Woolworths Will Now Celebrate Australia Day?!

It was only a couple of weeks ago when Woolworths announced they would no longer be stocking Australia Day merchandise due to a “gradual decline in demand”, and a “broader discussion about January 26 and what it means to different parts of the community”. The backlash was swift. The media pounced and accused the retail giant of trying to cancel the national holiday. “Woolworths CEO denies serving up ‘wokeness in aisle three’”. Leader of the Opposition Peter Dutton called for a boycott. A couple of stores were vandalised with pro-Australia Day graffiti. They should have just sprayed them with orange paint and claimed they were saving the planet. I don’t think Woolworths expected quite the backlash. Despite the failed Indigenous Voice referendum (which Woolworths controversially supported), ironically, everyday Australians are now starting to find their voice and push back against these corporations telling us how to live our lives. Woolworths is learning the hard way that you can’t just decide which holidays people should and shouldn’t be able to celebrate.

Yesterday, Woolworths felt the need to start conducting some damage control in aisle three. South-African born CEO Brad Banducci did the rounds on breakfast television to try to explain his actions, spouting the typical lines, “Australia Day means different things to different people”. Yeah, just shut the f*** up mate! You could say that about any holiday, or about anything really. But you’re not cancelling Halloween, or Chinese New Year. It was funny, a lifelong Woolworths customer called in saying, “It doesn’t matter how well or not you’ve communicated the decision, it was a poor decision. You have stewardship, sir, of over 175,000 employees. You put their jobs at risk now by meddling in Australian politics. Stay out of politics, and stick to selling groceries!” When asked if he had regrets about what he’d done, he just said, “I think we could clearly have done a better job of explaining our decision, that’s why I’m here.”

Woolworths even spent hundreds of thousands of dollars taking out full-page ads in newspapers trying to explain their position. Basically he just said that Woolworths are not trying to cancel Australia Day.

Actually, news just coming out today reports that Woolworths consulted its Indigenous advisory board before scrapping Australia Day, noting that this advisory board, headed by Adam Goodes, was created in 2021 in response to a public relations disaster where the supermarket tried to open a giant liquor megastore close to three alcohol-free Aboriginal communities in Darwin, which resulted in a furious backlash.

In a leaked letter earlier today, Mr Banducci addressed some of his staff’s concerns with one question addressing why stores have decided to display banners for Lunar New Year or Diwali but not our own national day. He replies, “Celebrations like Diwali and Lunar New Year are often centred around connection over food…” Is he insinuating that Australia Day has nothing to do with food? What a joke! Obviously many Aussies celebrate the day with barbecues, family picnics and parties.

But what was most funny, after all this backlash, I received an email from Woolworths yesterday afternoon saying, “Hi Daily, enjoy great value for the Australia Day long weekend.” Suddenly Australia Day is back on the agenda? If you take a look at last week’s catalogue (dated 17th January), there’s not one mention of Australia Day (Australia Day being tomorrow). But yet they felt the need to wish you Happy Lunar New Year, not once, but twice! Noting that Lunar New Year isn’t till February 10th, more than two weeks away. But if you look at their latest catalogue (dated 24th January), on the front page, it says, “Great value for the Australia Day long weekend!” in green and gold Aussie colouring, with a couple of young tykes munching down on their Australia Day barbeque. It should be noted that Woolworths didn’t even mention the Lunar New Year once, and instead relegated the Asian food to the Pantry and Seafood section. That was a quick turnaround by Woolworths, wasn’t it? It seems like when Aussie’s push back, Woolworths are forced to listen. A small win, but a win nonetheless.

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Allégro by Emmit Fenn