War on Woolworths escalates | Northern Rivers News | Local News in Northern Rivers

These misguided, anti-Woolies idiots would be well advised to look at what happened at Maleny Qld a few years ago, where a similar "we don't want you" group tried to stop Woolworths from proceeding with a store -the same people are now very happy they failed, they have a top quality store supplying cheaper and better food than previously available and many more employment opportunities for their children!

Yep. The local supermarket in Maclean is quite good but a lot of their prices are higher. There is talk about a Woolworths here one day and I'm all for it. Apparently Yamba is replacing BiLo with a Coles this year.

I saw the same thing happen at Maleny on the Sunshine Coast (albeit without the fire!) when Wooloworths threatened to open there. Protests, stories in the papers, lots of hot air and noise - but the protestors messed up their paperwork and now there's a Woolies at Maleny. Let's hope Mullumbimby spend time on ensuring all their protests don't go to waste.

Woolworths no thanks, give an ALDI STORE anyday

Personally I would like the status quo to remain and the little town I visit regularly to be without a dominating Supermarket. The fact that nobody will be able to set up competition to a Woolworth's store is disturbing to say the least. It's like if we only had one bank an no others where allowed in town, it wouldn't be fair. So why don't we have Aldi as well to keep the Bastards honest??? I can remember when Woolies and Coles tried to prevent Aldi from entering Lismore, but there was one in Ballina. What was that all about? I suggest that people band together with sharing fuel and or even have a community bus to take them shopping in either Ballina or Lismore to show the multinational imperialists their backsides and shop where there is competition and fairness which is leaving our small town.

Sorry dr_news and yambaman. Your remarks about Maleny are simply wrong. Maleny's "We Won't Shop There" campaign is stronger than ever. Car stickers are still selling as quickly as they can be printed at 5000 a time. Woolworths Maleny remains the only Ww supermarket in Australia that does not publish monthly turnover figures in internal company documents. Why? Because hardly anyone shops there. Woolworths has brought very few permanent jobs to Maleny and its prices are generally well above those at the local IGA. However, Woolworths' out-of-date specials are becoming famous. Re Maleny protesters "messing up their paperwork" . Sorry. Quite the contrary. Woolworths and the developer reneged on an offer to sell back the site at the very last minutes, after the community raised an incredible $2.1 million (three times what they paid for it) in two weeks. Woolworths Maleny will be the first to close through low turnover -- an occurrence becoming common with Wal-Mart in the US -- on which Woolworths bases many of its retail policies.

I've been to Wooloworths at Maleny, and yes it is a ghost town, I agree with you snapperking. The community of Maleny has done very well to boycott it.

But wasn't the whole point of protest to save the platypus which would be affected by the building of a Woolworths on/near their habitat?

Well, that didn't work, because it's been built. And that wont' change no matter how many car stickers you sell.

Thanks dr_news. The widely publicised platpus habitat was only one of many reasons Maleny opposed Woolworths. Residents are working on what remains of the creek bank beside Woolworths, re-establishing native trees and have been rewarded by sighting several platypus. They may be wanderers... or perhaps locals that have adjusted to having metre-wide concrete pylons poured into their burrows. No, some of us will never shop there.

'We know there is significant demand for a new supermarket as currently people have to drive to Ocean Shores or Brunswick Heads to do the bulk of their shopping.'
You are kidding of course, Mr Media Manager, Benedict Brook! Locals shop locally in Mullumbimby. That is what community is all about. That is what our community is all about.

Perhaps you do not understand what community actually means - which is why you are imposing this juggernaut on our small rural community.

Listen and learn...you don't know what warmth and wealth (real wealth) you are missing out on.

Local Local Local....
We are at peak everything fellow Mullumbimbyites. Unless we become self sufficient we will be at the effect of the soon to be massive fuel : food price increase. Lets produce more and more here and become independant and prosperous. Use the future ex Woolies site to expand the Mullum Community Gardens. Woolies is inevitably unsustainable. 1,000 calories on my plate cost 10,000 calories to get there. We all know that cant keep going. Lets develop our own sustainable self sufficient community. Thats where our children's future is.

I'm not anti Wollies Yambaman. I really enjoy the range and prices too. But I truly believe that in the very near future self sufficiency and independance will be essential to our quality of life. The foundation of our global economic systems and corporations are shaking. Our sustainability and security is in the development of local resources especially food and energy.

