Big W launches 50% sale on nearly 1,000 items

Big W is bringing the prices of nearly a thousand products down to half price as part of its ‘The BIG Sale’, which launched today.

Ahead of the closure of its 30 stores announced in early April, the discount department store is slashing prices by 50 per cent in products across beauty and health, electronics, entertainment, home, snacks, cleaning, pets, sports and toys categories.

If you need to rug up against the winter chill, you’ll find quilts for as low as $29.50; and you can make yourself a warm dinner with a Tefal 6-piece cookware set for just $149.50.

There are also discounts across makeup brands like Rimmel London, Max Factor, Australis, and Nude by Nature.

A handful of sports and leisure products are on offer for a neat bargain: a 6-person portable folding bench drops down from $99 to $49, while a 8-person tent that would typically set you back $249 will only cost $124.50.

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Big W’s ‘The BIG sale’ of 50 per cent sale isn’t the only sale Big W is holding right now: there are others on products by specific manufacturers like Sony, Philips, Dyson, Logitech and Microsoft that range from 20 to 50 per cent off.

The sale ends on 12 June or until stocks last and is available online and in store.

Big W slims down

Over the next three years, we’ll see the discount department store close 30 of its branches.

Brad Banducci, the CEO of Woolworths – Big W’s parent company – pointed to low profits as the reason for the closures.

“As foreshadowed at our half year 2019 results, while the recovery in trading for BIG W is encouraging and there remains further opportunity for improvement, the speed of conversion to earnings improvement is taking longer than planned,” he said.

“We understand the impact that the store and distribution centre closures will have on our team and will endeavour to provide affected team members with alternative employment options within the Woolworths Group where possible.”

That’s not it: we’ll see the even faster disappearance of its 41 optical stores, which will all be shutting shop by the end of June this year.

“We wish to inform you that all BIG W Optical practices will be permanently closing on 30 June 2019,” Big W said in a statement on 22 May.

“We apologise for any inconvenience and would like to take this opportunity to thank you kindly for your support as a valued optical customer of Big W.”

175 staff will be affected from the optical store closures.

Big W is a partial victim to the ‘retail apocalypse’ that has claimed several Australian and international brands with bricks-and-mortar presences.

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