General News
17 January, 2025
Siblings mark 45 years at Woolworths
Norm Brooks and Trish Robertson recently celebrated 45 years working at Woolworths Maryborough.
The siblings have been familiar faces to generations of local customers since they applied for jobs at the original Maryborough Woolworths store as teenagers in 1979. They are the only two employees who are still rostered on since the store opened at its current location.
“I’ve got a twin sister too, the three of us all applied for jobs at once and that was it. Dot left and got other jobs but we just stayed there,” Ms Robertson said.
At the time, Mr Brooks began working night fill and has since worked in all of the supermarket’s departments except the meat unit, the deli and bakery.
“I’ve shifted around, I started off on night fill, we would start work at 10 at night and filled the shop ready for the next day’s trade and knock off at six in the morning,” he said.
After four and a half decades, Ms Robertson has worked in every store department except for the meat unit.
“I did dairy case for a few years, then I went to order writing. I worked in the Deli, then systems operator, which has all changed since then, now a lot of that is electronic,” she said.
Both siblings have noticed many changes the store has had since they started.
“Back then it was trading for five and a half days a week to now trading seven days a week,” Mr Brooks said.
“Also the way the loads come in now, that process is more organised coming off the truck than it used to be, we used to have to fill the shelf on night fill and pricemark every-thing with a ticketing gun, it was a lot more time consuming. At least you don’t have to mark every can now, that was the biggest killer.
Ms Robertson doesn’t miss the ticketing gun either.
“At the end of the week you’d be trying not to use too many stickers because we had to peel off so many on Monday, it took forever,” Ms Robertson said.
Mr Brooks said one of the biggest changes he has noticed was registers.
“The check out system is far more advanced compared to what it used to be,” he said.
Ms Robertson agrees, but said that while many of the jobs in their industry have since become electronic, they have seen other roles emerge.
“Of course now there is self serve, but young kids can get jobs in online orders, that’s huge now,” she said.
Both siblings admit that during decades of being employed at the same supermarket, they haven’t often worked together.
“It wouldn’t be an issue if we needed to, there have only been some times where we have worked side by side, but it’s fine, we know how one another thinks,” Mr Brooks said.
Ms Robertson agrees. She said after being given different shifts when they applied, they didn’t cross paths in the store.
“From the start, Norm was older so he worked on night shift and drove himself there and home, Mum drove us into town when Dot and I worked day shift,” she said.
Neither sibling said they have plans to retire yet. Currently working in the check out, Mr Brooks said he loves working in the front end of the store.
“I love being able to talk to my customers, it’s amazing. It’s always good to catch up with the customers that I have known for years, you can have conversations while you’re scanning their groceries, ” he said.
“We love the job, we love the customers, it’s just a really great environment to be in. I enjoy working there, I enjoy the people I work with, it’s a good environment. some customers I serve now I dealt with 45 years ago.”
Ms Robertson agrees that the support from her co-workers and the community connection is why she has stayed for this long.
“A lot of customers have been and gone, and that’s where we meet them. Everyone tells me I know everyone in the town. They have been customers here since I started,” she said.
“We really value the customers and the staff, they say to me ‘Trish, why are you still here?’ and I say ‘to see you’.”