It was about 1920 when my Grandfather decided to sell his wheat and cattle property in Wagga Wagga and move to Melbourne with his family of three sons and a daughter and purchased a Grocery shop in East Brunswick. In those days every thing was purchased in bulk and re-weighed into retail packs for sale.
It was my Grandmother who worked all day packing and weighing their weekly stock purchases while my grandfather sat on a stool at the till to take the money, and in all the years I never saw him leave his “post”. My father Albert (Bert) was the oldest and his job was to ride the grocer’s bike to collect the orders from customers before school, and then deliver them when he got home from school.
Around about 1935 Alma, the second eldest, married another grocer who became an icon in the Industry, Alf Seedsman, who had his first grocer shop in Coburg, in which my dad worked from time to time.
My Grandfather’s business prospered and after the second world war my father bought his first grocer’s shop in Thornbury, and several years later, Dad’s brothers, with the assistance of their father, purchased Stores of their own.
My Dad was the first Grocer to go “self-service” in the northern suburbs, and he used mum’s washing basket and cart as his “first Supermarket trolley”.
In 1953 there was a formation of Grocers that decided to group together to purchase stock. and was called the “Holy Seven” they formed the group of S.S.W.,with Alf Seedsman the Foundation Chairman, of which my Dad was one of the first new members.
My Dad sold his business in 1958 and went back to the land by buying a dairy farm at Nar Nar Goon. I was 12 years old.
In the early 1960’s Alf Seedsman could not refuse an offer from the American “Safeway” Company to sell his business and retired a very wealthy man.
It was in 1967 that Dad decided to get back into the Supermarket industry, sold his farm and bought a small licensed Four Square store in Boronia. This was my entry into the Supermarket Business.
The Independents had 51% of the market and consisted of – Foodland, Supa Value, and later Foodmaster. There was Four Square, Big Star and later Tuckerbag. There was the Jewish group of Saveway and Big Value and then, of course, SSW.
Then there were the chains. There were Crofts, Nancarrows, Permewan Wright, Moran & Cato, Dickens, Rockmans, Woolworths and then Coles, and the new kid on the block, from Western Australia, “Tom the Cheap”.
Dad had his eye on an empty shop of 200 square meters down the road and promptly moved his business into it and became a “Big Star” and in the early 1970’s our Store was the second highest volume outlet of packaged beer for C.U.B. in Victoria.
In 1975, because we could not expand any more, dad sold the Business and purchased a small Foodland Store in Kilsyth. Within 2 years dad had purchased the blocks surrounding the Store and built a Foodmaster Supermarket with a drive-in-bottle shop.
We had Wally Elms at the Dorset Gardens Hotel, convert part of his drive-in-area to a small grocery shop and was the first Hotel to ever do so, and when asked on T.V. why he had put in a grocery shop he replied if the Supermarket up the road can put in a drive-in-bottle shop then I can put in groceries.
In 1980 we sold this Business and Dad retired and I bought a small Foodland store in Creswick Within three years I changed the banner to Supa Valu and doubled the sales. I sold Creswick in 1983 and purchased the original Alf Seedsman Store in Burwood off George Altmann.
I started trading seven days a week when Safeway/Coles started doing this in the early 1990’s and when the Government forced them to close I continued to trade. We were often visited by Inspectors to make sure that we were only selling the allowed products. We were allowed to sell boot polish but were not allowed to sell the brush that you used to put it on with, that is how ridiculous the Law was. We even had the Liberal Opposition claiming in Parliament to the “John Cain Government” that they were trying to put me out of business.
After selling the business in Burwood, I bought the Foodmaster Business in Seville. It was doing $60,000 a week and when it hit a $100,000, and changing to IGA, we did a major refurbishment which eliminated the drive-in-bottle shop, put in a new Deli and freezer and a new scanning system and check-outs. Two years ago, after defeating Coles application, we embarked on a program to expand the Store to cater to community needs. Now that we have finished, we have another threat of Coles or Woolworths wanting to build in Seville.
In the years that I have been in Business, I have certainly seen many changes. It is a shame that the Governments of today do not realize how important the Independants have been, and will be, for the Supermarket Industry in Australia. We can be the “opposition” to the chains that the Government is so desperate to have, but we need to be given encouragement that to invest and grow our Business we need to be sure that the “big guys” do not force us out of business.
