A few metres from Woolworths’ fruit and vegetable department in Goulburn, Thakur Prasad Panth says he sells mangoes in season for 99 cents and $1.99, while major supermarkets sell them for $3 and $3.50. Photos: John Thistleton.
Two independent fruit and veg retailers are taking on Woolworths, Coles and Aldi at opposite ends of Goulburn’s central business district.
Thakur Prasad Panth, who has worked for 15 years in the Sydney Markets and produce departments for the major supermarkets, opened Fresh T on 9 August, across the aisles in Market Place from Woolworths.
He says he is not worried about Woolworths and believes his quality produce at reasonable prices, and constant passing foot traffic, are enough to counter the fierce competition.
Ryan Turkington, who grew up on Sydney’s North Shore and moved to Goulburn in 2020, opened The Produce House on the opposite side of Coles and Goulburn Plaza, on the corner of Goldsmith and Auburn streets, on 7 November.
He said Coles hit back immediately.
“I opened my doors last Thursday, and on Friday morning they price-matched me on I would say about a third of my stuff,” he said.
Thakur, originally from Nepal, is selling honey from Marulan, native flowers and asparagus grown in Goulburn as well as his fruit and veggies. He’s confident his considerable experience in produce retailing, buying directly from growers and learning pricing systems, will lead to long-term success.
“You can see I have premium quality,” he says, waving his hands at rows of plump eggplants, assorted varieties of potatoes, deep-green cucumbers and tomatoes.
“I don’t buy the cheapest stuff and sell cheap, I get the best and charge reasonable prices.”
His sister has a cafe in the Marketplace, and he found earlier this year that no other independent fruit and vegetable retailers were operating in Goulburn.
“It’s not an easy business, it’s a hard business, but definitely good if you do the right thing,” he said.
Bringing produce from the Sydney Markets five days a week enabled him to offer fresher food than his competitors, who had a few more distribution points before getting their goods in front of customers.
Thakur and his wife Usha have a small son and daughter and arrived in Goulburn from Sydney six months ago. They have bought a home in the city. They each work in the business, along with two other staff, and open seven days a week from 8 am to 8 pm.
Ryan Turkington says he has grown up wanting to own his own business and create his own success. The rising cost of living sparked his first venture into selling fruit and vegetables.
Having worked for Aldi, Ryan, who left Sydney at age 25 to escape the rat race, spent two years researching the fresh produce industry and more recently, months travelling to Homebush and getting to know growers at the busy Sydney Markets at 4 am.
“For the everyday Australians, [the markets] is like the week of Christmas on steroids every day of the week,” he said.
These days he is arriving at the markets at 3 am Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays to buy produce.
Ryan believes supermarkets are unnecessarily hiking their prices.
“It’s hard enough just to live in day-to-day life, let alone having the one necessity every human being needs, food, being jumped [priced] through the roof,” he said.
“I’m not having mass mark-ups. I’m not buying it [produce] for $1 and selling it for $6, because I don’t see there is a need for it.”
Opening Monday to Friday from 9 am to 6 pm and on weekends from 9 am to 4 pm, Ryan says he is catering for Goulburn’s older population and young families.
“Older shoppers like going and physically seeing what they are getting, but a lot of them are turned off by the supermarket because it is so busy and there are lots of people in there and I wouldn’t call it stage fright but they don’t feel comfortable with it,” he said.
“They feel like they are getting bombarded and getting rushed and it’s a whole rushed process.
“My point of difference is, I don’t have music going. It’s a quiet shop, you can come in and it’s nice and relaxed. You can take your time. When you are getting served, I’ll have a chat to you, unlike at the supermarkets, where 90 per cent of what you do you serve yourself.”
Under high ceilings in the larger, former Linen House shop, his first customers have asked whether his venture is a pop-up shop or a long-term concern.
“I plan on being here for as long as the community wants me here,” the 29-year-old businessman said. He wants to develop his shop in stages to become as well known as the Paragon Cafe.
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