Euro-style Supermarket - anyone tested it?

[loud]

It could be something to do with it being the morning and me not having my coffee yet, but I do not understand why not having plastic bags makes shopping without a car more impractical?

Also, when I shop, I am buying for a week - I don't know anyone that will walk/cycle/bus a week's worth of food home...

[Prince George]

Hmm, this place sounds a bit like Whole Foods Markets (did anyone else spot the Grateful Dead quote on their "About us" page?), an organic/natural foods store that started in Austin and has morphed into nationwide chain with more of a high-end supermarket feel. Usually laid out nicely, stocked with more expensive product, and offering cooking classes etc. If you buy fish from there, they ask if you'd like them to cook it for you - you can take it over to their grill and their chefs will do the rest; still not sure if I really see the appeal of that.

And yet, it still manages to be a complete snore-fest

Now now, dear, where else am I going to get the hemp seed tortillas, grains of paradise, and bulk-boxes of Nag Champa?

Actually, that makes the place sound much more interesting than it really is. While there are products provided by the tie-dyed kite-flying Humboldt County set, most of the stuff there is just their own brand of organic products, which is also available in other stores. And the tone is more snooty than aging-hippy.

[BradJC]

I went and checked out Adelaide's newest supermarket addition on Sunday. I was impressed!

The supermarket concept at the Fairview Park 'Adelaide's Finest Supermarkets' (Foodland) is really different to anything I've ever encountered. It's a real upmarket, ultra-ultra-modern shopping experience. It's kind of like Apple Inc entered the supermarket business and designed this place. They've taken the contemporary supermarket and added a whole heap of services with a lot of attention to detail and a focus on technology. It's sort of like David Jone's Food Glorious Food mixed together with aisles of your classic supermarket. There's evidence of green initiatives throughout, in particular the materials used in its construction. The store has a heap of service counters in the form of delis (meat, fish, smallgoods, etc), a mini-cafe, meal presentation area and a coffee/nuts/dried-fruit/etc bar. The presentation of the aisles and food is excellent and the store lay-out is somewhat different to what you might expect. It really is a different supermarket experience, and there's plenty of technology to assist you (and the employees) along the way too.

Check it out (the checkouts too, they're uber-cool).

PS: If you visit, try to park in the underneath car parking area. You'll be in for a technological treat.

[AtD]

PS: If you visit, try to park in the underneath car parking area. You'll be in for a technological treat.

Do tell!

I'll take a guess that it's the red/green LEDs with sensors above every car space.

[Green Cooling]

Rest assured everyone, the Fairview Park Foodlands is the real green deal on the biggest issue that counts - the emissions of highly potent industrial greenhouse gases that it avoids - by using CO2 as the main refrigerant, rather than the usual Hydrofluorocarbon R404a (with a really high Global Warming Potential of around 3500 - so 1kg of this gas that leaks out equals 3.5 tonnes of CO2 equivalent!), the cascade CO2/R134a refrigeration system is state of the art, and sets a lead for others to follow.

The Angle Vale Foodlands is arguably even better using a transcritical CO2 only store, and cascade systems with ammonia or hydrocarbons in the "high stage" can eliminate HFCs from the refrigeration system entirely. Hopefully designers and contractors will develop these once the fluorocarbons are included in the Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme and properly become much more expensive, and the industry becomes more familiar with the range of genuinely climate friendly solutions.

In terms of the operating efficiency of the Cascade CO2 system this should be comparable or better than the conventional HFC systems. The Green Cooling Council was collecting valuable data on this, but unfortunately they were shut down due to an argument with the Government over accounting issues, and this internationally significant work has been lost.

I think Tim Minchin's Canvas Bags song on youtube has had the last word on that debate, but the emissions of refrigerant and the energy consumed to run the store are the major contributors to the ecological footprint of a supermarket, and Fairview Park has gone a long way to addressing these issues.

[Punishment466]

Went there. Didn't like it. It just seemed too... uptight or something. Too dark, too posh. The St. Agnes Coles seemed fair more homely and relaxed...

[Queen Anne]

Went there. Didn't like it. It just seemed too... uptight or something. Too dark, too posh. The St. Agnes Coles seemed fair more homely and relaxed...

Hmmm, it really does sound like Whole Foods

But seriously, these new fangled supermarkets worry me a bit. It seems like they want to be our everything - and in the US they have pretty much succeeded. I don't even have a local pharmacy here - just the people at the counter in the back of the supermarket.

I'm uneasy about what we are flirting with here. I hope the day doesn't come when we lose many of our small businesses, like they have in the US.

[Wayno]

"A Current Affair" is showing this new supermarket on their thursday night show (Apr 23).

[The Scooter Guy]

Someone may not have announced this a few years ago but the new Fairview Green shopping centre at Fairview Park is now open! This replaced an older shopping centre that got demolished in 2007.
Here's one shot from it's opening:

[Omicron]

Oh, that! I'm not particularly familiar with that end of town so I only got three when I added two and two, but I recall going past that site early in the year (on the way to a gas-guzzling car show, incidentally).

This thread makes sense to me now.