Our contact a member service has long since retired!

What was in the database

Our interactive database held some of the information that members gave when they registered, including their name, the store or office that they worked at, their job role and an optional short message to other members. Members' email addresses and contact numbers were not shown on-line.

Searching for a colleague

Searching for a colleague was easy using our special interactive tool. Users could type a Store Number, Store Name or Colleague Name (First Name and Last Name normally work best), and were be shown a list of members who match the specificed criteria. The information also included a membership number, which helped our huge, unpaid one-man team to pass on the messages to the right person. Member data was collected for eighteen months after Woolworths' closure, and the search feature remained available for almost seven years.

Our simple rules

The interactive service was intended for members only. We did not send bulk emails or anything that may be offensive to the recipient.  Employment Agencies and Media Organisations were invited to contact us to prove a bona-fide reason to use the service. To send and receive messages they had to register, giving the store or office location where they worked and its number

Sending a message

The Woolworths Reunited postman passed on more than 3,000 mail messages while this service was operational, and conducted a series of surveys for BBC News, The Politics Show and ITN, which kept the demise of Woolies and the fate of its workers in the news for more than two years after the collapse, helping to establish the company as the poster child of the 2008 Credit Crunch.

Care was taken to screen every message and avoid cuasing offence.

The insensitivity of some companies and individuals at a time
when long-serving colleagues had lost their jobs was staggering.