Our move has been a success! You can now find us in Shop 1, 11-25 Wentworth Street, Manly, right next to Coles and opposite Manly Village Public School.
There is ample parking in the council car park underneath and one of the exits leads right next to our door. There are bike racks close by and walking to your Co-Op is easy, too! Come on in, check out our new store and let us know what you think.
Please be patient with us as we are sorting out some of the new processes and re-stocking still. 🙂
We kick off 2019 with a message from our Chairperson Sarah:
“Happy New Year! Welcome to our new members and welcome to a new Co-Op in a new, busier and more convenient location. Phew! We did it, the six day fitout. It will be a bit of a pop-up shop for a while as we wait for new custom furniture to be made. But it’s very exciting to be up and running although we know there will be challenges and teething problems ahead.
Also after 21 years it’s sad to be saying good bye to Whistler St. It does mark the end of an era and it’s important to acknowledge that. Personally I remember making peanut butter on a busy Saturday in the first shop. And I’m sure many of you have fond memories of our previous shops. But now we have parking, there are other food shops and we’re closer to the beach. And we have fabulously high ceilings and loads of windows!
So change can be good. Perhaps bear that in mind in Warringah in this federal election year! But more than anything please try and shop at YOUR community-owned, low waste, organic, ethical grocery shop. We’d love to see you. And let’s all hope for a great 2019!
And we’d love to hear what you think about our new shop. Any feedback is more than welcome and will help us make our Co-Op an even better place. 🙂 You can contact me directly via chairperson@manlyfoodcoop.org, speak to one of our lovely staff or contact us via our social channels or website.”
This move has been a beast and we could not have done it without the help from our community and beyond.Â
We planned and executed our move in less than two months and the shop fitout took only 6 days! This is a record!
A big special thank you to:
Ines Klein from U+I Building Studio who designed the new layout, created all the necessary plans with measurements, helped with council approvals and admin and was patient answering all of our questions (and so much more!).
Vanessa Cullen from Forward Thinking Design who helped us work through the initial admin side of things, introduced us to relevant people and shared best practice and do’s and don’ts around retail specific fitouts.
Meolah Chen from Certis did the certification and patiently explained everything to us at least twice. Contact Certis on 1300 702 085 and ask for Meolah if you are doing any building work.
Jason Keane did the lease work for us on a reduced fee basis. We’d like to especially thank him for driving over to Manly with lease documents when almost all other office workers were having Christmas drinks. Thanks, Jason! He is on 02 9331 0221 if you need a good solicitor.
Ian Hehir who lent his truck and manpower to move everything from our old shop to our new shop.
Colin Hutton who is the mastermind behind our point of sale and the large table benchtop.
Numerous volunteers who did handywork, packed, cleaned, scrubbed, washed, refilled, labelled, fed, motivates, supported, drove, organised and did so much more! Thank you (we sincerely hope we have not left anyone of the list):
Keelah, Sarah W, Samir, Andy, Yvonne, Anna, Patricia, Magennis, Katie, Frankie, Cathy, Tom, Vince, Klaus and his son Fabian, Pete, Colin, Ulrike, Myee, Libby, Tanya, Marie-Louise, Celine, Leanne, Kobi, Jenna, Emmanuelle, Peta, Kate, Skye, Max, Caroline, Sarah V. and Cate.
We also want to say a massive thank you to our tradies. Without them we wouldn’t have been able to open this week!
Dwayne did an amazing job with the plumbing in no time. We thoroughly recommend him. You can contact him on 0411 987535.
Same with Scott the electrician who just powered through the work (couldn’t resist that pun – sorry). Again we thoroughly recommend him. His number is 0424 586133.
An honourable mention goes to Magennis (Sarah’s husband) and Andy (Yvonne’s partner) for all their amazing handy work from carrying 150kg heavy tables to moving our massive fridges, plugging holes, painting, varnishing and so many more jobs to make our Co-Op the best it can be!
Come and visit us and see for yourself! We are looking forward to seeing you in Wentworth Street. 🙂