Have you ever wondered how the hell we stock up on our groceries when we live 5 hours from town? Well today you can stop wondering. I know it has been bothering you so I am going to let you all in on the secret of the outback store run. I guess you could call this the sequel (or maybe more of a prequel) to the post I did on an Outback Supermarket.
Every couple of months, or whenever I feel it is needed, I do a store stocktake. If you missed my post on the Outback Supermarket then, by all means, please go and have a read. This will explain our station “supermarket” to you. Ok, off you go and we will wait while you read.
Right, so I head over to that “Supermarket”, or store as I like to call it, with my clipboard, spreadsheet of items and pen and tick and flick. I just note down any items that we need and how many we need. Usually boxes or cartons not single packets. Once I am done with the store I head to the cold room and freezer and do the same there, checking which items are getting low and how much of each item we require. Bearing in mind that if I place this order today it will not arrive here at the station for at least another couple of weeks and then it needs to do us for a couple of months….so you really need to think ahead, quite a bit. Ordering 3 items of something is not going to cut it, by the time the order actually arrives the stock on hand will be even lower than it was when I did the stocktake.
So then I trot myself back home and plop myself down in font of the computer for at least an hour or more. We order our food through Gulf Wholesalers in Mt Isa. They then get the goods from Townsville and deliver them to our depot in town (the company we work for has a depot and office in Mt Isa, we are very lucky to have this). Once the goods are at the depot Mr Chardy will organise for a truck to go into Mt Isa and collect the pallets of stores, along with 2,073 other items he probably needs for the station, i.e.: tyres, parts etc.
This time Georgie was the lucky one to head to town. Look, here is a visual of the truck when she arrived back at the station. She headed off at 4am and after a full day collecting and loading goods she was home by around 10:30pm.
Once the truck is back the pallets of stores are unloaded and dropped in the store shed, ready to be unpacked onto the shelves. This is the shit fun part. It helps if you have the store all sorted and ready to go, which I clearly don’t. Look, this is our store shed.
Included in this order is a heap of gear for the station Rec Club – soft drink, chips, deodorant, soap, toothpaste, shampoo, batteries etc.
Any cold/frozen items that we order are brought out on our company mail plane. We are so lucky to have this service and Chris who is the Manager of the Depot in town is also the company pilot. He has worked tirelessly for the company for about 30 years and is one of the only people I feel comfortable flying with in a small plane. He does a marvellous job packing the plane each week. It is like a game of tetrus. He has to make sure the load is just right and balanced so he can take off and land ok. He delivers any cold/frozen items we have ordered as well as our usual fruit & Veg and bread order. He also delivers mail, fruit and veg to 3 other stations on this same run, so there is always quite a bit to fit in the plane. He will keep bringing our cold/frozen items out each week until they are all here, we just need to be patient.
You also need to bear in mind that we are small compared to a lot of stations around these parts. We only have 15 people here, so can you imagine the ordering systems for those stations that have 5o staff living on site? Huge! It would be a full time job I tell you.
So there you have it. This is how we shop, outback style.
Do you live on a station? How do you order your food?
If you live in town – do you sometimes wish you had a forklift to get your groceries into the car?
I’m terrible at meal planning Miss Chardy – so I admire that you can do it in such a large scale. As for wishing we could forklift the groceries in from the car, I could have filled a few pallets after my recent trip to Costco!
ha ha ha ha. Loved your post about Costco!!!
Hi Miss Chardy! I stumbled across your blog & I love it! I’m Jill from England (currently in Isle of Man visiting the outlaws). I have been obsessed with rural Australia since I was a teenager (blame your Flying Doctors tv series for that!) I love reading your posts about your life and am staggered to learn of you military operation style shopping experiences!! Wow! I complain when I have to drive an extra 5 miles when our prehistoric bridge over the river is closed for a year for refurb to get to the shops!!
Looking forward to learning more! Kind regards, Jill
Hi Jill, so fantastic to have you on board and thanks so much for saying hi, love to hear from people all over the world…makes me want to jump on a plane and head off on an adventure. 🙂
As a retired station wife,I can relate to several of your blogs..In the ’70’s,we lived on Cape York Peninsula.Our stores had to be ordered in September,delivered in October,and that was it for the year.The wet season put the roads out from anytime in Spring until May ,so up to and sometimes more than 6 months.All bread was homemade,so the order included 40 drums of plain flour,and let me tell you,by the end of the year,the flour was full of weevils,ropey,and not very good.As a result,a lot of loaves turned out like house bricks.We had 32v power,which meant we had 3 or 4 kerosene fridges[ they’re a whole other story]and really thought we were made,when the company provided us with a small gas freezer.Most of our beef had to be salted and kept on a bench in the meat house,so by the time we got to the end of it,it would have to be soaked for a couple of hours to soften before it could be cooked.The only fresh veges and fruit were what we could grow ourselves and if our chooks weren’t laying,we had no eggs.Times have certainly changed for the better in the bush,but I really believe,we older bushies lived in the best era. Love your work,Miss Chardy.