Dear yambaman and your woolworths loving friends, for a moment open your mind and consider whether your hip pocket nerve is being fooled by your corporate giant. Are you really getting a good deal? Have a look at a list of the top 100 Woolworths shareholders and you won't find any Aussie mums and dads. Number one shareholder is HSBC- Hong Kong And Shanghai Banking Corporation, do you think they have any other motive than extracting every possible cent out of your pocket and the local community. Do you think that the big share holders of the Woolworths corporate have a single moral bone in their bodies? Do you think the good people that once controlled the big Aussie company still have any power? That time has past, Woolworths is controlled by array of other corporate giants, Aussie mum's and dad shareholders have lost any power to do good.

Good on you for standing up to Woolworths.

If Governments continue to disregard the clear wishes of local residents as they have in Maleny, in Kyogle and Tweed shires with the Repco Rally last September and now, it seems, in Mullumbimby, then we are no longer a democracy in any real sense.

It's time the corporate glove puppets who who are supposed to be representing us in our Parliaments and councils were thrown out of office and, ideally, put behind bars for what they have done.

A recent survey showed that Australians pay the highest prices for their groceries. Can we thank our powerful duopoloy -Woolworths and Coles for that?
We desperately need to cut greenhouse emissions and reduce our dependancy on fossil fuels. These big corporations truck food great distances because they never or very rarely buy locally produced food. Their distribution is organised in a centralized way.
Their usual mode of operation is to temporarily drive prices down until the local small family businesses (which is the case for most shops in of our friendly town) cannot compete and go out of business. Then they put their prices up again. Then we gradually get a virtual ghost town in our main street and/or characterless chain stores who take the profits off to Sydney or overseas. The opposite is the multiplier effect- where money spent in your town cycles through all the businesses in town and everyone prospers. Wollies will cause more job loss that job creation and amenity loss and I haven't even mentioned traffic snarls in tiny streets.
I really don't want a Woolworths, but I am looking forward to the Growers Market starting in Mullum soon.

Woolworths the "Fresh Food People". Surely they could be charged under the trade descriptions act?

Everythings picked unripe and gassed and/or preserved then shipped!

At a grower's market you get to meet the local farmers and get a feel/taste for your produce direct from the farm. And hopefully, organic certified or chemical free.

If not Woolworths it will eventually be something else. One day these protesters will be on their death beds and wondering why they wasted their days battling against something they essentially will not win. Get over it guys and move on or move away.

One day these protesters will be telling inspiring stories to their children/grandchildren about how they stood up for their principles. Voice, you might listen too and hopefully not regret standing up for yours.

in the naysayers are so confident that woolworths aren't wanted, then just let them relax and watch them go down the gurgler, due to a lack of customers....!

Its a dilema for a resident.... The "old world" charm of a thriving country town vs the practicality of living on a budget. A shopping basket comparion I recently personally did between IGA Mullum and IGA Byron resulted at $20 extra in Mullumbimby for an $80 shopping basket. The existing options for groceries in Mullumbimby are ample but the business owners seem to be taking advantage of the hostage populus and also seem to specialise in providing employment for minnimum age checkout personel probably at minnimum wage. So why is it more expensive to shop at the same supermarket chain in Mullumbimby? At the 25% margin the existing grocery retailers are taking they should be able to survive if the nimby's support their chosen existing vendors regardless of the branding of any new competitor.

The pole you are running is totally unfair to most people in this town and out lying areas,the rent a crowd that has shown up over the last two weeks (don't even know the name of the main street)are up to the usual tricks, giving out letters to send to Woolworths to school children and tourist with no connection to this town, I was in Maleny two weeks ago the Woolworths was thriving .
,speaking to the locals they said it was the best thing that happened in the town, These "I'm against everything "crowd know this, yet they publish the pack of lies. My family were here for Christmas and were astounded at the cost of living here,no wonder we all go out of town to shop. By the way in my Street no one buys the Star and there are only two computors so caan you consider this a fair pole
,

Woolworths will kill Mullum
it will kill the community
it will kill property prices
it will kill local business
And surprise surprise it wont give a damn... its already shown us in its campaign to establish itself here that what we want or need doesn't count!
Any one who believes otherwise is misguided!
SELFISH CORPORATE GIANT WILL STOMP ALL OVER US!