It was my Grandmother who worked all day packing and weighing their weekly stock purchases while my grandfather sat on a stool at the till to take the money, and in all the years I never saw him leave his “post”. My father Albert (Bert) was the oldest and his job was to ride the grocer’s bike to collect the orders from customers before school, and then deliver them when he got home from school.
Around about 1935 Alma, the second eldest, married another grocer who became an icon in the Industry, Alf Seedsman, who had his first grocer shop in Coburg, in which my dad worked from time to time.
My Grandfather’s business prospered and after the second world war my father bought his first grocer’s shop in Thornbury, and several years later, Dad’s brothers, with the assistance of their father, purchased Stores of their own.
My Dad was the first Grocer to go “self-service” in the northern suburbs, and he used mum’s washing basket and cart as his “first Supermarket trolley”.
In 1953 there was a formation of Grocers that decided to group together to purchase stock. and was called the “Holy Seven” they formed the group of S.S.W.,with Alf Seedsman the Foundation Chairman, of which my Dad was one of the first new members.
My Dad sold his business in 1958 and went back to the land by buying a dairy farm at Nar Nar Goon. I was 12 years old.
In the early 1960’s Alf Seedsman could not refuse an offer from the American “Safeway” Company to sell his business and retired a very wealthy man.
It was in 1967 that Dad decided to get back into the Supermarket industry, sold his farm and bought a small licensed Four Square store in Boronia. This was my entry into the Supermarket Business.
The Independents had 51% of the market and consisted of – Foodland, Supa Value, and later Foodmaster. There was Four Square, Big Star and later Tuckerbag. There was the Jewish group of Saveway and Big Value and then, of course, SSW.
Then there were the chains. There were Crofts, Nancarrows, Permewan Wright, Moran & Cato, Dickens, Rockmans, Woolworths and then Coles, and the new kid on the block, from Western Australia, “Tom the Cheap”.
Dad had his eye on an empty shop of 200 square meters down the road and promptly moved his business into it and became a “Big Star” and in the early 1970’s our Store was the second highest volume outlet of packaged beer for C.U.B. in Victoria.
In 1975, because we could not expand any more, dad sold the Business and purchased a small Foodland Store in Kilsyth. Within 2 years dad had purchased the blocks surrounding the Store and built a Foodmaster Supermarket with a drive-in-bottle shop.
We had Wally Elms at the Dorset Gardens Hotel, convert part of his drive-in-area to a small grocery shop and was the first Hotel to ever do so, and when asked on T.V. why he had put in a grocery shop he replied if the Supermarket up the road can put in a drive-in-bottle shop then I can put in groceries.
In 1980 we sold this Business and Dad retired and I bought a small Foodland store in Creswick Within three years I changed the banner to Supa Valu and doubled the sales. I sold Creswick in 1983 and purchased the original Alf Seedsman Store in Burwood off George Altmann.
I started trading seven days a week when Safeway/Coles started doing this in the early 1990’s and when the Government forced them to close I continued to trade. We were often visited by Inspectors to make sure that we were only selling the allowed products. We were allowed to sell boot polish but were not allowed to sell the brush that you used to put it on with, that is how ridiculous the Law was. We even had the Liberal Opposition claiming in Parliament to the “John Cain Government” that they were trying to put me out of business.
After selling the business in Burwood, I bought the Foodmaster Business in Seville. It was doing $60,000 a week and when it hit a $100,000, and changing to IGA, we did a major refurbishment which eliminated the drive-in-bottle shop, put in a new Deli and freezer and a new scanning system and check-outs. Two years ago, after defeating Coles application, we embarked on a program to expand the Store to cater to community needs. Now that we have finished, we have another threat of Coles or Woolworths wanting to build in Seville.
In the years that I have been in Business, I have certainly seen many changes. It is a shame that the Governments of today do not realize how important the Independants have been, and will be, for the Supermarket Industry in Australia. We can be the “opposition” to the chains that the Government is so desperate to have, but we need to be given encouragement that to invest and grow our Business we need to be sure that the “big guys” do not force us out of business.
