Survey shows Countdown shoppers sore about spendy store switch to Woolworths

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Countdown’s rebrand back to Woolworths will cost around $400 million.
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The rebranding of the Countdown supermarket chain to the Woolworths is a turn-off for shoppers, according to a recent brand survey, with more than half of consumers seeing the investment as a waste of money.

Countdown’s Australian owner Woolworths said the $400 million rebranding programme would be phased in over the next three years, with store upgrades, a revamp of its loyalty programme, and expansion of its online offerings.

However, a survey of more than 1500 consumers by brand tracking platform Tracksuit indicated one in 10 consumers would shop less at Countdown.

“Spending $400m on a rebrand in the midst of a cost of living crisis when many of your customers can’t afford fruit and vegetables is tone deaf,” Tracksuit co-founder James Hurman said, adding it did not make much sense from a corporate point of view either.

“To take all the equity that you’ve got in an existing name like Countdown, which has been built up over now many, many years and just sort of throw it out is usually a kind of stupid thing for a business to do.

“Of course of business can make changes and improvements, as Woolworths say that they’re going to do – they don’t need to change their name to do that.”

The survey indicated more consumers shopped at Countdown than any other supermarket in the past 12 months, but more than half thought the rebrand was a waste of money.

It found nearly half of consumers over the age of 35 felt the spending was wasteful amid an economic downturn that has seen strong increases in the price of groceries.

The survey found just 9 percent of grocery shoppers were excited about the rebrand.

However, Woolworths said there was more to the change than the name.

“It represents a significant, long term investment in renewing and refreshing our stores to meet the needs of communities across Aotearoa,” Woolworths NZ managing director Spencer Sonn said.

“This includes offering more value as we know times are hard for a lot of our customers with the current cost of living pressures.”

Among the initiatives was Monday’s launch of a new Low Price offer, which would include price drops on essential grocery items, including vegetables.