New Perth Airport Woolworths supermarket to target FIFO workers

Woolworths is set to open the doors to a new supermarket at Perth Airport on Wednesday, with FIFO workers rejoicing at the extended trading hours.

Built on Commonwealth-owned land, the new Woolies supermarket can open from 7am until 7pm on weekends, as it’s exempt from the Perth metropolitan trading rules, and until 9pm during the week.

The Perth Airport supermarket — the anchor tenant for the new Dunreath Village shopping centre, which also includes a Priceline and a Sushi Hub — includes its “grab and go” product range, including sandwiches, cut vegetables and ready meals, with sushi to be on shelves within one month.

These are features traditionally seen in its inner-city supermarkets rather than those in the suburbs.

Woolworths also has an airport supermarket in Canberra, open until 11pm during the week, and in Brisbane, which operates 24 hours a day. Perth’s will not operate 24 hours for now, but chief executive Brad Banducci said it was possible, depending on how trade eventuated.

On Tuesday, State operations director Karl Weber echoed that sentiment, saying store trading levels would be a case of “wait to see what’s going to happen” rather than “necessarily trying to predict” it.

“I think in the first few weeks, we’ll find out where we go,” he said of expected customer demand.