Wolki Farm Butcher open 24/7 with no staff

An Australian butcher is open 24 hours a day, 365 days a year without any staff. Here is how they do it.

A sustainable farmer in regional NSW has opened Australia’s first self-service butcher, managing to stay open 24/7 without any staff.

Jacob Wolki, who runs Wolki Farm in southwest NSW, made the decision to go staff-free two years ago when looking at ways to keep his store open without shrinking revenue.

The Albury-based storefront is open 24-hours a day, 365 days a year without anyone to man it – and yet has never had an issue with theft or shrinkage.

Mr Wolki showcased the butchery, which has no staff to watch over it, in a now-viral video. Picture: Tiktok / @wolkifarm

“Customers get their unique pin code once they sign up to be a member. Once they enter their code, they gain access to the storefront,” Mr Wolki explained in a now-viral Tiktok video showcasing the high-tech butchery.

“This is open 24/7, 365 days, and all of this meat we grow on our regenerative farm 10 kilometres up the road.”

Lines of industrial freezers house cuts of pork, lamb, beef, chicken and wild harvest venison, while a smaller cooler holds soup bones, chicken feet and pet mince. The staff-free store also stocks a selection of jams, sauces and pantry staples.

Freezers are stocked with pork, beef and venison. Picture: Tiktok / @wolkifarm

While a freezer stores soup bones, chicken feet and pet mince. Picture: Tiktok / @wolkifarm

Theft, Mr Wolki told news.com.au, is avoided by inducting customers into the values of the farm – as well as a hefty security system.

“We’ve been running this model for two years now. We’re doing around $3000 in revenue a week, and in two years we’ve had zero theft and zero shrinkage,” he said.

“The way we achieve that is, to qualify to be a member of our butchery here, you have to come do a free farm tour and understand our values and our ethos and what we’re trying to achieve. It lets people buy into our mission.”

The shop is also fitted with high-definition audiovisual security cameras.

The store is fitted with high-def security cameras. Picture: Tiktok / @wolkifarm

And check-out is handled via an app. Picture: Tiktok / @wolkifarm

Its check-out process is handled by a third-party app. Mr Wolki demonstrates the process by scanning three items – pork belly ribs, beef sausages and chicken wings, for $52.11 – before checking out via a number of payment options, including Bitcoin.

Comments flooded in to support the staff-free enterprise, but Mr Wolki said he had copped some criticism for “removing jobs” from a regional area.

“Amazing!! So much better than a 24/7 gym membership,” one of the video’s 480,000 viewers wrote.

“The secret about regional is there’s always that one service doing things more advanced than those in metro,” another added.

@wolkifarm

Am I destroying the job market by running a 24/7 staffless butchery!? #farming#butchery#business

♬ original sound - Wolki Farm

The criticisms he did receive, Mr Wolki said, came down to a misunderstanding of his business model.

“It’s not about removing jobs, it’s about moving jobs,” he told news.com.au.

“I’m a big employer. I employ 50 people across our region, but I want to pour that labour and those skills into improving systems on the farm. We grow meat that we think is exceptional, and the resources we save from paying someone minimum wage to man the shop are instead used for that purpose.”

After two years in Albury, Mr Wolki said his self-service butcheries may be expanding into metro areas.

“I’ve engaged a couple of tech developers, and I have a few concepts that will make access and payment even easier,” he said.

“I want to remove the membership system, and rely instead on customers accessing the store with their credit card details. If I can make it work the way I’m imagining it, I think it will work anywhere.”