17c起草社区

LIKE聽buses on Sydney鈥檚 LGBTI strip of Oxford St, you don鈥檛 see a major supermarket chain for ages and then two come along at once.

The Darlinghurst thoroughfare is set to be the site of a grocery store battle royale with plans for Woolworths and Aldi supermarkets within metres of each other.

[showads聽ad=MREC]However, it could be bad news for IGA, whose recently-refurbished store is around the corner from both the new players.

As first revealed by the 17c起草社区 earlier this year, Sydney-based despite already having a full-sized supermarket close to Taylor Square in Surry Hills.

鈥� to which comment and submissions can be made until tomorrow 鈥撀爐he chain has confirmed it is looking to convert two shops and a restaurant on the south side of Oxford St into a 446 sq m supermarket.

The $700,000 store would be considerably smaller than a conventional supermarket, which often come in at around 2500 sq m, but similar to new-concept Woolworths stores that have opened in Erskineville and Woolloomooloo which聽include a caf茅 and a focus on ready-made meals.

Proposed opening hours for the mini-Woolies would be 6am鈥�2am every day, longer than almost any other food store. The supermarket said deliveries would occur between 5am and midnight via a loading dock on Riley St.

Council, rather than Woolworths, will contribute $750,000 towards the cost of a new substation to provide upgraded power to the building.

The site currently houses two shops with short-term leases and a branch of the Iku whole foods restaurant chain.

The 17c起草社区 understands Iku has yet to find another location on Oxford St.

Woolworths鈥� plans indicate it intends to demolish part of the site鈥檚 interior to create a combined space and replace the current shopfronts, including one noted for its historic value.

According to the NSW Government鈥檚 state heritage register, the building鈥檚 facades are important examples of Federation Freestyle architecture and 鈥渕ake an important contribution to the streetscape鈥�. Woolworths鈥� own report said the current Iku shop front 鈥渉as retained a large amount of original fabric, including shop front framing and glazing [and] highlight windows”.

The Woolworths report has justifies the removal of 鈥渟ignificant fabric鈥� from the Iku frontage 鈥撀爄n particular the windows 鈥撀爋n the grounds it is 鈥渞elated to a later fit-out during the 1920s,鈥� some two decades after the building鈥檚 construction, and 鈥渢he proposed shopfronts interpret the buildings’ original shopfronts in terms of design and materials鈥� while photos of the current should be made available.

Meanwhile, the independent Duffy Brothers supermarket chain, within Darlinghurst鈥檚 Oxford Square centre, will close in the coming days with staff looking for new jobs.

The owners of the store, some of which have been with the company for 20 years, posted a sign that said the supermarket has been sold to a 鈥渕ajor supermarket operator who will redevelop the store to their model鈥�.

Aldi has confirmed to the 17c起草社区聽 they will be taking over the Duffy Bros. store, which is less than 100m away from the proposed Woolworths.

“The move to Sydney鈥檚 inner city is a part of our long-term commitment to bringing the Aldi difference to more customers across NSW,” a spokesperson for the chain said who added the store was set to employ between 15-20 people.

In June, consumer body CHOICE said Aldi was聽 ,聽but the chain鈥檚 focus on own labels means many well-known brands are unavailable.

Although smaller than Woolworths in Australia, globally the privately-owned German retailer is many times larger than its Australian counterpart.

Darlinghurst Business Partnership president Stephan Gyory told the 17c起草社区聽the majors were welcome.

鈥淓veryone needs a supermarket,” he said.

鈥淚 brush my teeth and wash my butt just like everyone else, but it will be interesting to see what happens with Aldi opening in Oxford Square.

鈥淚f Woolworths attracts other people, then that can鈥檛 be bad for Oxford St – it鈥檚 an endorsement of the street by a company that knows how to run the numbers.鈥�

A spokesperson for Romeo’s Retail Group, the South Australia company which runs the Oxford St IGA, said they were concerned by the number of Woolworths stores in the surrounding area.

“If competition is wiped out any further we fear for the customer. Having a variety of supermarket brands promotes competition and competition is good for customers.

“If we were to lose sales unfortunately we have to look at our costs, our biggest cost by far is staff and … we could not guarantee there would be no staffing hours cut or staff numbers cut.”

This article was changed on 25 August once Aldi got in back in touch with the 17c起草社区 to add in the company’s response.