The Sydney suburb with a secret Woolworths hiding in plain sight

This Woolworths is so small and behind the times, it doesn’t even say Woolies on the store. It’s a mystery why it even exists.

Flemings in Jannali, southern Sydney. Really, it’s a Woolies. And a pretty odd one at that.

On a tidy shopping strip in a quiet corner of Sydney sits something that, in retail terms, is now unique.

Locals pop in and out all day long, some oblivious that their local supermarket is something you’ll see nowhere else.

But it’s not some newfangled concept store — a glimpse into the way we’ll shop into the future. Or the first Australian opening for an international retail giant.

Rather it’s a look back into the past, a glance into the world of supermarkets’ past. The residents of Jannali, in Sydney’s Sutherland Shire, are picking up their groceries from the last of its kind.

The name above the door may be unfamiliar, but the company behind it is one of Australia’s biggest — Woolworths.

Jannali is the suburb with a secret Woolies. And it’s one of the country’s strangest Woolworths at that.

Welcome to Australia’s last ever Flemings supermarket. There were once scores of stores; now this single branch remains.

Flemings in Jannali, southern Sydney, the only non Woolworths branded Woolies in Australia.

Flemings is about as far away from a new concept Woolies as you can get. Pictures: Dan Himbrechts/AAP

Remarkably, Flemings has been part of Woolworths for almost half a century. Yet while far more familiar Woolies’ owned brands, like Safeway, have vanished somehow Flemings has remained.

Inside it’s like stepping back in time.

There are few mod cons. No in store bakery or deli, no rotisserie chickens or freshly cooked pizzas, you’ll find no self-serve check-outs here. Just cheery checkout staff who still call you “love” and pass the time of day.

“You know you don’t need to buy that Coke to get cash out, love,” one tells a customer.

It’s tiny and feels like it hasn’t had a spruce up for several decades.

“It’s seen better days. It could do with some love,” Marea, who has just finished her shopping, tells news.com.au.

“But it’s local and handy. It’s been here forever.”

A Flemings supermarket in Newtown in the 1960s. Picture: Woolworths History Centre.

The suburb of Jannali has a secret Woolies.

Maybe not forever but Flemings has existed since at least the 1930s when the eponymous family opened their first store.

In the 1960s, Woolworths bought the 65-strong Sydney chain including the store that exists to this day.

Helpfully, the Woolworths Heritage Centre and Archive filled us in on some of the background. The Jannali store would have been constructed during the 1950s as Sydney’s hinterland began to swell with houses after World War II.

Woolies, which had previously been a variety store, was just dipping into food and Flemings helped turbocharge that push.

Jannali is the last Woolworths store in the state that uses a conveyor belt to move stock to the shop floor. Which in supermarket circles, is exciting stuff.

Flemings has traded from the same store in Jannali for around 70 years. The sign has seen better days.

Each aisle is an adventure in grocery land with products that make no sense being next to one another.

NOT YOUR USUAL WOOLIES

If you can tell the age of a tree by its rings, you could probably tell the age of Flemings by the layers of gunk that have caked up on its sign. Another, in the car park, has almost faded away.

The store, a mere five aisles of it, has a homely, somewhat cobbled together feel. The floors change colour more frequently than a Vivid or White Night light show: anaemic yellow here, black here, green with white tiles over there.

In a standard Woolies, you are greeted by mountains of fresh fruit and veg, plump and colourful and bursting with the promise of abundance.

In Flemings, you are greeted by a display of rulers and pens and a shelf of tinned fruit in syrup.

The fresh food is there. There’s not much of it and it’s hidden away around a corner; a modest selection of the essentials. But like the rest of the store it’s well tended.

The fruit and veg is hidden around a corner. Find it if you can.

A supermarket from bygone days.

They pack a lot. Signage above aisle 5, that looks like it hasn’t been revamped since the Bicentenary, declares this is where you’ll find “shampoo, hosiery, frozen food, vitamins”. An eclectic collection repeated throughout the store.

Organic flour is displayed opposite baby formula and next to party goods.

The scattergun approach of the store seems to rub off on the shoppers. One man walks out with two trays of pork and some coat hangers. Another clutches a whole chicken and shampoo.

“I know it’s a Woolies,” says Chris clutching his booty of washing up liquid and a bunch of bananas. “But I don’t know how I know, I just do.”

There are clues. A Woolworths trolley sits by a tree in the car park; inside the store Woolworths’ green “W” make a few appearances; the own label choices are all Woolies of course.

“I’m a bachelor and the choice works for me,” says Chris who is bemused why this sole store remains.

There are no self serve check-outs in this store.

A trolley in the car park gives a clue as the store’s true owner.

SAFEWAY GONE, BUT FLEMINGS SURVIVES

Flemings shouldn’t be here. After all, the far more well known Safeway, the name under which Woolworths traded in Victoria, was rebranded to the mother brand in 2017. Woolworths used to have Food for Less, Purity and Roelf Vos fascias. And then there was the foray into fancy foods under the Thomas Dux Grocer name. All now gone.

Similarly, the Coles owned Bi-Lo stores are just a ghost of retail past.

Branding expert Professor Jenni Romaniuk from Uni SA’s Ehrenberg-Bass Institute told news.com.au there was “no right answer” as to whether a public facing company should operate under one or multiple names.

Woolworths’ move to a single brand brings the benefit of scale; they only need one national marketing campaign. Westpac has a different approach and operates under its own name as well as Bank SA, St George and others. This preserves the goodwill that comes with historic brands and also gives customers the appearance of choice.

Prof Romaniuk said she suspected Flemings had “flown under the radar” for Woolies and the name might remain because the store doesn’t deliver the experience the average Woolies shopper would expect.

“If it’s really tatty and called Woolworths that could negatively impact Woolworths as a whole. But if a customer goes in now and says, ‘Ugh, this is a bit tired’ it’s only Flemings they think of.”

While Safeway is just a memory now, somehow Flemings lingers on.

FLEMINGS FADED AWAY

“There used to be lots of Flemings in the Shire — not anymore, I don’t where they’ve all gone,” one shopper told news.com.au.

Like the Flemings sign, slowly they’ve faded away. One on the Central Coast closed down a few years back and a Woolies was built in its place. The problem is many are too small to simply become a standard Woolworths. But the one in Bexley, nearby, has had a lick of paint and a remodel and is now a Woolworths Metro.

As for the Flemings family, they continued to dabble in grocery and then focused on commercial property building up a tidy nest egg.

Chris has heard a rumour Flemings will be knocked down and replaced with a full size supermarket. A Woolworths spokeswoman said that wasn’t the case: “While we’re always looking at ways to improve the shopping experience for our customers, we have no firm redevelopment plans at this stage.”

“No one even knows what a Flemings is these days,” says another shopper as they bustle out.

“It’s may be Flemings on the outside but its Woolies on the inside. As long as they sell what I want it’s fine with me.”