Motueka New World remembering days of cheques and coupon books

Remember supermarket coupon books? Stephen Stout certainly does.  He’s a day-one employee of Motueka’s New World, which is celebrating its 30th anniversary this month.

Stephen started work at Motueka’s Keystores, and then Pricecutter, and he still remembers New World’s opening day, “back in the day when cheques were king”, he laughs. The store was selling sausages at 10c each, and he had to step in when two men started fighting over the last packet – “fisticuffs and everything,” he recalls. Ironically, Stephen has worked in every department except the butchery during his tenure. The full-on days are still the ones he loves the most.

“There’s always something happening,” he reckons.

Stephen reminisced with his fellow day-one worker Sandy Dadson about the early days, when their uniforms included ties and cravats (they much prefer today’s open-collared shirts, by the way). They remember the photo booth that was tucked into the corner of the store, before the digital avalanche put paid to such services.

The product lines have changed too – the store originally could sell wine but not beer. Nicola Hollyer, who together with her husband Simon has owned the store for two-and-a-half years, says that the shelves now show a much greater international influence, as New Zealand has progressed beyond the “reasonably basic mainstream cuisine” of the early 90s. There has been an evolution of gluten-free and organic foods, and they have also seen the exit of plastic bags at the check-outs – which now all have conveyor belts and EFTPOS as a matter of course.

Not so much has changed in the produce range, according to Aaron Machon, the store’s assistant produce manager, who is another original New Word staff member. He started in the store at 17, and he remembers that New Zealand produce used to be much more seasonal, with imported items filling more gaps.

Now-trendy avocadoes and swedes were slow sellers, and every produce item had to be weighed and stickered in the department – no such thing as check-outs with inbuilt scales.

Aaron also recalls the supermarket’s two extensions, forward and sideways, under owners Helen and Alister Clark, and later Bruce and Shelley Miller, who took over the business in 2004 before selling to the Hollyer’s in 2022.

The supermarket’s first Guardian ad is a window into a time when a box of Bell tea cost less than $2 and bananas were 99c/kg. The days of $10/kg porterhouse steak are also long gone, although a bag of Pams potato chips hasn’t changed too much from $1.49, and the cheapest bread has only crept up 30c from its 89c opening day price.

Nicola and Simon know that a huge number of locals have links to the store and they are inviting their customers to join the birthday party by dialling back some prices to 1994 levels this week.  

On Thursday 21 to Saturday 23 November, shoppers can expect to pay the nostalgic price of $2.69 for a dozen eggs, $3.99 for a box of Nutri-Grain or a roll of Pieter’s salami, and 99c for a bottle of Pepsi or a kilo of carrots, onions or potatoes.  Griffins gingernuts – the best-selling biscuit in the country, according to Stephen – will be available for $1.35 per packet.  There has been no mention of whether sausages will be included in the specials.

Nicola says that they are also offering a prize pool of more than $8000, which includes gift cards, a Weber barbeque, a coffee machine and an air fryer, as well as three grocery grabs. Customers can enter by swiping their club cards, which, in case you were wondering, took the place of those antiquated coupon books more than a decade ago.