How SA is driving a supermarket revolution: The new look grocery stores inspiring a nation
IN Adelaide’s suburbs a quiet revolution is taking place to make shopping more pleasurable and it’s catching the attention of retailers around Australia and the world. But what’s driving it?
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Read below: West Lakes earmarked for super-supermarket
IT’S 9.30am on a weekday in suburbia — a supermarket in a large shopping complex just a short distance from a cemetery.
Inside, there’s music, laughter, relaxed chatter, the wood-fired oven is ablaze and there is the aroma of just-baked bread and freshly-brewed coffee.
At one cafe-style table a grandmother shares a wickedly decadent treat with her young granddaughter while over by the concierge desk, a touch screen outlines the day’s live entertainment.
In every direction there are displays of cheese, wine, seafood, fruit — local and exotic — and spices of the world, laid out market-style under festoon lights within walls of exposed red brick.
A couple is taking a selfie in front of the “salumi bar” where a broad-smiling man is serving zucchini flowers, smoked salmon and a range of cured meats. Another strolls leisurely through the aisles.
Welcome to the shiny new world of grocery shopping South Australia-style, as consumers increasingly demand more from their grocery store than rows of cheap, homebrand products in crowded aisles.
And Pasadena Foodland — owned by the family behind Adelaide’s two-time “world’s best supermarket” winner, Frewville Foodland, the Chapleys — is leading the way in raising the bar for supermarkets not just in this state but across the nation.
It’s taking doing the weekly shop to a whole new level and other independents and even the supermarket giants are starting to follow, opting to display wares in trendy, spacious, light-filled hubs.
So what’s driving this supermarket trend? Australian Retailers Association executive director Russell Zimmerman says consumers are more “educated and connected” than they’ve ever been and this means they are demanding more from retailers, brands and products. “Using technology, consumers are able to globally source, price and purchase products from the comfort of their living room, or in-store via their smartphone,” he says.
And this, he says, is forcing retailers to become more innovative. “(For example), we are seeing sporting retailers implement in-store activities such as yoga, pilates, mediation and life coaching to draw in repeat customers,” Mr Zimmerman says.
“Other strategies retailers are implementing include offering pop-up sushi bars, coffee stations and relaxation hubs in-store to improve the customer experience.
“It’s retailers with strong and personalised customer service who will thrive in 2018.”
It’s a point not lost on Australia’s largest independent grocery retailer, Drakes.
In February, it opened a new $8 million “concept” store at Wayville that, along with the regular household staples, offers everything from hot roast dinners to breakfast egg and ham brioches and on-tap kombucha (a fermented, lightly-effervescent sweetened tea promoted for its health benefits).
Store manager Steve Laratro says what’s happening in SA is beginning to drive change elsewhere.
“(At Wayville) we’re trialling a whole new way of doing things, a whole new concept; if it works here, we’ll roll it out in other locations,” he says.
“People are looking for something new, something different — it’s a global culture. People want to spend a bit of time and choose the food they want to buy.”
He says, in part, television reality cooking shows are driving this but it is also about consumers increasingly wanting an “experience” when they shop.
“People want more and more, to explore and try new things. (Today a supermarket) isn’t just a shop, it’s an experience ... you look at Frewville and Pasadena and realise we need to keep coming up with innovative ideas, as that is what consumers are demanding,” Mr Laratro says.
The 18-year industry veteran describes evolving trends as “massive”.
“I’ve seen so much change and most of that has happened in the past five years,” he says.
“A few years ago, people wanted what everyone else had but the opposite is true now, they want something that is unusual and niche.”
Local produce is also key, as is offering different products, depending on the demographics of the store’s location.
“SA is a very patriotic state as it is and that rolls through to all aspects of life, when it comes to produce, people would rather buy something produced in the Adelaide Hills than in Margaret River in WA, for example,” Mr Laratro says.
And competition for the grocery dollar is increasingly fierce.
“Adelaide has more supermarkets per square metre than anywhere else in Australia — if you want a slice of the grocery business, you have to be better than anyone else,” he says.
Coles tells the Sunday Mail it has opened seven new stores in SA in the past five years, at McLaren Vale, St Clair, Evanston, Kilbburn, Whyalla, Murray Bridge and Parabanks.
“In that time we’ve also refurbished, renewed or expanded a further 22 stores in the SA supermarket fleet,” a spokesman says, adding the plan is to have “fresh bread baked in every store”.
Still, it’s a world away from Pasadena where, as I chat to father and son, Nick and Spero Chapley, a beaming shopper walks past and calls out, “Thanks for making grocery shopping enjoyable”.
