Demolition of 176
Devonport Road underway January 2024
Image courtesy of Fiona Kean, private
collection
Another 20th Century Tauranga CBD building met its end over the past few weeks (January 2024). Fortunately, thanks to a post on Tauranga History Online, memories of 176 Devonport Road have been shared, particularly about its time as a supermarket [i]:
“… it was a Shoprite Food Store, not Four Square (that was halfway up Devonport Rd). I got my first retail job at sixteen filling shelves and as a checkout operator.”
“I remember going there when it was a supermarket and my mum buying me a drink, and the bottle was in the shape of an astronaut. I thought it was so cool and always wanted to go back there.”
“It was a grocery wholesaler in one of its earlier reincarnations. I worked there in 1970. There was a small section at the front that sold damaged grocery items and the back was a warehouse. An order world come in from the smaller shops in Tauranga and The Mount and we would gather the items from the shelves and put them on a truck for delivery. I do remember the Christmas period was very busy and one time doing a lap of Bay Park Raceway to deliver to the kiosk there!”
“In the late 70s I used to call there with the Anchor cheese truck to sort an order for butter and cheese, I think it was Shop Right, there were three shops, that one, another on Cameron Road just past Chadwick Road and one near Banks Ave at The Mount.”
I have my own recollections of it as a supermarket, including walking on patinaed floorboards as mum filled her cane basket with groceries. There was a wide ramp and a loading bay at the back that always seemed a hive of activity. And, like the person who recalled going there with their mum, it was a treat if I got to tag along. Unfortunately, I have been unable to find any photographs of the building as a supermarket, later when it was Scallywags Toy Shop, or even when it was the first Warehouse in Tauranga. At least we have our memories.
A 1950s aerial view of the CBD looking north
The
Devonport Road, First Avenue and Second Avenue block is at the bottom of the
image with the roof of 176 Devonport Road visible in the bottom left corner
Image courtesy of Tauranga City Libraries, Pae Korokī Ref.
03-226
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