After years of speculation and months of promises that the Woolworths food section would come to Grahamstown, it is official: it will not be happening any time soon.
After years of speculation and months of promises that the Woolworths food section would come to Grahamstown, it is official: it will not be happening any time soon.
The media campaign that the company embarked on last year to publicise the food section was in vain. Last year February, 11, Grocott's Mail reported that the city "may be closer to the addition of the long-awaited food department at Woolworths.
Promises and rumours have been circulating since it was first announced in Grocott's Mail on 27 November 2009." It was further reported that Gary Poovan, the owner of the Woolworths Grahamstown branch, said that in November that they had planned to open around 12 April last year.
In the same year, delays with the municipality over land earmarked for development further stalled extensions to the current store. Owner of Beer Properties, Rob Beer confirmed this, saying, "My company has applied to the municipality to exchange a piece of land it owns behind Clicks for the equivalent behind Woolworths, for parking owned by the municipality. When this is resolved, I will be in a position to start the new Woolies Foods."
"A lucrative business venture such as this would have kept the current exodus of shoppers from venturing as far afield as Port Alfred and Port Elizabeth to obtain their weekly Woolworths Food fix," the article read.
In an email to Grocott's Mail, the Group Head, Real Estate Development spokesperson, Maurice De Villiers, confirmed that the food section would not be coming to Grahamstown any time soon. The email read: "No Woolies Food stores are currently planned for Grahamstown."
