Suburb north of Adelaide’s CBD loses its only supermarket as Coles closes
SUPERMARKET giant Coles is pulling out of a location north of the CBD after 30 years, meaning some residents will now have to walk 40 minutes to an alternative shopping site. But why?
- Jessica Leo-Kelton: Why I don’t like supermarket self-service
- How Adelaide’s iconic O’Connell St is becoming a ghost town
- This supermarket wants to beat the ‘world’s best’, its sister store
- A suburban supermarket has closed after 50 years
SOME residents of Blair Athol face a walk of up to 40 minutes or be forced to catch two buses to do their grocery shopping after the suburb’s only supermarket closes this week.
Coles, which has operated at Prospect Rd, Blair Athol, for three decades, will close on July 31.
The nearest supermarkets are in Northpark Shopping Centre, Prospect, or at the Churchill Centre, Kilburn.
Coles did not respond to questions about why the Blair Athol store was closing or what would become of the site.
Coles state manager Dave Pieters said, in an emailed statement, he was “grateful to the customers for their loyalty”.
“(We) want to assure the local community that we are committed to offering great quality, service and value at our Churchill Centre and North Park stores,” Mr Pieters said.
The 34 workers at the Coles will be offered jobs at different stores, the statement read.
Barbara Stopp, who has lived in Blair Athol for 30 years, said Coles closing was “another nail in the coffin of Blair Athol”.
“Now everything has closed,” Ms Stopp said.
“The bakery, the fish and chip shop, the hairdresser, the chemist, all of them gone.
“And now the Coles is going, too.”
Ms Stopp, who walks to the supermarket, said residents who do not drive would need to catch multiple buses to Northpark Shopping Centre or front “the nightmare and hazardous traffic conditions of Churchill Rd” in taxis.
Ms Stopp was disappointed with the store’s notice of the store closing.
“It was put on a sign very high up on the wall and had the usual white and red theme,” she said.
“I figured it was something promotional … I didn’t really pay much notice to it at first.”