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The purpose of this paper is to present a view of how a retail chain store and its marketing strategies impacted on shopping habits in twentieth century Ireland.

Primary and secondary sources include company documents, oral history and press reports. Background social, political and economic factors are considered in conjunction with the methods this firm used to build customer-driven managed marketing systems and teams of good staff relationships.

Woolworth's Irish stores responded to changing tastes and needs of consumers throughout Ireland. The Irish market required skilful techniques to overcome widening divisions within customer profiles to accommodate increasing north-south and urban-rural patterns. Welcomed by shoppers of all ages and genders, this firm's contribution to Ireland's retailing and wider commercial scene was innovative, popular, flexible and influential.

The overview of this well-known retail chain store's experience in twentieth century Ireland can provide scholars with building blocks on which to expand knowledge and develop further understanding of a largely un-tapped field of research within the history of marketing in Ireland.

Considers the structure of grocery retailing in Australia and, in particular, presents and contrasts the development strategies being pursued by the three major retailers in this highly concentrated market. Woolworth’s, the market leader, is a classic corporate recovery story and is emerging as one of the most impressive food retailers in the world. By contrast, the grocery businesses of Coles Myer, Australia’s leading retailer and one of the largest retailers in the world, are under intense pressure from both a rejuvenated Woolworth’s and the company’s own internal weaknesses, many of which are a legacy of a long period of unchallenged market dominance. Coles now faces the challenge of reinventing itself and is taking an approach quite different to that of Woolworth’s. Franklins is number three in Australian grocery retailing and its origins are as a price aggressive discounter. However, as Franklins’ own market position has come under pressure, the company is responding by moving towards more direct competition with Coles and Woolworth’s.

Sustainable development; business, government, and society.

The case is designed to be taught to students at MBA and MA level.

In February 2009, Justin Smith, manager of the good business journey at Woolworths, a leading South African department store, was a worried man. Woolworths had launched its five-year sustainability strategy just under two years before. After undertaking an impact assessment, Smith was concerned that the original targets – which covered transformation, social development, the environment and climate change – had been set without a clear understanding of exactly what it would take to achieve them. Woolworths had recently identified ten key risk areas that impacted on the achievement of its original goals. If the sustainability goals were not reached, Woolworths could lose credibility among its shareholders, staff, and consumers. What did Woolworths need to do to ensure that it achieved its sustainability goals? And had the company been too ambitious in the targets it had set initially, he wondered?

To examine the differences, if any, between sustainable development in South Africa and other developing nations and sustainable development in developed nations; to impart an understanding of sustainability in its broadest sense; to investigate the challenges in implementing sustainability strategies in business; to look at ways of measuring the success of sustainability strategies; and to explore whether and how sustainability strategies should differ across industry sectors and across companies.

Teaching notes.

The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate how Woolworths, a South African retail chain, evaluates and controls its sustainable business practices using economic, environmental and social indicators.

A content analysis of Woolworths' comprehensive 2008‐2011 sustainability and annual reports examined how this retail chain evaluates and implements its sustainable business practices.

The results indicate that such indicators play a significant role in evaluating and implementing various Woolworths' business practices aimed at sustainability. In addition, Woolworths' comprehensive governance system ensures that its sustainable business practices are implemented and targets achieved.

The case study demonstrates that businesses can remain profitable, while at the same time protecting the natural environment and striving for sustainable business practices.

This example demonstrates how government influence, institutional mechanisms and senior management commitment to a project ultimately has gone some way to minimise barriers to the adoption of sustainable practices.

The example provides not only a seed of knowledge for others in retailing, but also guidance to both practice in general and theory in the field of sustainable business practices. It demonstrates how an organization has taken strategic action, extended this beyond the firm's boundaries and into the supply chain. The case study illustrates how one organization can act as the change agent in the network.

This study aims to illustrate what and how a South African retail chain implements, monitors and evaluates its sustainable business practices using economic, ecological and social areas of indices.

The study is based on the content analysis of public documents, such as sustainability and annual reports, of a retail chain. An assessment of sustainability and annual reports for 2008-2011 has been considered to examine how and what this retail chain implements, monitors and evaluates in its sustainable business practices.

Woolworths has a sustainability programme in place that assures that the efforts of sustainable business practices are implemented, monitored and evaluated properly and that their targets for each area of indices are accomplished.

The content analysis shows that the areas of indices are important in the implementation, monitoring and evaluation of Woolworths’ spectrum of efforts in sustainability business practices.

The study demonstrates practically how Woolworths South Africa implements, monitors and evaluates its sustainable business practices using various areas of indices which fall under the three pillars of sustainability, namely, economic, environmental and social.

