I’ve visited the new Romeo’s Locali in George Street Sydney and it really is “next level” in supermarkets. It replaced a Coles on that site.
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Funny that an independent under the IGA banner seems to be able to achieve a flagship store concept in the Sydney CBD similar to what David Jones seemed to want to achieve as part of its food spinoff, assumably without spending the hundreds of millions of dollars DJs did to effectively open one failed concept store in South Yarra and co-brand a bunch of servo convenience stores.
Goes to show that DJs had no idea what they were doing in the food space.
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The Thai Kee IGA X-press at Market City in the Sydney CBD has been operating very successfully for over twenty years. It has never been a cookie cutter store as it has a large Asian range of food and kitchenware in addition to the regular supermarket lines. Romeo is deluded thinking he is the first independent to successfully run a big supermarket in the city.
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Thai Kee is different from other IGA supermarkets, given it has to compete against other Asian grocery stores in nearby Chinatown. Thai Kee and Romeo’s target customers will also have been different.
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The dThai Kee looks the same
But Thai Kee is like a regular IGA with additional Asian groceries. And it’s technically out of the CBD in Haymarket.
Romeo’s Locali is very different to other supermarkets. It has a bakery, deli, salad bar, sushi bar, cheese room, coffee bar, pizza and pasta restaurant.
I’ve always found IGA 20% odd more expensive compared to Wow and Coles. They also don’t range the large own brand products across all categories that they are going up against Aldi with.
Be careful with IGA and out of date foods also. Less customer traffic I’ve been caught out a few times
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I’ve mentioned it before, but the real problem with the IGA banner is it covers anything from dodgy convenience store sized supermarkets open limited hours that mark-up everything 50% and sell expired food to 24/7 full-range, full-sized stores that have enormous deli and other fresh food departments with quality far, far outstripping the duopoly.
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Romeos isn’t too bad, but it can be a little over priced, depending on what you’re looking for.
Romeos also owns Supa Valu Doonside, and it’s their attempt to take on the big boys. It’s OK, but does look a little down market at times.
I’ve been to Thai Kee, I suppose it does the job for the locals in that area, but not the biggest fan.
I live in walking distance of an smaller IGA, and it does demonstrate the issues Squee points out - some of it is overpriced, but it has stuff neither Coles or Woolies has. For times when I can’t be arsed to get in the car, it’s been handy though.
IGA’s over-arching brand does need to be narrowed down into specifics, yes you are right.
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The next stage of Ed.Square shopping and entertainment complex opened at Sydney’s Edmondson Park this morning.
https://www.shoppingcentrenews.com.au/shopping-centre-news/feature-stories/next-stage-of-ed-square-town-centre-opens-in-growth-corridor/
Found this if anyone is interested
IGA’s generally have very competitive specials but for items not on sale they are generally more expensive. For example if i go to a IGA to buy Tim Tam’s because of a special but their vita wheat’s are more expensive than Woolworths it leaves a bad taste in my mouth.
I think they need to address this in order to be competitive rather than having gimmicks like cheese rooms at the Summer Hill store. Some Woolworths stores even have them like the Double Bay store. IGA stores have a equal if not larger footprint than Woolworths and Coles so they should be able to negotiate good terms with suppliers for popular items. But they do not seem to be passing on the prices to customers.
I remember back in the 90s when they consolidated a huge number of brands down to IGA. A good move given how many brands there were, but they took it too far.
It didn’t take long for a few elements to creep back in (Supa IGA, IGA Everyday, Friendly Grocer), and dual branding for stores under common ownership such as Romeos and Seasons.
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Speaking of IGA, what was the reason Drakes Supermarkets went solo?
The issue is that there are three parties involved instead of two.
The supplier, Metcash and then the independent store owner
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I will say this for IGA, and I say this coming from a previous job where I had to do audits of several IGA supermarkets. They do a pretty good job of being different and catering to their specific communities. They do have their issues but for the most part, they provide a point of difference, and that can only be a good thing. They are more responsive to the local community than Coles and Woolies, which is a big point of difference. SupaIGA Muswellbrook and Donges SupaIGA in Young are good examples.
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To free themselves from metcash. In SA anyway
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going to become all too common i fear as the drive to cut overheads and wastage continues
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Thing is that store is only down the road from a coles that has everything including a deli
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Why would Coles get rid of the deli when Woolies is Completely renovating and doing up the there delis. Doesn’t make sense 
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