So I understand what IGA is based on the Wikipedia article, it’s a supply line for food and partnership with IGA, like a franchise except the store owners own the store and can sell whatever they want.
But what’s the “deal” with IGA, what’s the source of the vibe they all give off, and what kind of customer is reading their catalogues every week to save two dollars on frozen prawns or whatever. And why are so many of them so dirty, like under shelves hasn’t even mopped in years, kind of little organisational problems like that you don’t see at Coles or Woolworths anymore.
yep Supa IGA Mt Waverley is my preferred store. I try never to shop the duopoly.
There was a smaller IGA as my local corner store. Young couple ran it for several years and they were great.
A different IGA was across the road from my work. We had a chemist, 7/11, video store (obviously going back a couple of decades), pub and the IGA on the corners as well as several other retail stores and cafes in the strip. The owner of the IGA had owned the 7/11 before buying the IGA. Once he bought it he first started competing with 7/11 obviously, but then added videos and eventually liquor to compete with the pub's bottle shop. we joked the chemist was next.
he was dodgy as (profanity) and did things like sell cigarettes for one price during the day and charge $10 extra per pack after his competition was closed. say he had ran out of catalogue specials items. he seemed to be taking advantage of student visa Indian workers but I couldn't say for sure. using the sidewalk (impeding foot traffic) to have pallet deliveries instead of correctly using the back loading bay (i assume because he had filled the rear with crap). by the time I left to work somewhere else he had turned a once decent IGA into 80% liquor.
anyhow a few years later he bought my local corner store. i noticed the liquor section had been enlarged, the staff were all Indian then saw him one day. Never went back. I know a lot of former customers, who didn't know the history of the other store, also found the change of ownership terrible and stopped using the store.