Hi Kaye, thanks so much for sharing this with us – I am sure all of my readers will be fascinated to read about what life was like for you. We really do have it good these days and certainly can’t complain about anything. I know you think you lived in the best era (and I do agree with this) but I am not sure I could survive without air-conditioning – you guys really were pioneers of the outback. Thanks again for sharing this with us Kaye. 🙂
Love it. I certainly don’t miss living remotely for this reason, but of course you only remember all the nice parts usually and my husband certainly does miss it! (Neighbours are ‘too bloody close’ here!) Nowadays we live in a heavily populated (by our standards!) but still rural area, we’re only 3 minutes down the road to our little town (post office/bakery/pub), 10 minutes to bit bigger but still small town (small supermarket/butcher/cafe/chemist/train station to Melbs) and 25-30 minutes to a few towns which are much bigger (a Coles, a Woolies, Target, Kmart) and then husband works in town about 35-40 minutes away which is bigger again with small shopping centre (Spotlight/Bunnings that sort of thing). It’s all very convenient nowadays but we do miss the fact that not every man and his dog are farmers, because we live so close to Melbourne (people commute on the train) and larger towns with industry. There’s also a lot of ‘small holdings’ of people moving out of town to little hobby farms which annoys my husband no end as it breaks up larger ‘real’ farms – ha! I generally go to the supermarket once a week just because I take Eleanor to swimming lessons in town on a Thursday anyway, or go to get a caffeine fix with my mums group, but I can easily go a few weeks without going to the shops as I’m fairly used to that from living out woop-woop when we used to manage properties. Eleanor’s strawberry obsession is keeping me back at the supermarket regularly though – sigh!
Hi Emma, sounds to me like you live in an ideal location!!! Can’t wait to hear all about it… 17 more sleeps!
I have a thing for logistic, I LOVE learning about stuff like this. I reckon it looks fun but I suppose that’s because it’s new. I’m sure it can be a pain in the proverbial. Not sure how I’d go meal planning but if I had to I’d just do it suppose. x
I guess it is what you are used to Em, beats going to the supermarket with kids once a week (not that I ever do that). I don’t know how anyone tackles a supermarket with screaming kids. Oh and planning – I only meal plan for my sanity, we usually have most things on hand.
Totally amazing
🙂
Hi Miss a hardy, love hearing about your life! I am trying really hard to do a meal plan each week and stick to it so I’m not just ‘popping’ into the shop each day to grab something and end up coming home to find 3 of them already in the pantry!!
Do you do a meal plan for months ahead so you know what to order, or just plan each week with whatever you have in your store?! And if it’s not asking too much, is your food bill massive?!! And is the cost of food a lot more as you are having to pay for freight etc? Sorry for all the questions!!
Love your blog, makes my day waking up and seeing your new post!
Emma 🙂
Sorry, should have said Miss Chardy- autocorrect!! 🙂
I only really meal plan for my sanity, sometimes 2 weeks in advance just so I know what I am doing. It is more to do with the beef available in the freezer and what is left in that department. We usually have most other things on hand. I think you would find it really helpful to do that meal plan though, if I lived in town I would definitely have a meal plan and then a list of items I needed. Our food bill is massive, but we are feeding about 15 people. We don’t pay freight as we send a truck to town to collect the goods (so I guess we are using diesel). We work for a company thankfully, so it isn’t actually coming out of our pocket… 🙂 Thanks for reading Emma!!
Ha ha…can relate to this totally. We are only 2.5 hours from town, but still have a massive shop as I also run a community store (Supermarket) My orders are delivered fortnightly & are unloaded with a loader. We used to do all the shopping & transport ourselves…well usually it was me going to town & getting back in the wee hours of the morning & then unpacking all your cold & frozen…not much fun!! & there is always something you have forgotten! Then I discovered Mr Stanes Transport & he definitely takes my headache away….I only have to be totally organised with ordering…& this is mostly done online & faxing. Sometimes if I am in Woolies now, it is just nice to walk around with a basket & not a road train of trolleys tied together with ocky straps! 🙂
Oh a store, that would be hard work! I take my hat off to you! Too funny about the trolleys with ocky straps, ha ha ha.
I will NEVER complain again about putting away the groceries for the 3 of us again. Love your blog always fun to read.
Oh Louise, I don’t think it matters if it is a boot full of bags or 3 pallets to unpack – it is all crap to do. Thanks for reading.
