Harbour Town Woolworths to close as another local supermarket cuts its opening hours

A Woolworths in the western suburbs is set to close its doors next month as another supermarket down the road cuts its opening hours.

• West Beach Foodland to cut back hours after falling foul of trading laws
• Big W to shut stores and SA distribution centre

Woolworths will close the doors to its Harbour Town store next month as it instead diverts money to other nearby stores.

The supermarket’s parent company, Woolworths Group, confirmed it would shut up the West Beach shop on June 30 as it instead focused on other western suburbs outlets.

All 45 employees will be offered new positions at nearby stores including at Glenelg, Brighton and Hilton.

A Woolworths spokeswoman said the closure of the store was not connected to the opening of a nearby Aldi on Sir Donald Bradman Drive.

Woolworths’ South Australian general manager Karl Weber said despite the closure, the supermarket chain would continue its “significant investment in South Australia”, such as a $57 million expansion of its Adelaide distribution centre.

Woolworths will close at West Beach in June. Photo: Ken Leanfore

Further questions were asked as to the success of the store.

It came as it was announced West Beach Drakes Foodland had cut back its opening hours after being found in breach of the state’s shop trading laws.

Small shops are allowed to trade 24 hours, whereas larger stores are restricted.

The West Beach Drakes Foodland has posted a notice to customers saying the store “has been trading with its current opening hours since 1978”.

It tells customers that a cutback in hours, which started on Monday night, was forced by “current trading hours legislation”.

Mr Drake had unsuccessfully sought an exemption from the laws and the store had been trading from 7.30am to 10pm, seven days a week.

It has now been cut back to 9pm on weekdays and 5pm on weekends, as well as opening at 11am on Sunday.

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