We were delighted when we came to Longford to find that the local IGA food store was a branch of the Hill Street Grocer group. The original Hill Street Grocer was in Hill Street, Hobart (funnily enough) and set itself up as a high-end, gourmet organisation providing a better product than the Coles/Woolies mass-market shops. The original shop was inherited by Mario Nikitaris from his father and he and his wife decided to expand and establish other branches across the state. I don’t know how many they have now but they seem to be popping up everywhere. Mario prefers to buy up existing IGA stores although he has established several larger stores from scratch.
Their philosophy is to provide as much Tasmanian-grown and -produced food as possible. The fresh food on sale in their shops is certainly a big step-up from Woolies or Coles. Marilyn won’t buy her fruit and vegetables anywhere else although we might fall back on Coles for things like toilet rolls and soda water.
They’ve grown quickly so I wasn’t surprised to find they
have a wealthy backer who can put his hand on whatever cash is needed. His name
is Robert Rockefeller but it has not been established whether he has any family
connections in the US. In any case, if you needed a financial backer, someone with the name Rockefeller would be my first choice.
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