February 22, 2007
WOOLWORTHS works in mysterious ways.
And signs of commitment can be a touch more permanent than employees wearing a name tag everywhere they go.
Take chief checkout charlie Michael Luscombe. He's a Woolies lifer and knows newbies can be taken aback by the Woolies cult, er, culture.
"These people that come to join us, particularly at a senior level, think that we are little bit strange when they first come in," he told a business lunch yesterday.
"Because if you come to our car park at 7.30 in the morning, there aren't too many spaces left. And when you leave at 7.30 or 8 o'clock at night, it is still pretty full. You come in on your day off. On a Saturday, you are not going to get the first spot near the door. A few of them say, 'Look, you know, I'm not going to get caught up in this'.
"I always delight in talking to them three or four months later and asking them how it's going.
"And almost to a man or a woman they say, 'Well, I've got the Woolworths tattoo on my buttock'.
"They get caught up in the culture that is Woolworths."
Owning Big W is one thing. Heaven forbid they ever buy Target.