Customers queue for grocery deals
Shoppers queued for up to an hour in a line spilling out into the South City mall car park yesterday as another grocery clearance store opened in Christchurch.
The Reduced to Clear outlet is the first South Island store for the Auckland-based chain, which has about a dozen shops in the North Island. It has moved into the 800m² former Warehouse store at the south-east end of South City.
Discounted items include packaged groceries plus some chilled, frozen and fresh goods. They are end of lines, cancelled export orders and short-dated items sourced from New Zealand and overseas. Reduced to Clear joins other other discount grocers already operating in the city.
SaveMore opened in Langdons Rd, Papanui in November and then a second store at Eastgate Mall in March, also drawing big turnouts and long queues of shoppers. It has also has just opened an Ashburton outlet.
Christchurch-owned BargainMe operates out of the former Supervalue supermarket site in Stanmore Rd in Linwood.
Reduced to Clear was launched by Sean Hills in 2008, selling surplus or clearance stock from suppliers, importers and manufacturers. It promises discounts of 55% to 80% of standard prices on food that would otherwise be wasted.
Yesterday’s opening clogged the South City car park. Once parked, customers faced a long wait to enter the store, followed by another to pay for their goods.
Rachel Stokes said she spent $49 to fill her trolley, buying mostly school lunch items. “It’s about time we got something like this,” she said.
Julie Ross, emerging with a half-full trolley containing milk, some frozen items and canned fruit, said some deals were good but others were disappointing. The store had been “crazy” with shoppers, she said. “We expected to buy a lot more. There were a lot of cheap carbs like biscuits and cereals which we don’t really buy, and there were brands I hadn’t seen before. “It was good, but no better than SaveMore.”
South City mall owner Nigel Stirling said there were hundreds of people in the queue from 8am onwards.
New Zealand’s annual food inflation has now slowed to under 1%, after peaking at 12.5% a year ago as prices rose the fastest for several decades. The inflation has particularly affected fresh food.
The nation’s grocery market is dominated by supermarket owners Woolworths and Foodstuffs.
Last year Parliament passed the Grocery Industry Competition Act in an attempt to reduce grocery costs by boosting efficiency and competitiveness among supermarkets and other grocery retailers. The Act also established the role of grocery commissioner.