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| Sydney Costco; So Soon I Can Taste It! | |
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| Topic Started: Jul 15 2011, 07:28:34 PM (4,720 Views) | |
| Pothole | Aug 19 2011, 08:31:35 AM Post #41 |
True Blue Mate
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 Bindi...... I have to admit I love the trolleys with 360 on all wheels if I am shopping with kids, nothing like giving a big sideways push and have them spin around and around in the middle of the isle...... having said that I am sure that 90% of shoppers would prefer to give me a fixed wheel trolley (or something else... ) Does anyone else here remember years and years ago that some shops used to have fixed wheeled trolleys....if memory serves me correclty Woolies was one. Would be interesting to know why we went to the all wheel drive models... Edited by Pothole, Aug 19 2011, 08:32:35 AM.
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Those Who Lose Dreaming are Lost. Aboriginal Proverb A truly happy person is one who can enjoy the scenery on a detour Anon | |
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| Judy | Aug 19 2011, 10:24:30 PM Post #42 |
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True Blue Mate
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Yes, I do remember occasionally running into a fixed wheel trolley - and disliking them intensely! Maybe everybody had the same reaction and that's why they were not introduced everywhere. |
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| CynicalCountess | Aug 20 2011, 04:34:09 AM Post #43 |
True Blue Mate
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I NEED that huge pouch of Arm & Hammer. I use baking soda rather than shampoo. That would last me for AGES. |
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| JackBNimble404 | Sep 1 2011, 04:09:23 PM Post #44 |
Chinwagger
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I happen to really like the Aussie trolleys. They're much easier to maneuver in a crowded store. If someone needs to get by, you just go sideways without having to go forward or backwards at all. Someone on here did tell me it is a nightmare walking down a hill with a loaded trolley, but I fortunately haven't had to deal with that. |
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| Cristin | Sep 1 2011, 09:02:20 PM Post #45 |
True Blue Mate
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That is exactly it. When you're a smallish girl (woman, lady, dudette) trying to get a full Aussie-style cart down a ramp into the car park ... forget it. It's like trying to rein in a pack of Great Danes who have seen a squirrel. |
| My Australian Blog - In An Opal Hearted Country | |
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| TerritorianTori | Sep 2 2011, 11:52:02 AM Post #46 |
It couldn't happen here
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 ...and your description is perfect!
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 South Texas to the Northern Territory - since 2004 I'm a huge fan of... Angry Video Game Nerd | The Big Bang Theory | Doctor Who | Pet Shop Boys | Yanks Down Under ~ Americans living in Australia Avatar by Sketch Shop Boys I don't do Facebook, sorry. | |
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| CAVU Mark | Nov 7 2011, 03:26:38 PM Post #47 |
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Piker
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As a newbie to the forum but as a lover of all things Oz I feel I must comment. I enjoy Costco in San Diego and remember how happy I was visiting the American Store in Aberdeen Scotland when I lived there. But Costco ruins all things Australian! The large warehouse stores will just help close the small mom-pop stores that make Oz unique and different. Hard to beat Costco's price but they just move merchandise and ruin the unique small town shopping centers that are the opposite of cookie cutter strip malls. One of the best parts of traveling Australia is the different towns and how each is unique and different from the last. I can see Walmart just on the edge of town now. |
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| TerritorianTori | Nov 7 2011, 05:03:06 PM Post #48 |
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It couldn't happen here
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As far as I'm aware, there are no plans to build any Costco stores in those unique-and-different small towns you're talking about. If you look at the high cost and restrictions on import and foreign-owned business here (not to mention cultural attitudes), you'd see why. It's not viable. Costco only operates 3 stores in the whole of Australia and all of them in major metropolitan areas with the population/demand to make it worth it. Myself, I live in a regional capital city roughly the same size as the biggest city in the Rio Grande Valley - THEY have a Sam's Club and heaps of Wal-Marts, but we have nothing like that at all. In fact, I'd be very surprised if we EVER get a Costco up here due to all of the gov't red tape and pussyfooting around that they've already done about other name-brand stores... and not that I'm complaining (much), but then there's the whole 'extremely high cost of living' thing... ahem, I won't labour that point too much.  BTW, it took almost a DECADE to get the first one off the ground, and on opening night, all of the tabloid TV shows ran reports saying basically the same thing: that it would ruin local business, run mom-and-pop shops out of town, etc etc etc. But you know what? Didn't happen, and probably won't happen (at least not as a direct result of Costco). If anything, it's actually injected some sorely-needed competition to the long-running major grocery store duopoly... but that's another story again. So, that's just a roundabout way of saying, "Don't worry, your image of Australia is safe". For now, anyway. P.S. No Wally Worlds here, but there's a slightly different reason for that. Edited by TerritorianTori, Nov 7 2011, 05:19:25 PM.