It doesn’t take long to realise 84-year-old patriarch Nick, or “Mr Nick”, is something of a celebrity amid the grocery aisles, popular with both customers and staff.
“Customers will kiss me,” says Nick and, to him, there is nothing odd in that.
“We say the staff and customers are our family. If you say that — and if you believe it — you will do the best for them,” says the one-time refugee who recalls as a child “nearly starving to death” after fleeing his beloved Greek island of Ikaria during World War II.
“We directly employ about 360 people at this store — and 1000 across our stores — and they are my family.” It’s the philosophy he’s embraced since co-owning his first cafe at Moulamein as a 16-year-old lad, saving up for two years to buy into the regional NSW business by working “16 hours a day, seven days a week”.
SINCE then, he’s owned market gardens, grocery stores and shopping centres in Victoria and SA — notching up many entrepreneurial firsts along the way, including selling groceries, handbags, jewellery and even musical instruments at his first cafe.
“Everything I’ve done, from growing vegetables to driving a truck, I’ve done 100 per cent,” Nick says.
“In the early days we worked hard and long hours but we made it enjoyable.
“Through the business, we sponsored and bought over cousins from Greece — we worked, ate, slept and entertained in the shop and in the living quarters. These are some of my fondest memories.”
Spero says there is no doubt his father’s early years shaped his own work ethic.
“A lot of where Nick is today resonates back to when he was a 14-year-old working at the cafe at Moulamein,” he says. “For him, it’s all about family, community and not forgetting where you came from. It’s about bringing people with you on your journey.”
The Chapleys say they want their stores to be viewed as community hubs where people, including children, can meet and relax. “We’ve spent a lot of time getting the feel and vibe right. We didn’t want to have white vinyl floors, white walls and fluoro lights,” Spero says. “What you see here comes from the heart.” Live music is a part of that but Spero admits to being nervous ahead of introducing a piano player at the Frewville store several years ago.
“I was watching people come in and had that awkward moment where I thought, ‘I wonder what will happen here?’ but our customers loved it,” he says. At Pasadena, you can check ahead to see who’ll be performing — from contemporary to classical performers across a range of instruments including guitar, piano and harp.
But despite the live music and in-store dining, the Chapleys don’t see themselves as elitist, rather as offering what discount grocers such German giant Aldi, don’t.
“An Aldi store can go up next to us and it won’t worry us. We have 45,000 products, they have 1800,” says Spero.
The SA supermarket supremos are opposed to self-serve check-outs.
“Self-service machines are all about reducing the cost of wages, so shareholders can get bigger dividends and executives can get end-of-year bonuses,” Spero says.
“With all due respect, that has nothing to do with community or clientele.”
For Nick, the winning formula is simple: “We love what we do and we mean that.”
West Lakes earmarked for super-supermarket
A PLAN to create one of Australia’s biggest supermarkets in suburban Adelaide includes a day spa, live entertainment, restaurant precinct and pop-up stalls.
Father and son duo Nick and Spero Chapley shared with the Sunday Mail their vision for a Frewville-style “world’s best supermarket” at West Lakes — only grander.
“We want to go beyond a standard supermarket to create a destination that caters to the varying tastes and needs of the local community,” Spero says.
“This supermarket will offer everything from street food to sidewalk pop-up stalls, wine and cheese, coffee, art, music and festival activity.
“Our pledge is to have something on, something different, something happening every day.”
The Chapleys haven’t yet set a start date for work on the new Charles St supermarket, or revealed what it will cost.
However, Spero said the aim was to create a “Euro-style world-class supermarket” employing 400 staff.
“It will have a genuine market-community square feel, where there are colourful piles of produce and real food in every direction (and) locals, families and visitors can feel connected to it ... a truly convenient and relaxing one-stop shopping experience,” he said.
“The decor will be inspired by a culmination of European and Asian influences with the emphasis on style, warmth and community.
“Our aim is to make this centre a major Australian destination and to continually innovate in order to raise our retail standards.”
So think Pasadena or Frewville — which won back-to-back International Retailer of The Year Excellence Awards in 2016 and 2017 — only bigger.
The Pasadena and Frewville stores each have florists — or flower bars — attached, as will the West Lakes store.
But the planned new supermarket will have a health-centred wellness day spa, “restaurant precinct”, concierge service as well as a “centre to showcase the state’s wine and cheese” within the supermarket.
“West Lakes will be another level again,” Spero says.
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