expanding suburbs, stocking a wide range
of groceries and cleaning products, including refrigerated goods such as
milk, cheese, dairy and ‘deli’ products
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1950
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First
fully self-service grocery store opens in Sydney
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1954
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766
self-service stores in Australia
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1956
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Coles
and Woolworths trial self-service
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1957
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1700
self-service stores in Australia by end of year
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1960s
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Fruit
and vegetables introduced in supermarkets
Woolworths
and Coles acquire small and innovative supermarket chains such as BCC in
Brisbane and Flemings in Sydney, convert many of their variety stores to a
grocery and variety format, and create the first house brands to undercut
leading brands.
Supermarkets
buy out their franchise butchers and begin to invest in integrated supply chains
via long-term contracts with suppliers. Sophisticated food processing
techniques implemented.
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1960
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Coles
opens first purpose-built free-standing supermarket in Victoria
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1962
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Coles
has 8 supermarkets
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1968
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After
a decade of rapid growth Franklins operates 70 supermarkets
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1970s
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Higher
levels of inflation increase cost consciousness among consumers
Supermarkets
seek to keep prices down by keeping service to a minimum, narrowing aisles to
reduce floor space rentals and dimming the lighting to cut electricity bills
Supermarkets
build their own meat distribution facilities
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1972
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Davids open fully
computer-controlled warehouse in Sydney
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1978
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‘No Frills’ house brand
introduced at Franklins
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1979
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Hong Kong company Dairy Farm
International Holdings Limited buys Franklins
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1980s
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Discounters Franklins become
popular in NSW; Bi-Lo in South Australia; Shoeys in Victoria and Jack the
Slasher in Queensland, draw market share from both Woolworths and Coles.
Convenience stores such as
7-Eleven and Food Plus, often on main roads and with longer opening hours,
became popular and also draw market share from both Woolworths and Coles
despite higher prices and limited range. These stores sell confectionary,
soft drink, partly prepared meals, fast food items and often petrol.
Woolworths and Coles purchase
discount chains such as Jack the Slasher, Shoeys and Bi-Lo, and renovating
their stores. Coles opens big new-look Super K stores. They improve the
quality of their fruit and vegetables and invest heavily in technology and
systems to improve efficiency, such as barcoders and scanners.
Franklins expands into
Queensland, South Australia and Victoria
Davids, the major wholesaler
to the independent retailers, begins to merge with other independent
wholesalers
The range of items on
supermarket shelves continues to expand into areas such as health and beauty
products, magazines, and pre-prepared meals.
EFTPOS facilities introduced
at checkouts.
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1980
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Scanning first appears at an
independent supermarket in Victoria.
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1982
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Coles adopts scanning
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1990s
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Increasing
sophistication of consumers demanding new flavours, methods of preparation
and packaging
Credit
cards and retail incentive schemes such as ‘fly buys’ introduced
Fall
in employment of casual workers in the retail sector as proportion of
national retail workforce
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1990
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Franklins
moves into liquor sales
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1991
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Coles
centralises buying from state to national level
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1993
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Woolworths
Limited floats on stock exchange, adding over 330,000 new shareholders
consisting mainly of small investors
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1994
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Store
managers at Coles increasing freed to customise a portion of their offerings
to suit local tastes.
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1999
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Major
chains experiment with Internet shopping
Announcement
of fuller banking services to be provided at Woolworths
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Source: Most items are sourced
from Eric Jones, ‘Coles Myer & Grocery Retailing in Twentieth-Century
Australia’, Coles Myer Submission 168 Part 2, and Franklins, Submission 200.
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