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South Texas to the Northern Territory - since 2004 I'm a huge fan of... Angry Video Game Nerd | The Big Bang Theory | Doctor Who | Pet Shop Boys | Yanks Down Under ~ Americans living in Australia Avatar by Sketch Shop Boys I don't do Facebook, sorry. | |
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| Pothole | Nov 7 2011, 08:12:48 PM Post #49 |
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True Blue Mate
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G'day Mark and  Mate it is good to see your concerns, a lot of people in Australia tend to not voice them. So that is good to see mate. I was born and bred in one of those small towns and I am not a young bloke, childish yes young, no. It is the likes of Woolies and Coles and yes Costco that keep the mum and dad stores in business ironically enough. that is where most of them purchase their goods from to sell on their shelves. It does as me little Wombat pointed out there (or will as Costco and others spread to more places) introduce more competitiveness into a market that much needs it. The other big ones in the market IGA and Foodworks are locally owned and managed so although they are part of the big chains they are local (your local heroes). I have been around the traps a bit and seen a thing or two and like Tors remember the argument in a lot of towns about this. The local butcher was one thing and now in most places the local butcher has not only expanded, one or two others have opened as well. The thing that hurt a lot of small business was not the big end of town shops like Coles, Woolies or Costco or Baskins and Robbins or anyone else it was the charges the shopping centres are charging for store space.... more a fact of Aussie business being greedy because they thought they could squeeze an extra quid or two. Yeah like you i miss seeing a local manchester store, or haberdashery place. The ones where there was a box on a flying fox and your docket and money were put in and disappeared up in the air, to come back down a few minutes later with your invoice and change. Or where that docket had a printed date on it of 1923... must have been a good printing year. I also miss the Rabbitohs that came around and the bakers truck pulling up at the houses early in the morning and milk bottles clanging on the steps. And while we are on it I miss getting smurfs from BP when your parents purchased a certain amount of fuel.... bring back the servo smurfs!!!! The places you like to travel and see will not change very much, sure a few of the shops will come and go and local councils will from time to time come up with silly ideas and implement them chasing the tourist dollar... and the people in the towns will shake their heads and have a laugh and life will continue as normal. Yep the looks of a town will change here and there every now and then but the people will not... and that is really what makes those small town you like. Anyway Cheers mate and enjoy your time here. Me little Wombat and a lot of other really helpful people are here. Don't tell em I said so but they are the best bunch you will find around. Edited by Pothole, Nov 7 2011, 08:14:36 PM.
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Those Who Lose Dreaming are Lost. Aboriginal Proverb A truly happy person is one who can enjoy the scenery on a detour Anon | |
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| kopiko | Nov 9 2011, 06:55:43 PM Post #50 |
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Anklebiter
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And from what I read in the newspaper, they don't think it's worth it to go to Costco and buy in bulk to save some money from there. They could be biased but it wasn't supposed to be and many readers probably agree with what they read. I went to pick up pizza once in Lidcombe on a Sunday and it was way too busy for me. Like Pothole said, a lot of the small store owners go to Woolworths to buy things because it's cheaper to buy from them than from anywhere else. |
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