Drive-thru for ciggies
SMOKERS will be able to buy their ciggies without getting out of the car when a new shop by specialist tobacconist Cignall opens in Condon today.
It will be one of a growing number of drive-thru retail outlets in the city, which has been a trend to convenience hastened by the emergence of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Cignall Condon director Gavin Hume said the store — at the corner of Gouldian Ave and Riverway Dr — would be its second drive-thru in a portfolio of five regional stores.
“The concept behind it is ease of access and as a response to COVID,” Mr Hume said.
“People prefer not to get out of their car. It’s tap and go.”
The store has opened in a former pie shop and is next door to a Zarraffa’s Coffee outlet, which also has a drive-thru. Mr Hume said motorists could get their cigarettes and then drive around and get their coffee.
It will maintain another Upper Ross store in the Riverway Plaza shopping centre and hope to get more customers by having the drive-thru further up Riverway Dr.
His group opened a Cignall shop and drive-thru at a former fish shop in Abbott St, Oonoonba, in December.
Property firm Colliers says the Condon shop has more than 20,000 cars passing daily.
Colliers Townsville leasing executive Ben Wheeler said one of the reasons they thought this location would be successful was that not only was it on a busy road but that it was also co-located Zarraffa’s.
He said they were complementary businesses and there were other retailers looking for properties that had or could be adapted to drivethrus. He said it was businesses like Mr Hume’s who were adapting to COVID.
“In a non-confident world, people are making decisions to expand their business. It’s a testament to the whole market,” Mr Wheeler said.