Jack & Co is putting a fresh spin on Australia’s convenience store industry as owner, Wade Death, attempts to break the stereotype of “dodgy, last option, and high priced”. “I’m on a bit of mission to see our industry reinvigorate itself. The perception of convenience stores in this country has deteriorated rapidly,” Death told Inside Retail PREMIUM. “As an industry we have made a business out of being ‘the only option you have’, and it’s a shocking way f
for an industry to hold itself. ‘Dodgy, last option, and high priced’ are the perceptions universally held, and we intend to reverse those.”
Jack & Co, formerly Jack Rabbit, first opened in 2012 in Taree West, NSW. Under new branding, the second Jack & Co store opened in Taree Central in September, followed by a third outlet at Sydney’s Pymble this month.
“We find it difficult to explain what we are, and the reason why is that people have such low perceptions of convenience stores.
“We have a perception in this country that a convenience store doesn’t sell fresh sandwiches and it doesn’t sell good coffee.
We make an assumption that convenience stores sell Coke, cigarettes, and pies.
The reality is that we are a convenience store and the reason why we’re a convenience store is because we sell all the stuff that convenience stores sell. It’s just that we sell much better product.
“They sell pies, we sell pies, they sell sandwiches, we sell sandwiches, they sell coffee, we sell coffee. It’s just that ours is much better and higher quality.”
Jack & Co has up to five new stores slated for next year in both regional NSW and metropolitan areas of Sydney. The first will open in the first half of the year on Sydney’s North Shore.
Store footprints vary between 105sqm and 208sqm and all include seating and free wi-fi.
Two Jack & Co stores trade with a fuel canopy, while the other is a freestanding store.
It is understood new stores for 2015 will be a mixture of both store formats. Jack & Co’s store design is also bucking the trend of the typical convenience store, with Death describing the stores as “a little bit deli, grocery, bakery, and coffee shop”.
“We’re very much the underdog. We do things differently. We have no intention of being a cookie cutter. Every store is different, every store feels a bit different. Some have a greater focus on seating, some have a greater focus on grocery, and some have a greater focus on fresh.”
The Jack & Co smartphone app has also had a refresh, with the new version soon to introduce pre-paid ordering across all stores for coffees, sandwiches, and muffins.
