Coles opens first restaurant-supermarket Frankenstein store
Coles is trialling opening up restaurants within its supermarkets, turning an eastern Melbourne supermarket into a "food hall".
The owners of downtown Melbourne café EARL Canteen has opened a branch within the Coles supermarket in Tooronga Village, as well as Japanese food outlet Sushi Sushi.
The supermarket becomes the first Coles in the country to host eateries owned and operated by external parties.
"We think this concept is a game-changer – as is excellent coffee inside a supermarket," said EARL co-founder Jackie Middleton.
"We know EARL regulars and new customers alike will love the flexibility."
In addition to the independent restaurants, Tooroonga now has the widest range of ready-to-eat and pre-prepared groceries of any Coles in the country.
Coles is planning to turn each supermarket into either bargain basement markets (in price-conscious areas) or convenience/gourmet (in more affluent suburbs) stores. The Tooroonga branch is now the prototype of the latter – called the 'Fresh Convenience' format.
The store already has gourmet and convenience features like a cheese shop, a do-it-yourself bread slicer, cook-at-home pizza assembly station and a fresh pasta bar.
The supermarket giant is scheduled to transform 100 outlets into this format by Christmas.
Coles head of convenience Louis Eggar said the Tooroonga prototype store would aim to provide products for "urban and time-poor customers".
"Our new food hall concept is all about making life easier for our customers by solving the problem of what to eat – for everyone, any time of the day."
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