Investing in Fairlie: local owners transform Four Square
When you walk into Four Square Fairlie, you’ll likely hear owner operator Dave’s playlist pumping through the speakers, and you might even catch a customer dancing in the aisles. Bringing music into the store was the first of many upgrades Dave and Kim MacKenzie made when they took over as owner operators in October last year.
Almost 12 months on, the couple have transformed just about every corner of the store, investing close to $1 million.
The spruce-up started with polished concrete floors and electronic shelf labels, followed by new produce and meat cabinets, refrigeration and freezers, grocery and wine shelving, an upgraded Lotto area, redesigned checkouts, a walk-in beer chiller and a refreshed deli-bakery, with hot chips joining the food-to-go offer.
It wasn’t just a case of swapping old for new. When the grocery department was redone, not one product went back to the same place. Dave and Kim used the opportunity to rethink the store from the customer’s perspective and make better use of the space.
“Customers kept coming in and asking, ‘What have you done now?’ or ‘What have you changed now?’ But they’ve loved it,” says Dave.
“We expected an outcry when we moved everything around, but everybody embraced it. The locals have been incredibly supportive of the whole change.”
Dave has put plenty of his own elbow grease into the job too, painting almost the entire store inside and out and sanding and coating around 30 sheets of Shadowclad.
The upgrades have been a hit behind the scenes too, with refreshed staff facilities among the changes. Rosie, a duty manager who’s worked at the store for 20 years, describes it as “like having Christmas every day”.
But for Dave and Kim, the investment is about much more than a better-looking store. Four Square Fairlie is the main grocery store for the community, with the nearest alternative supermarket around a 40 to 45-minute drive away, so having a great local grocery offer matters.
“We’re here for good. We made the decision that this is our last stop, and we’ve invested in the store so we can invest in the community,” says Dave.
Being locally owned means Dave and Kim are personally invested in making the store the best it can be for their community. They know their customers, make decisions with locals in mind, and have the strength of the Foodstuffs South Island co-operative behind them to help deliver the quality, range and value people expect from their local grocery store.
The couple bring plenty of experience to the job. Dave spent 26 years with Foodstuffs South Island before he and Kim helped run New World Ashburton. They then both stepped into ownership at Four Square Ōmarama before taking over Four Square Fairlie.
Having grown up together in Alexandra, Central Otago, Dave and Kim always knew they wanted to return to small-town life.
“There’s something special about being part of a small community,” Dave says. “Small towns need businesses like ours as much as we need them. I’ve always loved the idea of being a local business that can support local people.”
The couple are doing just that already by sponsoring the local golf and bowling clubs, with plans to support the local rugby club’s under-15s team too.
With the major refurbishment almost behind them, Dave and Kim are looking forward to spending more time with customers, growing the store’s delivery and food-to-go offers, and hearing what locals would like to see next.
“Until now, we’ve had our heads down getting the refurbishment done. Now we’ll have more time to chat to the locals, listen to their ideas and look at what else we can do for our customers,” says Dave.
Ultimately, it’s about making Four Square Fairlie somewhere people genuinely enjoy being.
“We wanted to create a place people want to come to, rather than somewhere they have to come to,” Dave says. “The store’s got a really good atmosphere and buzz now. We’ve got the music going and customers singing and dancing in the aisles, and we’re really proud of what we’ve created.”
