The “metroification” of Sydney’s supermarkets is continuing, with suburban Woolworths stores being converted from classic supermarkets into Woolies Metros in a controversial move.

Alexandria will now see its popular Fountain Street Woolies turned into a Metro, despite it being just 800m from another Metro store and less than 2km away from two more Metros.

Metros do not typically supply the same amount or type of stock, nor are they staffed by as many employees. Worse yet, in a cost-of-living crisis, Metros often have higher prices than the usual supermarket variety of Woolies.

Woolworths sent this statement to Drive, while reassuring customers that a community consultation would take place over the conversion.

“We’ve kicked off the conversion of our Alexandria supermarket to a new Metro neighbourhood food store.

Customers can expect to have a great range of products tailored to the needs of the local community. This includes more food for tonight’s dinner, tomorrow’s breakfast, snacking and entertaining, while continuing to deliver the freshest fruit and vegetables.

We want to reassure customers that our new neighbourhood food store will still have everything they need for a full shop.

We understand this will be an adjustment so we’ll have our Alexandria store team on hand to help customers find their way around the changes, alongside updated signage.”

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