In the dire days of 2021, adding reputation to Woolworths’ performance scorecard must have seemed a stroke of genius.

Never mind sales per square metre driving bonus results. For chief executive Brad Banducci’s final years, Woolies was going to be right-on. Supermarkets were frontline services operations keeping us fed through a pandemic (when not employing laid-off aviation employees) and the Fresh Food people were Australia’s most valuable (from a brand equity perspective). What could go wrong?