Woolworths in-store butcher shock closure, 250 shops shut and 489 jobs gone

Major supermarket chain Woolworths is shutting down the majority of its 300 in-store butchers leaving 489 workers without jobs.

About 250 of the shops will be closed by the end of March with 420 trade qualified butchers and 69 skilled non-trade workers to be left jobless.

Woolworths is offering redeployment to a different role within stores, or if workers are not interested in returning they are able to access free post-employment support. 

‘We have over 1000 supermarkets and only 300 of them have in-store butcher shops’, a Woolworths spokeswoman told Daily Mail Australia.

It has been revealed shoppers are turning to pre-packaged meats, with sales in the in-store butchers accounting for only 4 per cent of meat sales. 

‘We have found they’re just not supported by customer demand with only 10 per cent of customers choosing to use the serviced counters’. 

‘There is a shift in demand towards pre-packaged options, whether that be because of convenience, can be stored for longer – it’s an ongoing trend’, she said.

The spokeswoman said the closure of the serviced butchery counters is an ‘industry trend’, which comes after rival supermarket chain Coles closed all its in-store butchery counters in late 2021.

The closures impacted as many as 1400 jobs and two thirds of the Coles butchers took a redundancy package.

Woolworths will be keeping 50 of their in-store butcher shops open due to customer demand for the service in certain areas. 

‘This decision was really made by looking at where customers are shopping and want they want’, the spokeswoman said. 

‘Unfortunately this means that 500 roles will be made redundant. All workers will be offered redeployment opportunities, and if they don’t want to be redeployed we are offering full redundancy packages.’

‘This includes 1-on-1 career support such as finding local jobs, sprucing up their CVs and access to free confidential counselling.’

Employees will be offered free career support including individual career coaching, resume development, a job search plan, LinkedIn profile and interview coaching, connections to relevant employment and training opportunities in their local area and financial planning support. 

The supermarket giant ‘deeply regrets’ the impact the decision will have, as they acknowledge many of the workers are well known by their regular customers. 

‘This has been an unfortunate decision we have had to make but we are continuing to evolve based on what we see in customer demand’, the spokeswoman said.