One cold Sunday morning 10 years ago a gentleman walked into the little veggie shop Melita Hicks ran in the main street of Mount Compass and said he was desperate for some toilet paper.
She gave him some of her personal supply. Crisis avoided. Phew! But the chain of events, so to speak, led to her thinking the town needed a grocery store after the previous one closed down, and the plan to sell groceries in the local petrol station didn’t eventuate. The run-down but quaint former RSL hall became her IGA shop.
And with due respect, while the Frewville Foodland near the city was named as the World’s Best Supermarket in March, this little store – in contrast to a supermarket because the aisles aren’t big enough for a trolley – became the lifeline of Mount Compass.
Come November, Melita will lease a new IGA store five times the size across the road, a special place packed with specials across 400sq.m of retail bliss including a super-deli, a huge fruit & veg section and hot chickens. Incredible; hot chickens in Compass, a town that once didn’t have a grocery store – even a petrol station for 12 months.
Yet, for all this positive change – and Melita is really excited – she said it will still be run like a little country town store that’s always been a meeting place thriving on friendship.
“We have always been very lucky to have the support of this town, and that will never be forgotten,” Melitta said. “The new supermarket will still be like the town itself – the people make it special.
“A lot like the current store because of its quaintness, and they say they’ll miss it. Tourists like it too… we had some people from Italy stay here and they said the highlight of Mount Compass was the IGA.
“The new store is something that has been needed for a long time and we have been trying to do it for 10 years, but every time we tried we hit a brick wall.”
Melita will lease the new premises to set up the IGA, and we’ll still find her in there when it opens at six and near closing time at eight at night seven days a week. Her personal reward is the comfort she is able to continue to employ 10 part-time staff who give out free smiles.
“I won’t know myself with all that room in the new store,” Melita said. “Yes, it will bring its new challenges, but I get incredible support from my family; they have never really been involved in the business but they have always been there for me in the background.”
Remarkably, Melilta, and her husband Bruce, who is principal at Tyndale Christian School, Murray Bridge, have also been there for the family. They have six children including two who were adopted, and have fostered others. Their youngest is Josh, 25, who is currently walking around the coast of Great Britain raising money for childhood cancer in England and Canteen SA back home, and a few weeks ago the tally was 300km and $3000. Great stuff.
Melita is incredibly proud of Josh, who was inspired by a local mate, as she is of their other children, and her kindness and support for a great town like Mount Compass runs incredibly deep. Just ask that man who walked into her veggie shop 10 years ago. Like the IGA, when you’ve got to go you’ve got to go.
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