57: Grow your own
What if supermarkets could grow their own?
Supermarkets, like service stations, are in that category of activities that are of such necessity and ubiquity to our daily life that they cumulatively have a very large footprint and influence across our cities and suburbs.
In denser parts of the world, where space is valued at a higher premium, it goes without saying that supermarkets need to be accommodated on sites with other uses. In New Zealand we are only gradually cottoning on to this idea, with a handful of metro supermarkets in central Wellington and Auckland, and soon, the vertical mixed use scheme of commercial office space above a Countdown supermarket in Ponsonby’s Vinegar Lane.
But wouldn’t it be good if supermarkets right across our suburbs, could find additional uses for their large footprint stores? It might be dreaming perhaps, but imagine if each one of those hangar-type stores had glasshouses on the roof growing fresh salad greens, herbs, fruits and vegetables picked daily and served up in the produce aisles downstairs? Short of growing your own, local food couldn’t get much more local than that!
Pie in the sky perhaps but it does highlight the current wastefulness of many of these buildings and land holdings that could be put to more intensive uses. Many parts of Auckland could benefit from our supermarkets’ taking a more progressive and broader remit towards urban revitalisation when re-investing in stores. Changing the way we do the everyday things everywhere – in ways that are scaleable – that is a sure-fire way to change Auckland for the better.
Stuart Houghton 2014
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I wouldn’t say supermarkets as they exist now are a necessity — I haven’t been inside one for about a year. But I do shop online at one regularly, for all I care it could be squirreled away in a warehouse somewhere. Online delivery from countdown is about $6 per delivery if you buy 20 deliveries at once, cheap considering the time and effort saved.
Woolworths in Sydney opened it’s first Online only supermarket or ‘dark’ store for processing online orders only. It’s layout is like a regular store but with no customers.
Patrick, Stuart made this dream of eating local as a suggestion in the past (in the 30s).
What you do not appreciate is how much food has to be delivered to Auckland each day to feed the current population. and how far round New Zealand it is transported to get there. To utilise supermarket roofing footprints to grow tomatoes, capscicums and cucumbers ( the main greenhouse crops) will take a large amount of extra space, and most likely the carpark for the storage of the nutrients for the growing system (hydroponics), a large cold water storage area for the plants (also collecting rainwater), another large hotwater storage tank for heating, a packing area, heat energy and a linked CO2 supply (natural gas, LPG or coal – from the heating system)….I am not sure how shoppers will feel with pesticides applied on the roof above their heads!
Glasshouses are not cheap, but I suspect that there are other users who will be able to pay a lot more for the footprint than a grower.
You guys should consider the number of trucks that deliver this food to Auckland from all over NZ daily.
The amount of livestock truck movements to just the abbaitoir at Auckland Meat Processors is significant, http://www.wilsonhellaby.co.nz/livestock.html
Weekly; 3000 beef animals, 10000 lambs, 5000 ewes, 2500 pigs etc. Spend 24 hours at their gate and identify where the trucks are coming from – all over the North Island.
I know livestock truckies who are looking forward to a congestion free road access to Auckland so they can get in, unload and get out!
This is the same wish that other truckers have carrying chilled and frozen meat from other processors throughout NZ into Auckland.