Woolworths Neutral Bay

Most of the staff here are friendly, the other shoppers seem a lot more pleasant than I’m used to for a Woolworths… It seems most Woolworths I’ve been to lately are full of semi-​homicidal lunatics who learnt the majority of their manners in the schoolyard. Almost everyone here however, was polite.
I’ll never understand why so many people feel the compulsion to stock up with three trolleys worth of groceries the day before and again the day after the shops close for a public holiday… It’s not like it’s the apocalypse and you’ll never have the opportunity to buy 64 rolls of toilet paper and 100 litres of Coke again.

As far as supermarkets go I like this place. Always vibrant and well lit, good choices and good produce. They also stock a good variety of Ethnic groceries and have an increasing variety of organic produce. I used to go here once a week when we lived in the area and always found the selection to be good.

As supermarkets go, this one isn’t too bad. Starting with the positive points:
It’s clean, relatively new and the shelves are always well stocked with very few items out of stock. There’s a sushi bar at the entrance if it takes your fancy and the checkouts are always well staffed (or there’s self-​checkout if you prefer). There’s a good selection of organic and Macro fruit, veg, nuts, grains and meats. We often buy the short date meat to give our dogs and it’s still good quality and usually has a couple of days left on it.
The biggest downside is the fruit and veg — I often find it is over-​ripe or mouldy. While it’s always well stocked, most of it is cold and some of it is still frozen from where it is stored. If you can get here early in the day, you’ll have first dibs on herbs but they often run out toward the end of trade. Not that it’s their adult but the car park is a bitch to find a park in most of the time but it’s shared with a few other stores which are handy for items you can’t get here.

I know, it’s a Woolworths right? I’m a huge fan of supporting local and small independent stores. I go out of my way to actively support them by not only shopping at them but also promoting them through websites like Unilocal and telling others about them. But unfortunately with budget constraints and for convenience sake you sometimes gotta give in to the big boys. That’s so much easier to do when the supermarket is a friendly one. By friendly I mean clean, stocks loads of organic produce and wholesome specialty items like chia seeds and quinoa and gluten free chocolate cake mixes. I like that they have a decent range of organic vegetables and that the pot plants and bunches of flowers surround the smokes counter so it looks more like a nursery than a tobacco stand. Sunday evenings are mad busy but generally it’s not too packed to annoy me even with a toddler in tow. Mornings are ideal. Beats the other supermarkets for miles I think so if I have to go to one, it’s this one.