As many as 500 butchers and meat workers are facing the chop at Woolworths after the supermarket giant decided to close the majority of its 300 in-store supermarket butcheries to instead offer only pre-packaged meat to shoppers.
The move follows a similar decision by rival supermarket chain Coles in late 2021 when it shut all its in-store butchery counters which at the time impacted as many as 1400 roles, although the retailer pledged to help retrain many and redeploy the meat workers elsewhere in the retail business.
Ultimately around two thirds of the Coles butchers took a redundancy package.
Now it is Woolworths taking the axe to the butchery service, shutting down 250 of its remaining 300 butcher shops within its supermarket network with the supermarket giant informing its staff of the decision on Thursday.
All Woolworths supermarkets offer fresh, pre-cut packaged meat available on shelf, while around 30 per cent also currently have a butcher shop.
But in recent years, in stores which offer both options, it is believed Woolworths has seen a shift in customer preference away from in store butcher shops, in favour of prepackaged meat. In stores which offer butcher shops, only around 10 per cent of customers purchase their meat at the butcher counter.
It is understood that customer demand for butcher shops is significantly lower than other counters such as seafood, deli and bakery.
