A Melbourne shopper has taken Aussies for a walk down memory lane inside a Woolworths that seems to have been frozen in time.
TikTok creator Beauie walked through the aisles of what looks like another era, with black and white checkered floors, an old school bakery, and a fruit and veg section that looks like a time capsule.
There’s also one key feature missing that’s become a staple at modern stores.
“You’ll not find a self-checkout here. Look at this s**t,” Beauie said in the clip.
“I think this is f**king amazing.”
Instead, there are just rows of green check-outs with smaller conveyor belts to place your weekly shop.
The store is located about 18km from Melbourne’s CBD in Doncaster, and also features open meat fridges rather than the glass doors we often see in more modern stores today.
“This is all OG. You will not find another Woolworths in Melbourne that is like this,” the shopper continued.
The nostalgic feel is a rare relic of Aussie supermarket history, retaining much of its original footprint from when it operated under the Safeway name.
Safeway was the American brand that operated across Victoria, NSW and Queensland before it was acquired by Woolworths in 1985.
Stores in NSW and Queensland promptly rebranded; however, Safeway lingered in Victoria for over two decades until the final store was converted in 2017.
The blast from the past was a welcome sight on social media, with the clip of the store quickly going viral on TikTok.
“Is it bad that I still call it Safeway?” a user questioned.
Another wrote: “That was my local growing up and as a kid. Haven’t been there in over 30 years still looks the same.”
“I’ve worked for Safeway for 30 years. I miss the old-style stores; they just felt more comforting, if you get what I mean lol,” a third reflected.
“This took me down a trip to memory lane,” another commented.
“Iga castlemaine is also stuck in time, weird to see nowadays,” shared another.
It’s not the first time a store has gone viral for its nostalgia, with a Woolworths in Brisbane delighting social media users late last year.
The Acacia Ridge store also transported Aussies back in time with its lack of self-service counters.
A photo that went viral on Reddit shows multiple staffed check-outs manned by workers, including a few designated for smaller shops.
“I genuinely forgot that there used to be separate lines like this for 20 or less items!” one person pointed out.
“Man, that express lane is taking me back to 2007,” another agreed.
“Wow. I didn’t even realise there was a store that didn’t have it. That is even the old-school express check-outs,” said a third.
These days, 98 per cent of stores across Australia offer self-service checkout options.
“As customer buying habits have shifted, we are seeing more frequent, smaller basket sizes, and a strong customer preference for a quicker and easier self-serve checkout experience,” a Woolworths spokesperson told news.com.au in December last year.
“We know some customers prefer to be served by a team member, and that’s why we always have a staffed checkout open at all times in all our supermarkets.”
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