3 minute read
History in the baking
On Friday 5 December 1924, Woolworths Stupendous Bargain Basement opened in Sydney’s Imperial Arcade. It was a variety store, selling goods like hardware, clothing, and cosmetics. The prices were so low that an opening day advertisement promised:
“You’ll want to live at Woolworths.”
The hype paid off. When the doors opened, a massive crowd surged inside, scrambling to buy all the tea kettles, scrub brushes, cutlery, and cooking pots they could carry home.
Hundreds of stores began opening across Australia and New Zealand. The goods remained the same, with food items rarely sold, and only through one-off consignments. Fresh food was an even scarcer sight in those days. You were more likely to find a tin of sheep’s tongue (a real delicacy in the 1930s) than fresh fruit or vegetables.
In the flourishing post-war economy of the late 1950s, Woolworths began making the gradual shift into groceries. It all began at our Dee Why variety store, which was extended to include food aisles in 1957. This was also our first self-service store, where customers chose their own goods from the shelves and then paid at the front counter.
Three years later, in 1960, we opened our first purposebuilt supermarket in Warrawong, NSW. The fanfare for this grand opening was taken to the next level. A marching band paraded by the entrance. 500 balloons were released from the rooftop. A vintage 1924 automobile was filled with groceries and given away to one lucky customer.
Over 8,000 people were bussed in from surrounding suburbs. Every car park in the area was full. And at 9:30am, over 2,000 customers swept inside our modern, glamorous supermarket. 15 brand-new checkouts worked nonstop, with team members brought in from other stores to help. The day’s largest transaction was a then-whopping £22, which is over $700 today.
On the following Monday, a grand cake was unveiled to celebrate. It was so wide, and towered so high, that a thousand lucky customers got a taste. The cake was created by Australia's largest bakery at the time, Gartrell White. They would remain a household staple, though under a different name, as they were purchased by Tip Top Bakeries in 1949.
As a nod to the partnerships behind so many Woolworths milestones, we decided to recreate this iconic cake.
The expertise of Sticky Foods was sought to recreate the five-tier marvel. Sticky Foods has supplied Woolworths for a decade, providing finished goods such as muffins, sponges, fruit mince pies, the famous mud cake range, as well as bakery ingredients.
The cake was unveiled at our 100th birthday celebration at the Norwest Support Office. The original was made by the leading bakery of its time, and today we’re collaborating with one of our leading bakery suppliers. It stands as a tribute to where we came from, but with a modern twist.
Our thanks to Sticky Foods for this heartfelt, and by all accounts delicious, reminder of the partnerships behind 100 years of Woolworths history.
