Australian supermarkets go bougie to battle for community hub crown
IGA Queen St Village has more than your usual supermarket offering.
From instore restaurants, pick-and-mix dessert bars, to cheese rooms and wine tastings, a visit to the local supermarket is becoming much more than a spot to grab your groceries.
IGA’s newest flagship store, IGA Queen Street Village, which is located in the Gold Coast suburb of Southport, features a walk in Fromagerie, with more than 500 varieties of cheese from around the world, an in-house florist, an onsite patisserie, an instore cafe, as well as a Sushi and made to order fresh juice bar.
IGA Queen St Village owner Tyrone Jones says they are creating a food lover’s destination.
“We’ve said that ‘retail boredom is our opportunity’,” owner Tyrone Jones said.
“We believe our customers are looking for much more than just a supermarket visit.
“We wanted to create a food lover’s destination; crafting an experience where people go out of their way to stop in.”
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Mr Jones said his store was staffed with people who were passionate about food.
Woolies is also targeting foodie culture.
“We provide a wide range of options for all types of customers, whether it’s those looking for a meal on the run, shoppers looking to make their grocery budget go further or the discerning customers who are looking for high-quality, gourmet items that are hard to find in other supermarket chains – we tick all of the boxes,” he said.
The store opened last October and it has fast become a destination on the Gold Coast for food shopping, Mr Jones said.
“With our own online ordering and home delivery system, we have also increased our presence on rapid delivery platforms, like Uber Eats and Door Dash,” he said.
“It has seen a significant increase in customers who are ordering at times that suit them best, whether it’s for snacks during a sporting event or their weekly grocery shop,” he said.
IGA’s meat selection is a far cry from the traditional supermarket aisle.
In the Sydney CBD, the state-of-the-art Locali by Romeo’s IGA has an instore restaurant, bar and wood fired pizza oven.
The luxury supermarket, located at 388 George Street, has been inspired by internationally acclaimed food halls, Eataly in New York, and Harrods in London and the Romeo family’s passion for Italian food and culture.
The store also has a coffee shop, sushi bar, salami and sandwich options, cheese room, bakery, salad bar and freshly made ready-to-go-meals.
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In Sydney’s Double Bay, the new Woolworths Metro offers customers a curated selection of craft groceries, including a pick-and-mix dessert bar with macarons and other desserts.
It is also the first Woolworths in New South Wales to feature a refill station for its Macro cleaning products, helping customers reduce plastic and save money.
A good selection of fresh produce is key.
“The new store offers an ultra-convenient shopping experience for our customers on the go, complementing our full-line Double Bay supermarket for customers making their larger weekly shops or looking for a wider variety of products,” a Woolworths spokesperson said.
“The precinct features an extensive range of dissolvable cleaners, upcycled garlic bread and breadcrumbs, an indoor vertical herb garden from @invertigro, a reduced-plastic produce packaging trial, pick-and-mix stations for nuts, pasta and rice and closed fridges to reduce electricity consumption – in addition to our standard sustainability initiatives such as, the Odd Bunch program to help reduce feed waste.”
In Western Australia, the Good Grocer Myaree IGA – owned and operated by the Brindle family – underwent an almost $3 million overhaul to refresh the store, increase its floor size and enhance the customer experience.
Eat your heart out.
The store now offers a state-of-the-art tortilla machine, a cold pressed juice machine produced and bottled in store, an integrated liquor store ‘The Good Grocer Cellar’, and an even larger in-house kitchen and delicatessen, bakery and in-house florist.
Every Friday evening, wine and cheese tastings are held instore.
The store’s premium product range – The Good Grocer Collection – Home Brand showcases fresh quality WA food products, that includes more than 250 product lines including fresh herbs, cheese, coffee and chocolate, to name a few.
“The concept provides smaller producers who don’t have their own distribution channel an opportunity to package, label, and distribute their product in retail stores,” owner Holly Brindle said.
Woolworths Metro’s selection of meat.
Many customers have said that grocery shopping was no longer a chore and they enjoy and looked forward to visiting the Good Grocer, Ms Brindle said.
“As a local independent operator, we don’t have the economies of scale to compete with the major retailers on price,” she said.
“Therefore, we need to innovate and work harder to push boundaries and offer something unique to give our customers value and choice.
“This is particularly important at the moment, as competition is increasing with the growth of Aldi in the local market and new initiatives from Coles and Woolworths, such as Coles Local.”
Now shopping can be a treat.
Since the store’s renovation, Ms Brindle said there had been a significant rise in foot traffic, with customer numbers up 18.5% during the past year compared to 2021.
“We now target a wider geographical area as customers are willing to travel further for our quality experience,” she said.
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