The next retail trend? Take a look at Australia's first 24/7 self-service butcher!
- Replies 10
When it comes to keeping up with the times, some Aussie businesses see automation as the way to go.
Take, for example, the Wolki Butchery in Albury, NSW. While it may look like any ordinary butcher from the outside, there’s one major difference that sets it apart from the rest.
What's the difference, you may ask? There's NO staff inside!
In a wildly popular TikTok post, owner Jacob Wolki explained how his shop — reportedly Australia’s first 24/7 self-service butcher — works.
‘Customers get their unique pin code once they sign up to be a member,’ Jacob said as he walked up to his store’s door.
After entering the pin, Jacob quickly enters the store and shows off a row of freezers stocked with various types of meat sourced from his farm a few kilometres away from the butchery.
‘We’ve got pork, lamb, beef, chicken, wild-harvest venison,’ Jacob said among other meats and cuts.
Believe it or not, he also had what looked like jams or preserves on a table which featured produce also from his farm. Seems like he’s got an entire supermarket in that shop of his…Kidding!
‘When you’re in, you use an app on your smartphone called Express Checkout. So you scan your frozen produce and add it to your shopping cart,’ Jacob explained.
Once done, it’s pretty much the same as is done in popular supermarkets where one tap is all it takes to pay!
Now, you might be thinking, ‘The store is unstaffed for the whole day, won’t it be a target of theft?’
Fret not, because Jacob took the liberty of answering the question.
‘We’ve got a couple of high-definition security cameras in here that have audio… and we’ve had zero theft,’ he stressed.
The post has been viewed over 700,000 times on TikTok, and many expressed their awe at Jacob’s high-tech butchery.
‘Good work mate, butchers across the region think you lost your mind,’ one user said. ‘But you did a great job.’
Another said: ‘Genius. You've catered for shift workers, late-night cravings & last-minute ideas as well as all the normal stuff. If I lived locally I'd be in love.’
But what spurred him to open his unique butchery?
‘As the farm grew it became very apparent that the local butchers that were packaging my meats… weren't able to handle my volume so I knew I had to buy my own butchery to be able to run that internally to keep up with my demand,’ he said in an interview.
At the same time, Jacob was aware that every cent he was spending was going towards maintaining his farm, so paying wages for full-time staff at his butchery was out of the question.
It was when confronted with this dilemma that he thought of a self-service concept. And so, $5000 and a newly-installed security system later, Wolki Butchery was born.
Jacob also admitted that the entire operation has led to some locals questioning his setup, but for the most part, he’s had a warm welcome.
To date, about 250 members have signed up to be customers of the butchery — and that’s despite the requirement of his for new customers to tour his farm for them to get a clear view of how their food is sourced.
Despite most people being amazed by his efforts, some have taken an apprehensive stance because of the idea of people missing out on jobs with self-service technology.
To his credit, Jacob acknowledges this but explained that ‘there was no job to be had in the first place as it was never going to be viable to create a job for somebody’.
He further expanded on his reasoning in a follow-up TikTok post, where he stressed that running the store without staff was his only option as his finances were tight.
‘I’m a big employer. I employ 50 people across our region, but I want to pour that labour and those skills into improving systems on the farm. We grow meat that we think is exceptional, and the resources we save from paying someone minimum wage to man the shop are instead used for that purpose,’ he added in a separate interview.
Ever the entrepreneur, Jacob is already thinking about the expansion of his business to more urban centres after a two-year proof-of-concept run in Albury.
‘I’ve engaged a couple of tech developers, and I have a few concepts that will make access and payment even easier,’ he said.
‘I want to remove the membership system and rely instead on customers accessing the store with their credit card details. If I can make it work the way I’m imagining it, I think it will work anywhere.’
Jacob’s innovative butchery is a sign of things to come according to some experts.
‘I think it's going to happen really quickly. The big hesitation retailers have is around loss and security but (Wolki) has clearly identified a way around it as have other companies... who knows who is in a store at any given time and cameras detect what you take,’ said Queensland University of Technology retail expert Gary Mortimer.
Supermarket giants such as Woolworths, Coles, and ALDI have already been known to engage in the self-service technology game, with more stores seeing more lanes dedicated to self-checkouts.
Despite his outlook, Mortimer was also quick to caution businesses like Jacob’s against going all out on retail technology.
‘Aussies certainly want to engage with retail smart technology if it makes their lives easier but they still want the human element,’ he said.
‘Customers may want to talk to a butcher 9 to 5 about how to cook it, what's the best cut of meat.’
‘But outside of that, I think they want the convenience of being able to go in and grab it 24 hours a day.’
On the topic of butchers, many Aussies were shocked after Woolies axed its in-store butcher shop services.
You might also want to find out why kangaroo meat prices have nearly doubled in recent days.
So, what do you think of Jacob’s 24/7 self-service butchery? Is it something you’d like to have in your neighbourhood, or are you firmly against patronising businesses without staff?
Tell us what you think below!
Source: TikTok/@wolkifarm
Take, for example, the Wolki Butchery in Albury, NSW. While it may look like any ordinary butcher from the outside, there’s one major difference that sets it apart from the rest.
