Romeo’s to open new Rundle Mall Foodland on Wednesday

Rundle Mall’s first independent supermarket will open its doors to the public for the first time this week. Take a sneak peek inside the impressive new concept store ahead of its grand opening.

Foodland employees, Anthony Trimboli, and Amelia Romaldi, work on getting the place shipshape for the big opening. Picture: Dean Martin

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The shelves are stacked and close to 120 full-time and casual retail jobs have been created at Rundle Mall’s first independent supermarket, which will open its doors for the first time on Wednesday.

Following an $8 million transformation of the Citi Centre Arcade and food court, on the corner of Rundle Mall and Pulteney St, the Romeo family is set to unveil its latest offering, which is modelled on its Martin Place store in the heart of Sydney’s business district.

The new supermarket features an in-house cafe, sushi bar, salad bar, florist and deli, while an expansive walk-in cheese room forms the centrepiece at the heart of store.

Rundle Mall is currently home to Coles and Woolworths, but Foodland Rundle Mall store manager Rob Coburn is confident the new offering will strike a chord with busy CBD shoppers, workers and residents.

“We’ve got this awesome deli that were renowned for, we’ve got the salad bar, dumpling bar, sushi bar, cafe, bakery, in-store florist, walk-in cheese room, ready meals - everything to cater for people on the go,” he said.

“We’ve tried to make the exit state of the art as well, so you can grab what you want in a hurry and you’re not going to be held up - we’re really conscious of our city traffic.

“Adelaide’s changed - the number of apartments around is amazing and we’ve had to adapt with that - we’re always trying to be ahead of the pack.”

The cheese bar at the new Rundle Mall Foodland. Picture Dean Martin

As well as its range of ready meals made by well-known Adelaide food supplier Enzo’s, the new supermarket will provide a corporate catering service known as “Out in the Paddock”, offering customers a range of grazing platters including cheeses, cured meats, fruit and nuts.

According to Romeo’s Retail Group director Paul Romeo, the opening represents the culmination of a long-held ambition to open a supermarket in the Adelaide CBD.

“We believe the style of offering is something a little bit different to our two competitors - it is modelled a fair bit on what we’ve done in Sydney but we’ve taken it to a new level,” he said.

“We’ve got our full range of groceries like all of our other Foodland stores, so we cater for the convenience shopping and the customer that needs to do a full shop – perfect for customers living inner city.

“And everything that we can we source locally we will source locally.

“I’m very proud and very excited to have a whole new team of South Australian employees in a state-of-the-art supermarket.”

As well as salad and sushi bars. Picture Dean Martin

Julie Naebsanthia, who was recently employed to work in the new store, said she was excited by this week’s launch to the public.

“It’s amazing - I’ve worked in supermarkets before but nothing like this - it’s like a one stop shop,” she said.

“Most of the supermarkets don’t have a cheese bar so that’s just one example of where we stand out from others.

“A lot of people have been walking past to see what’s happening, a lot of people have been very interested in the opening, and I reckon they’ll be impressed.”

Rundle Mall Foodland is the Romeo’s Retail Group’s 30th store in South Australia and 40th in the country. It plans to open ten more stores across SA and NSW by 2020.