Another one bites the dust

Apparently Fruitylicious is due to open in Spence in a couple of weeks (it wasn’t open on Saturday when I tried to get some groceries there!).

I have to agree with H1NGO. i used to be a loyal customer when they were primarily fruit/veg and deli but when they decided to “diversify” it started to smell of the desperation of a business in decline. I live in Hibberson St and I actually ended up having to make a complaint regarding the megaphone which was constantly being used under my window and annoying the crap out of my partner and I. It’s noisy enough as is but this had us feeling like we were living in a supermarket! While the management made appropriate apologies they also used the excuse that other customers thought it added to the “market” atmosphere. Unfortunately it was the death knell for what was once a great shop.

Solar,

Unfortunately I now get my vegies at Woolies simply because they stock most of the vegies I am after. On the odd occasion I will travel to Belco markets but its a bit out of the way to do it regularly. I would kill for Harris Farm Markets to come to Gungahlin. Nothing beats a good green grocer.

Same goes for fresh seafood but luckily we have the van that appears in the Gungahlin Magnet Mart carpark every weekend. It is awesome.

Even though I had no real need to shop there, its too bad Fruitylicious has moved on. The variety was good for Gungahlin and seemed to have a select bunch of loyal customers.

Gungahlin shopping sucks – it seems a real pain to get to ANY shop, never able to park near where I want to go, and I generally hate driving anywhere near the place.
Always willing to go out of my way to shop elsewhere… who cares?

H1NGO, I can definitely see your point about Fruitylicious trying to do too many things, but I didn’t mind too much. Where do you get your greens from now?

And I never saw them out with a loud speaker – that’s a bit cheeky.

I wonder what will move in, if anything?

Well, I’ve posted before about the state of the Spence supermarket. It would be good if that shop was contributing to the amenity of the ‘hood. Yes and I empathise with the lack of a decent vibe in Gungahlin. Sad fact is that the proprietor has burned an awful lot of goodwill with the way the Spence supermarket was run down. The takeaway shop at Spence had several different owners and is now a pharmacy so maybe this move will be a good fit. wait and see

Fruitylicious suffered the problems of not knowing what it wanted to be. It couldn’t decide whether it was a cafe, deli, patisserie or grocer. Unfortunately the only thing it seemed to be good at was the deli side of things.

When it opened, it was a rather good grocer and was worth the trip. As they started tacking on other sections, there was increasingly less fresh fruit and vegies. Thats when I stopped going. In my opinion, they gave up on the one thing that Gungahlin needed.

I also didn’t appreciate them aiming their loud hailer at Gloria Jean’s and telling their customer to try “real coffee”. Poor form.

I remember a few summers ago, I was waiting in line at Frutylicious and it was a particularly hot day.

The line was about 7 people long on both sides, so the lady that seemed to be manager came out and started handing out those mini gelato cones to all the waiting customers.

That is the kind of service we shopped there for, and they had a great variety of deli meats and cheese, including Jindy triple brieas well as fresh f+v (Better than coles or woolies FF+V).

I note that there is a new deli/wog shop (I say wog shop in th emost endearing way, as I am only 1st generation Aussie/Maltese) outside Woolies, but its nowhere near as big, or have as much variety.

Vale fruitylicious, another one bites the dust to what must only be exhuberant lease charges along that strip.

Fruitylicious went at the end of January. They have gone to Spence because the owners also own the little supermarket out there. I was also sad to see Retrokids go.

Planning for Gungahlin was stuffed up years ago, despite the numerous meetings, workshops, and planning sessions member of the community attended and contributed to. Years ago (I’m talking early to mid 90’s) we were promised a government department, but they’ve gone to the airport. We also had one section of a federal department, but they also have disappeared.

We were promised so much, and so little has been delivered. I love living out here, but the lack of a quality town centre is disappointing. After 18 years of development, I think we could reasonably expect better than we have.

I don’t understand how Spence is better then?