Flemings (supermarkets)

{{Short description|Australian supermarket chain}}

{{Use dmy dates|date=January 2025}}

{{Infobox company

| name = Flemings Food Stores

| logo =

| logo_size =

| image = Flemings_Jannali.jpg

| image_caption = The last Flemings store in Jannali, 2019

| type = Subsidiary

| founder =

| key_people =

| industry = Retail

| products =

| revenue =

| locations =

| parent = Woolworths Limited

| foundation = 1930

| defunct = 19 May 2020

| location_city =

| location_country = Australia

}}

Flemings was a chain of discount supermarkets in Sydney, Australia and surrounding areas.

The first Flemings stores were opened in 1930 by Jim Fleming Sr. and George Fleming. They initially traded under the name "E.L. Lakin". Following World War II, the name changed to "Fleming's Fabulous Food Stores" and there were 100 stores.{{cite news|last1=Stephens|first1=Tony|title=From groceries to the gallops|work=The Sydney Morning Herald|publisher=Fairfax|date=5 December 2007}}

In June 1960, Jim Fleming Jr. and his father sold their 55 Flemings stores to Woolworths Limited for $10 million. In the early 1970s, Jim Fleming Jr. acquired Warman's Stores in New South Wales. Fleming gave it a new name, Jewel Food Stores, and pushed it into the same discount end of the grocery retailing business as Flemings.{{cite news|title=Jim Fleming |url=http://www.afr.com/companies/jim-fleming-19900406-kamgn |accessdate=2020-05-09 |work=Australian Financial Review |date=1990-04-06}}

The final "Flemings Food Stores" logo was launched in the early 1990s [http://findnearest.com/images/logos/flemings.gif]. From the late 1990s, Flemings stores were internally rebranded to Woolworths featuring the same marketing materials and the same home brand products. The external branding didn't change until the late 2000s. Some Flemings stores closed and the remaining were rebranded as Woolworths or Woolworths Metro. The last of these were the Pendle Hill store which was refurbished and rebranded Woolworths in late 2009. Umina Beach on the Central Coast closed on 17 June 2010 and was replaced by a Woolworths, opposite the old Flemings store. The Bexley North store was rebadged as a Woolworths Metro store in 2017.{{cite news|last=Brook |first=Benedict |title=The Sydney suburb with a secret Woolworths hiding in plain sight |url=https://www.news.com.au/finance/business/retail/the-sydney-suburb-with-a-secret-woolworths-hiding-in-plain-sight/news-story/442b9575daf779c0e3b509ffb6018e9b |accessdate=2020-02-07 |publisher= news.com.au |date=2019-05-03}} The last Flemings store in Jannali closed on 19 May 2020 and was replaced by a Woolworths Metro.{{cite news|last=Trembath |first=Murray |title=Old Flemings grocery store at Jannali to be replaced by Woolworths Metro |url=https://www.theleader.com.au/story/6749802/farewell-flemings-jannali-grocery-store-last-to-close/#slide=0 |accessdate=2020-05-09 |publisher=St George & Sutherland Shire Leader |date=2020-05-08}}