This research provides insight on what and how a retail chain in South Africa implements, monitors and evaluates its sustainable business practices over time. It also offers an insight into the strategic approach beyond the company’s judicial frontiers and into the supply chain. Furthermore, it shows how a company’s business network can be committed to change towards sustainable business practices.

The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate the sustainable business practices of Woolworths, a major South African retail chain.

A content analysis of Woolworths' comprehensive 2008 and 2009 annual reports and press releases was done in order to identify and describe the different sustainable business practices of Woolworths itself. Contact was established with the Good Business Journey Manager of Woolworths when issues in the publications needed further clarification.

Sustainable business practices are often regarded as a statutory expense in order to meet government legalisation requirements. This case study demonstrates that a business can voluntarily decide to be sustainable and it can use this approach to drive innovation, build its brand image and increase efficiencies and cost savings within the business.

Businesses can be sustainable even in developing countries.

Business can implement sustainable business practices, save money and still make a profit.

The paper highlights the sustainable business practices undertaken by a major South African retail chain.

The purpose of this paper is to describe a “fivefold bottom line” approach in implementing and reporting corporate efforts of sustainable business practices.

This viewpoint from industry is based on the content analysis of the South African retail chain Woolworths. The data are gathered and derived from the company's comprehensive annual and sustainability reports from 2008 to 2011 and the company's press releases for this period focusing on their efforts of implementing and reporting sustainable business practices.

A lesson learned from the presented “fivefold bottom line” approach to implement and report their corporate efforts of sustainable business practices is that it is adapted to fit and make sense in a specific market and society. The triple bottom line approach is usually derived from, or commonly based upon, a western perspective on the market and society in literature.

The authors argues that insights from industry of implementing and reporting sustainable business practices based upon different corporate “bottom line” approaches are required in literature.

The authors propose that the “triple bottom line” approach may need to be commonly adapted to the country and cultural context in focus, which is not normally done, but templates are used.

Triple bottom line reporting tends to follow common approaches how it is done. There is rarely seen adapted or modified “bottom line” approaches to specific market and societal characteristics in literature.

Woolworth has once again disappointed its fast dwindling band of stock market fans. After several years of heightened expectations, and periodic share price flurries, performance has been disappointing. Adjusting for last year's thirteen month accounting period sales were up by 12% on an annual basis, while pre‐tax profits, for the year ended January 31 were ahead by just half that amount. It is easy to see why Woolworth's record inspires little confidence in some quarters. Taking in last year's results, sales have crawled along at an average growth rate of 8% over the past four years, while 1973/74 pre tax profits of £43.3m are just 17% above their 1969 level. A poor showing when compared with the performance of most other major retailers.

Despite competition and supply-chain disruptions during Covid-19 pandemic (2019–2021), one grocery retailer consistently thrived and was ranked top. The sources of the sustained performances needed examination. Guided by self-congruity theory and integrating three models, the authors examined how much the retailer's brand performances (brand loyalty, equity, preference and repurchase intentions) were emanating from brand personalities and marketing offerings. The mediating roles of brand loyalty and equity were tested.

Cross-sectional data was collected from 480 frequent customers using an online questionnaire posted on the researchers' social media pages. Factor analysis was conducted to identify the dimension that best describes the grocery retailer. Partial least square–structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM) was used to test a conceptual model.

Factor analysis results show that brand sincerity (28.582% variance-explained; M = 4.1) was top (factor 1), followed by excitement (20.336% variance-explained; M = 3.9) and then trustworthiness (18.854% variance-explained; M = 3.87). PLS-SEM results revealed that two brand personalities (brand excitement and trustworthiness) and marketing offerings (price, place, product, promotion) impacted loyalty found to be a strong driver of brand equity. Repurchase intention and brand preference were influenced by brand equity. Brand loyalty mediated most of the relationships between brand personality dimensions, marketing offerings and brand equity. Brand equity also significantly mediated the relationships between brand loyalty, preference and repurchase intentions. The integrated model produced high explanatory powers with brand equity (67.8%), brand preference (71.7%), brand loyalty (63.2%) and repurchase intentions (54.2%).

The study extends a brand personality-loyalty model through integrating two other models that provided marketing offerings and brand equity outcomes. It demonstrates that a stream of profitable customers' responses awaits a retailer who holds both brand and customer mindsets by building admired brand personalities while providing desired marketing offerings.

In the Coen Brothers’ film, O Brother Where Are Thou?, set in depression‐era southern USA, one of the three convicts on the run is thrown out of a Woolworth’s shop and told never to come back. “Does this mean I’m banned from just this shop or all Woolworth’s?” Delmar, played by Tim Blake Nelson, worries. The joke reflects the affection that existed then, and does still, for a retailer that is seen by many people as being cheap and cheerful. However, loved or not “Woolies” is in crisis. When Trevor Bish‐Jones was appointed chief executive in March last year he took over a retailer facing huge problems.