Woolworths wants to expand its current Metro store at the Hawker shops into a larger, full-line supermarket.
Residents and shopkeepers have different views about it, some welcoming the upgrade, others concerned it will destroy the community feel of the shops
Residents and shopkeepers have different views about it, some welcoming the upgrade, others concerned it will destroy the community feel of the shops
Category
🗞
NewsTranscript
00:00 [Indistinct chatter]
00:22 I just think the centre is a bit tight.
00:24 Look, it needs a revamp. It's been like this for years.
00:27 There's plenty of car parking spots. I don't believe anyone's going to miss out on a car parking spot.
00:32 It would be good to see more people at the centre.
00:36 At night, it doesn't look very nice. Even the park looks tight.
00:41 The whole area is tight. It needs a revamp.
00:44 And if Woolworths want to do that, it sounds great.
00:47 Well, unfortunately, there wasn't a lot of it.
00:50 And it was really a sort of a tick-tick-box situation where not a lot of people actually knew about it.
00:56 There was no advertising. There were no posters put up for it. It was in the middle of the winter.
01:00 And everybody I speak to, all my friends who shop here, actually don't know about any of the Woolworths plans.
01:05 The shopping centre works fantastically for the community because of all the roads and all the interconnecting exits.
01:11 And there's flow onto all the medical facilities.
01:15 Woolworths could do a fantastic improved Woolworths if they wanted to on the shop footprint
01:22 because they own all the land in front of their supermarket.
01:25 So there's lots of opportunities for a really improved village feel
01:29 and also keeping what everybody likes about this particular style of shopping.
01:35 There's very easy, accessible, quick shopping without the complications of trying to go underground possibly.
01:44 The elderly use this all around the area because they can safely walk across the pedestrian.
01:50 It's an intimate, nice-sized Woolworths so they know that they can shop really well and safely.
01:58 And it's just very efficient and that's why people all around the region drop in after work and before work
02:05 and then flow onto all the other suburbs because of the quick, available parking and accessibility.
02:12 It is at the moment a 25-year-old shop in Hawker.
02:16 I believe that the car park is good for the older people, for anyone on the run, moving.
02:22 It's just a short stay. You've got the medical centre here, you've got the dentist, the chemist and Woolworths at the moment.
02:28 If we need to do another development, I don't know why it has to be upgraded so much.
02:33 I'd rather see the footpaths and that fixed up by the government.
02:36 We've got Jemison and Kipax only two k's away and there's no need for another redevelopment in Hawker.
02:42 Hawker Village is about community-friendly use.
02:46 Thank you.
02:47 [BLANK_AUDIO]