Dwindling profits at the Tauranga Foodtown on Cameron Road is being blamed for its imminent closure.
The supermarket will permanently cease operating at 9pm on Sunday, May 1.
The 49 employees at the store, which opened on June 28 1983, were told about the closure at a meeting last week.
Tauranga Foodtown this morning.
Chief operating officer at Progressive Enterprises, Dave Chambers, says the Tauranga Foodtown team have worked extremely hard in a tough retail environment.
'Our team members at Foodtown Tauranga are a great asset to our company and we are committed to providing ongoing employment and job security for them all.”
'We will be working with our team members on an individual basis in coming weeks to identify opportunities in other stores. Countdown has consulted the National Distribution Union on the decision.”
Countdown operates seven other stores in the wider Tauranga and Mount Maunganui area and many of our team members will be moving to the new look Countdown Tauranga, directly across Cameron Road.
The Foodtown will continue operating as normal until May 1.
4 comments
Not Surprising..
Posted on 05-03-2011 13:15 | By silent no more
This was always on the cards considering the focus Progressive have made of the 'Countdown' name over recent years and the move away from pushing 'Foodtown' as an exclusive brand etc... the location of this business - access to carpark and entrance not visible from the main raod also a factor in it's evential closing.
Own Fault
Posted on 05-03-2011 13:35 | By waxing
Progressive made this inevitable when they downgraded Foodtown to a commodity Countdown brand. Foodtown used to be the only upmarket supermarket with its shelves stocked accordingly; and with brilliant customer service. I stopped buying there after they replaced stock with generic brands and reduced checkout staff, creating long queues. Why have a Foodtown if you are going to make it the same as Countdown? Is this a situation of creating a reason for closure?
I agree with waxing
Posted on 05-03-2011 13:50 | By morepork
I watched in dismay as they slowly eroded what was an excellent store with a wide choice of goods. On numerous occasions I would try a new product, decide it was good, go to get more of it and be told:"Oh, we're not stocking that any more." It just got worse and worse. Complaints to the Manager were met with:"We are controlled from Australia and have no autonomy." Sorry for the sake of the staff, no-one likes oto see people losing jobs, but Waxing got it right: it is entirely their own fault.
Yup no suprises here
Posted on 07-03-2011 07:37 | By Chris
Look at all the money the other supermarkets around town have spent on modernising their premises, improving product lines etc. This is all in conspicuous contrast to Foodtown which hasn't seen any real capital investment in at least a decade.
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