ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the introduction of supermarkets to Australia. Drawing on interviews with managers from the Coles retail chain, it argues that supermarkets not only disrupted the grocery sector, but also caused significant internal disruptions to the Coles’ organisation and the personal lives of its managers. The chapter’s contribution to business history is to show that innovation and disruption have often unrecognised flow on effects for organisations and employees. Its contribution to oral history is to demonstrate how business activities can be interrogated to reveal the human dimensions of business change. Its most unique aspects are the insights it provides into organisational politics during periods of business disruption.
