Our History - Part 1

In preparation for my parental leave, I interviewed Mum & Dad about the history of Weigh ‘n Pay. It’s a three part series that will come out over the next few months. We know some of you have shopped with us for years and will enjoy the read, and for those who have come onboard more recently we think you’ll love it too!

There's a good chance you've never given much thought to where Weigh 'n Pay came from. You probably just know us as the place you go for your spices, your baking supplies, your jars full of whatever you needed for dinner tonight. But behind the bins and the bulk bags is a story that starts in Canada, runs through a recession, and very nearly didn't happen at all.

My parents, Cindy and Kevin, arrived in WA in 1990, immigrants from Canada (Dad originally from Zimbabwe/Rhodesia) in the middle of a recession, with two young kids (my brothers) and no clear plan except to be with family (my aunt, uncle & cousins). Dad had been a finance executive, Treasurer of the Bank of America no less, but found that his background counted for little in a WA job market that operated on its own terms. "WA is different to other parts of the world," he recalls, "moreso in the 90s." Work didn't come. Something had to give!

For Mum, the seed had been planted long before they arrived. Back in Canada, her favourite store was Bulk Barn, a bulk food retailer where you'd bring your containers, fill what you needed, and pay by weight. She'd been shopping that way for years and had amassed quite the Tupperware collection. She believed in reusing containers before anyone here had a word for it. When she looked at Perth and saw no equivalent, she saw a gap.

"Most people start a business because their boss is a jerk, or they need a job," she says. "We needed a job."

The New Enterprise Scheme, a federal program for the long-term unemployed, gave them the framework to turn the idea into something real. Dad went in with a business concept and the program helped him understand the local context. They also went in with partners, Keith and Vanessa, friends from Zimbabwe who brought complementary skills and, crucially, were willing to put their house up as security while my parents contributed the cash.

Friends... just figuring it out! Left to Right: Cindy, Gina (still our bookkeeper!), Dad, Keith & Vanessa

The early days were not exactly polished. Mum was at home with baby Craig when the store first opened, and when she came in she found the back room in complete disarray, no shelving and stock everywhere. Dad remembers that on opening day there was no electricity to the front counter, the sparky had missed that bit! This forced them to open late and Dad reckoned “by that point there was a lot of pent up demand… we got swamped!”. We had one cash register. By mid-afternoon we were on the phone ordering a second one.

Imagine walking in on this mess!

The grand opening of the Fresh Food Precinct at Warwick Grove, the new food mall that Weigh 'n Pay was part of, drew queues out the door. "We were completely unprepared," Mum says. "It took three people to put through a single customer."

Day One: How do we work this thing?!

And yet, somehow, the chaos sorted itself out. The concept was sound even if the execution needed work, and the customers who found us in those early weeks tended to come back. They'd found something they didn't know they'd been missing. A lot still regularly visit us 34 years later!

The location at Warwick had been chosen deliberately. Dad had done his research the old fashioned way, sitting in various shopping centres watching whether people were actually shopping, whether they were pushing trolleys. Warwick, at the time, was the most successful centre in the northern suburbs. It seemed like the right bet.

It was. For the next decade, we would grow from that single store into something bigger, more efficient, and ultimately more instructive than any of us had planned.

A little baby Craig was there too!