The supermarket chain was co-founded by the festively named Percy Christmas, who was born in Kiama in May 1884.

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The first Woolworths outlet opened in Sydney in 1924 (despite the name there is no connection to the US or UK shopping chains it has outlasted).

In Kiama, Woolworths' in-house property team Fabcot has lodged plans to completely renovate the Kiama Village shopping centre on Terralong Street - of which the chain is the owner and anchor tenant.

The changes will see the supermarket itself get bigger, the one-storey shopping complex growing to two levels and the addition of outdoor dining.

"The proposal will reconfigure the existing supermarket, BWS liquor store and specialty retail premises, with the footprint of the supermarket increasing (internally) and the addition of a 'Direct to Boot' servicing area," the application's statement of environmental effects said.

"The pedestrian entrance [at Terralong Street] leads to an outdoor dining zone adjacent to the eastern facade of the building.

"The proposal will provide a new, two-level car parking structure within the southern corner of the site which will result in a total 254 parking spaces being provided on the site, with well-defined pedestrian connections through to the centre via level access, lift and travelator."

At present the centre has 189 parking spaces.

The new centre's parking would be monitored by a boom gate and licence plate cameras, with shoppers allowed to park free for a period.

Last year, the shopping centre's previous owners had redevelopment plans knocked back, in part because the amount of parking was inadequate.

Due to the incline at the site, some excavation will be required to complete the first parking level.

The plan would see the number of retail tenants drop by one to 15 while the supermarket outlet (including BWS) will increase by a third, from 2983 square metres to 4010 square metres.

"The proposal seeks to expand the internal footprint of the existing Woolworths supermarket to provide a floor area of 3597 square metres," the development application stated.

"This will include the provision of a revised internal layout to bring the development up to a standard anticipated for a modern supermarket."

A traffic study found the redevelopment would see another 80 vehicles per hour two-way during the weekday afternoon peak hour and 70 an hour two-way during the Saturday midday peak hour.

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