What's the difference, you may ask? There's NO staff inside!
In a wildly popular TikTok post, owner Jacob Wolki explained how his shop — reportedly Australia’s first 24/7 self-service butcher — works.
‘Customers get their unique pin code once they sign up to be a member,’ Jacob said as he walked up to his store’s door.
After entering the pin, Jacob quickly enters the store and shows off a row of freezers stocked with various types of meat sourced from his farm a few kilometres away from the butchery.
‘We’ve got pork, lamb, beef, chicken, wild-harvest venison,’ Jacob said among other meats and cuts.
Believe it or not, he also had what looked like jams or preserves on a table which featured produce also from his farm. Seems like he’s got an entire supermarket in that shop of his…Kidding!
Farmer Jacob Wolki shared his unique business idea in a viral TikTok post. Image Credit: TikTok/@wolkifarm
‘When you’re in, you use an app on your smartphone called Express Checkout. So you scan your frozen produce and add it to your shopping cart,’ Jacob explained.
Once done, it’s pretty much the same as is done in popular supermarkets where one tap is all it takes to pay!
Now, you might be thinking, ‘The store is unstaffed for the whole day, won’t it be a target of theft?’
Fret not, because Jacob took the liberty of answering the question.
‘We’ve got a couple of high-definition security cameras in here that have audio… and we’ve had zero theft,’ he stressed.
The post has been viewed over 700,000 times on TikTok, and many expressed their awe at Jacob’s high-tech butchery.
‘Good work mate, butchers across the region think you lost your mind,’ one user said. ‘But you did a great job.’
Another said: ‘Genius. You've catered for shift workers, late-night cravings & last-minute ideas as well as all the normal stuff. If I lived locally I'd be in love.’
But what spurred him to open his unique butchery?
‘As the farm grew it became very apparent that the local butchers that were packaging my meats… weren't able to handle my volume so I knew I had to buy my own butchery to be able to run that internally to keep up with my demand,’ he said in an interview.
Wolki Butchery can only be opened by customers who receive a code upon joining. Image Credit: TikTok/@wolkifarm
At the same time, Jacob was aware that every cent he was spending was going towards maintaining his farm, so paying wages for full-time staff at his butchery was out of the question.
It was when confronted with this dilemma that he thought of a self-service concept. And so, $5000 and a newly-installed security system later, Wolki Butchery was born.
Jacob also admitted that the entire operation has led to some locals questioning his setup, but for the most part, he’s had a warm welcome.
To date, about 250 members have signed up to be customers of the butchery — and that’s despite the requirement of his for new customers to tour his farm for them to get a clear view of how their food is sourced.
Despite most people being amazed by his efforts, some have taken an apprehensive stance because of the idea of people missing out on jobs with self-service technology.
To his credit, Jacob acknowledges this but explained that ‘there was no job to be had in the first place as it was never going to be viable to create a job for somebody’.
He further expanded on his reasoning in a follow-up TikTok post, where he stressed that running the store without staff was his only option as his finances were tight.
‘I’m a big employer. I employ 50 people across our region, but I want to pour that labour and those skills into improving systems on the farm. We grow meat that we think is exceptional, and the resources we save from paying someone minimum wage to man the shop are instead used for that purpose,’ he added in a separate interview.
Jacob’s butchery sources its meats and other produce from his nearby farm. Image Credit: TikTok/@wolkifarm
Ever the entrepreneur, Jacob is already thinking about the expansion of his business to more urban centres after a two-year proof-of-concept run in Albury.
‘I’ve engaged a couple of tech developers, and I have a few concepts that will make access and payment even easier,’ he said.
‘I want to remove the membership system and rely instead on customers accessing the store with their credit card details. If I can make it work the way I’m imagining it, I think it will work anywhere.’
‘I think it's going to happen really quickly. The big hesitation retailers have is around loss and security but (Wolki) has clearly identified a way around it as have other companies... who knows who is in a store at any given time and cameras detect what you take,’ said Queensland University of Technology retail expert Gary Mortimer.
Supermarket giants such as Woolworths, Coles, and ALDI have already been known to engage in the self-service technology game, with more stores seeing more lanes dedicated to self-checkouts.
Wolki Butchery customers simply have to scan an item with the Express Checkout app to purchase store goods. Image Credit: TikTok/@wolkifarm
Despite his outlook, Mortimer was also quick to caution businesses like Jacob’s against going all out on retail technology.
‘Aussies certainly want to engage with retail smart technology if it makes their lives easier but they still want the human element,’ he said.
‘Customers may want to talk to a butcher 9 to 5 about how to cook it, what's the best cut of meat.’
‘But outside of that, I think they want the convenience of being able to go in and grab it 24 hours a day.’
On the topic of butchers, many Aussies were shocked after Woolies axed its in-store butcher shop services.
You might also want to find out why kangaroo meat prices have nearly doubled in recent days.
So, what do you think of Jacob’s 24/7 self-service butchery? Is it something you’d like to have in your neighbourhood, or are you firmly against patronising businesses without staff?
Tell us what you think below!
Source: TikTok/@wolkifarm
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