Wow. I feel like an asshole now. I spent the morning whinging about having to go to the shops all the time (our closest little supermarket is literally around the corner). I even told myself I was too lazy to order online because that would involve thinking ahead!! You do an amazing job!! I am in awe!
*shuts my whinging mouth*
Ha ha ha ha, too funny Kez. I would probably be exactly the same if I lived in town..:)
Aha Miss Chardy, another funny post – u make the ordinary sound extraordinary to us city folk!!!, i love hearing how u do things out there, so different – well i try to meal plan on a very teensy weensy scale in conparison. But i have to say i want to take it one step further & shop monthly, because in cities our probs are that every time we (well, ok…I) go into a supermarket, i stock up on extra crap i dont need & stockpile cadbury half price, all the time!!! Real bummer. So i think that u r lucky u dont have this perpetual dilema lol!!! I love that comment about the forklift haha, that would be a great toy to have. Imagine all the pallets of choc i could get dropped into my yard with that haha!!
Ha ha ha, yes the “extra” items would be a killer, but sometimes you just need that little treat. Glad you enjoy reading 🙂
I grew up in the bush but you have to do this in such a big way. I was really interested in this story it gives a much better picture of life where you live. Thanks Miss Chardy.
Hi There, thanks so much, glad you enjoyed reading it. 🙂
Another great post. Love your story Chards. Not sure if you are keen or if they want too but I would love to hear Georgie’s story. Women working in the outback is fantastic. Go Girl Power.
I find this so interesting. I’d struggle because I’m useless at meal planning & will often pop to the shops for one or two things & buy 50!
Do you guys cook much from scratch or do you buy premade/packet/jars of things? And how do you deal with fussy eaters or people with dietary issues? Do you miss having easy take- away meals?
Hi Reannon, great to hear from you. Now, I only meal plan to keep me sane, so I know what meat I need to thaw out for the next day. We have most other items on hand, like having a supermarket right there. Yes, we cook everything from scratch, unless you count gravy – we use Maggi Gravy mix. No we don’t use pre made jars/packet things. Fussy eaters – they fend for themselves. We do have a fussy eater (and not just my kids) and he basically lives on Maggi noodles (that he buys for himself) and vegemite sandwiches. I don’t really miss take away, but I do REALLY ENJOY Chinese Home Delivery when I am in town sipping on a chardy. Just whipped up some chicken schnitzel and veg for dinner tonight (to feed 13 but think I made enough for an army…) – not frozen – I bashed that chicken, dipped it in flour and egg/milk wash and crumbed it and fried it….. 🙂
I’m so intrigued by this. I’m a huge food person & spend most of days cooking/baking, reading about food or thinking about it so the thought of having a supermarket at my doorstep is quite appealing!
That Maggi Gravy mix is a fave of my family. My husband & boys would always talk about it whenever they got hot chips from the footy & asked me hunt down where to buy to buy it ,so I did & now we have a huge tub of it constantly in our pantry.
Funnily enough I am also doing chicken snitties for dinner but only for the six of us. Although I do tend to over cook, sometimes by mistake & sometimes on purpose because left overs are always welcome 🙂
And thanks for answering all my nosey parker questions. Much appreciated x
Ha ha ha, no worries at all, I love a nosey parker!!! Yes left overs are always good, they went down a treat at lunch time today.
Absolutely fascinating! I cope ok with meal planning and organising one week at a time, and only for 7 of us, but for 15 and for months at a time, you’re amazing!
OMG, a shop like that would do my head in. What if I forgot something? What do you do if you run out? It’s a long way back to the real supermarket … I take my hat off to you Miss Chardy.
If we run out we just have to make do, but we really do have most things. We usually re-order before running out. 🙂
I so love reading your posts! I’m in Germany and the lack of bulk buying is something I have found it hard to get used to being from Australia. The biggest flour and sugar packets you can buy here are 1 kilo. The biggest milk is 1 litre. Yet people often carry off crates of beer, and fizzy water (you bring the bottle back at get some money back). Here in Berlin you are always 10 mins walk from a supermarkt or spati (late night bottle shop that also sells chocolate) or a bakerei. Kitchens are small and fridges are small.
Shops are closed on Sundays except bakereis, blumenmarkts (florists) and the spatis. Before here I lived in East Germany where the history of the DDR was still very much present, even at the shops where I would walk around the supermarkt trying to work out what the weird meat products in jars were….i always giggled when visiting Penny or Norma, they were places where time forgot…
I love hearing about our life over there. Thanks so much for sharing it. 🙂
That is so interesting! I don’t know how I’d go – I live off fruit and fresh salads??? Do you grow your own?