After 12 years in operation, South Alive’s The Pantry will no longer offer its full range of bulk refill and retail operations and will instead become a fully fledged community cafe.
South Alive acting chairwoman Vicky Henry said the past few years had been challenging for all retailers and they decided to focus on what they believed they did best.
"We are the same as most other retailers and hospitality providers — the cost of living issues that we’ve been having since Covid and the change of lifestyle since Covid as well has impacted on us, but also the community has sort of let us know that they’re not as interested in the bulk product any more, they can get that at the supermarket and the various other specialty grocers.
"So we thought that it was time to pivot, time to change as we’ve been watching the trends for a number of years and we’ve just made the decision that now is the time."
While most of the bulk will be gone, The Pantry will still offer New Zealand bread-making ingredients and cleaning supplies, along with some Southland-made products.
"We’ve been talking a long time with various local producers about how tough it’s been for them and for us and the fact that a lot of local producers struggle to find outlets.
"So we are very, very keen to be their outlet and to support them. It’s all about food resilience, supporting the Murihiku Kai collective and all of those good things."
Mrs Henry said there would be a layout change in the space and "some sprucing up" to acknowledge the shift.
More tables will be brought in, as the feedback from the community was the cafe is where people can meet and enjoy good food from local producers.
The opening times will also change, operating Monday to Friday, 9am to 3.30pm and Saturdays from 10.30am to 2pm.
While there would be shorter opening times, Mrs Henry guaranteed there would be no redundancies.
She hoped the changes would make the cafe even more resilient and hoped people would continue to visit.
"We’re not shutting and we are so keen to keep serving our community. We love being the hub of the south of the Invercargill community and need love to see people down here.
"We’re just changing direction to make sure that we can continue to serve the community into the future and we’re quite excited about doing that."
