New Zealand supermarket Caribou supermarket has opened in the new building at the Royal New Zealand Hospital, in Auckland.
The supermarket is part of the RNZU-run Caribougreen supermarket chain which also includes New Zealand-based supermarket Sam’s Club, which opened in Auckland last year.
New Zealand’s first supermarket to open in a hospital The RNZ Upright Health Sciences Hospital is a publicly funded hospital in the heart of Auckland’s CBD.
In a bid to bring healthy food to more patients, it opened the Caribucreen supermarket on August 15.
RNZU president Peter Daley said it was an important milestone for the country, and that he hoped the hospital would become the first in the world to offer supermarket-style healthy food.
“The supermarket concept is a great opportunity to provide healthy food in a community setting for our community,” he said.
“[The supermarket] gives us an opportunity to be in a setting where people can go to and interact with and shop and interact and have an opportunity with the products they are buying, and we hope they will eat more healthy food.”
Dr Daley added that the supermarket had also been designed to be convenient for patients and staff, and would provide a place to meet and talk about their health.
There are currently 1,200 Caribusks in the hospital, with the majority being found at the entrance of the main building, which is the first building in the centre of Auckland.
It will be the first supermarket opened in a new building in New Zealand, and will be located in a location that is convenient for staff.
Its opening marks the end of an era at the hospital for Dr Daley, who has been with the RnzU for 40 years.
It is also the end for the RWA-run supermarket chain Sam’s Supermarket, which was opened last year at the same time as the supermarket opened.
This is the third time the supermarket has closed.
Earlier this year, the supermarket was closed for two weeks due to a power outage.
But the hospital said the outage did not affect the operation of the supermarket, and the supermarket reopened on December 15.
“We are very happy with how the operation has gone so far,” Dr Daly said.
“It has been a wonderful experience for everyone involved.”
The caribowine is one of the fastest growing food groups in New Guinea.
More than 4 million people live in the country.
Originally published as New Zealand to open first supermarket in RNZ hospital