Anyone who has visited a Cheaper Buy Miles store will recognise the delight of walking out with a random bag of loot: wasabi crackers, berry kombucha, a protein date bar, pickled mussels, a kilo of brie, all for under $20? Don’t mind if I do.
But as the cost-of-living crisis continues to bite, discount grocery stores such as Cheaper Buy Miles and NQR are playing an increasingly important role in household budgets.
Cheaper Buy Miles social media manager Neve Donovan with a $20 basket of groceries from the supermarket’s Footscray store. Credit: Penny Stephens
The Age visited the stores to see what could be snapped up for a $20 note for dinner.
At Cheaper Buy Miles in Footscray, we scored a packet of beef ravioli, a jar of pasta sauce, a tub of Chobani yoghurt, two pre-packed curry meals, a large Fever-Tree ginger ale and two bottles of iced tea, all for $20.
At a major supermarket, the same basket would have cost close to $45.
Over at NQR in Sunshine, for $20 we picked up a pack of pizza bases, tomato sauce, tasty cheese, sliced ham and frozen vegetables.
NQR area manager Janeta Gestakovski with $20 worth of groceries from the chain’s Sunshine West store. Credit: Penny Stephens
Shopper Rachel Rai, 38, was browsing the aisles of Cheaper Buy Miles’ Footscray store when The Age visited. She said it was always her first port of call, then she filled out the rest of her shopping list at a larger supermarket.
Part of the allure is the fun of the unknown. Rai recalls once finding the holy grail, a D’Affinois cheese wheel for $10 (usually $140). Another favourite was Tony’s Chocolonely for $4 (instead of $8).
“I like the variety, you never know what you’ll find,” she said.
Cheaper Buy Miles and NQR have similar business models; they buy direct from manufacturers, often when they have over-produced or when items are approaching their best-before dates. They haggle over the cost to get the prices in their stores as low as possible.
You won’t find fresh produce at these stores and the stock fluctuates, so regular visitors supplement what they buy here with a trip to the supermarket.
Cheaper Buy Miles focuses on the inner suburbs, with branches in Footscray, Brunswick, Flemington and Fitzroy. NQR has 21 stores in Victoria, usually larger and in outer suburbs with ample parking.
Grant Miles opened the first Cheaper Buy Miles store in 1996, with the mantra of fighting food waste at its core.
He said the business was always gradually growing, but demand exploded during the COVID-19 pandemic and continued when high inflation led to soaring grocery bills.
Shoppers flock for the $1 cartons of almond milk, $1 blocks of organic chocolate, $2 packs of baba ganoush and $4 shampoo.
A wheel of Adelaide Hills smoked brie for $15 at the Cheaper Buy Miles in Footscray.Credit: Penny Stephens
“Everybody is looking to save money, which brings them into our business more than it has in the past, and there’s growing awareness around food waste,” he said.
Miles said his team was always hunting for new suppliers to try to keep variety flowing through the stores, with a special interest in organic and vegan food.
“You can’t do all your shopping at our stores,” Miles conceded. “Stock at our stores changes every day, and it makes it fun and adventurous and a bit of a treasure hunt.”
He said food giants made astronomical amounts of sometimes obscure products, which he tried to rescue from going to landfill. He described recently buying Vegemite-flavoured tinned spaghetti.
“We bought as much as we could, maybe 2000 cartons, but they had tens of thousands.”
He said his cheese selection was hugely popular among his customers, as well as snack foods.
Best-before dates differ from use-by dates, in that they are just a loose guide: a food may have lost some quality, but is often still safe to eat if stored appropriately.
Miles uses his judgment to determine how long products can remain on the shelf after their best-before date. Generally speaking, he allows canned foods to stay for 12 months, hard cheese for three months and soft cheese for a week.
NQR chief executive Ewan Jones has a slightly different approach: he sells products approaching their best-before date, but never after.
Ben and Jerry’s ice cream retails for $4.50 at the NQR Sunshine West store.Credit: Penny Stephens
Jones said demand had surged since the cost-of-living crisis kicked in.
He explained that a quarter of stock was permanent and sold just under the market price, while the rest rotated according to what could be acquired cheaply from suppliers.
Jones, who has worked at the Reject Shop, bought NQR in 2018 with other investors. He said they turned the struggling business around by focusing on selling well-known brands.
He also changed the former name – Not Quite Right – to NQR, to curb negative connotations.
Jones said yoghurt, snacks and freezer items like potato cakes and ice-cream were the biggest sellers. There are also bargains such as 1.5 kilograms of frozen broccoli for $10 and $4 enchilada kits.
“Customers will wait for the delivery truck [of our cheap yoghurt].”
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