Posts by theo@aacs.org.au

The city of Brisbane will gets its first mega Costco store as part of a major new development. The budget shopping and bulk grocery retailer is set to build a 15,600 square metre warehouse store and petrol station on a 6.7-hectare site at Brisbane Airport to open in late 2029. There are already three Costco stores in Queensland, but it will be the first in the city of Brisbane, with the site located 12 kilometres from city’s CBD. “It is great news for our members across Brisbane. This is a dynamic and fast-growing region, and we look forward to bringing even greater value to members through our wide range of products and services,” Costco’s ANZ manager Chris Tingman said. The US chain has more than 900 sites around the world and has been expanding its Australian network since opening its first local store in 2009. Since then, the membership-based supermarket retailer has grown to 15 stores,…

New Sunrise brought 350 delegates to Las Vegas for Iceworks 26, urging members to create the future rather than wait for it. The five-day conference ran from 27 to 31 July at the Bellagio Hotel, bringing together New Sunrise members, suppliers and industry leaders under the themes “The Best Way to Predict the Future Is to Create It” and “Creating Certainty in an Uncertain Time”. Opening the business program, Steve Cardinale, Managing Director, said uncertainty was often simply the unknown, rather than a reason to hold back. “Uncertainty should be a call to action. It should force leaders to ask better questions, test ideas, learn faster, adapt sooner and move with confidence.” Deb Adnum, Retail Support Manager, focused her session on operational excellence, telling members to strengthen their core range and lean on digital tools already available to them. She also outlined the continued rollout of the My Sunrise rewards…

The Australian Association of Convenience Stores (AACS) released its 2026 Mid-Year State of Industry Report in Sydney and Melbourne last week, attracting record attendance with more than 375 industry leaders attending across the two events. CMA’s Brett Barclay presented the latest market insights and performance trends. At a headline level, total convenience in-store sales finished the half down 0.6 per cent in value, while units declined 0.1 per cent. While still negative, this represents a significant improvement on the same period last year when sales value was down 2.3 per cent. Excluding tobacco, the channel delivered positive growth, with retail sales increasing 2.2 per cent and unit sales edging up 0.2 per cent. However, beneath these top-line results lies the industry’s most pressing challenge: declining unit sales across most of the store. Thirteen of the fifteen major categories recorded unit sales declines during the half. While many categories achieved value…

A Coalition Taskforce report has recommended tobacco excise be slashed by at least 80 per cent to undercut the illicit trade run by organised crime. The report includes a CPI graph showing tobacco excise has dramatically outpaced inflation in recent years. Stakeholder evidence cited in the report estimates illegal tobacco now accounts for up to 80 per cent of the Australian market and claims that 97 per cent of vapes consumed in the country are sourced from the black market. The taskforce’s findings align with a recent NSW inquiry into the illicit tobacco trade and come ahead of a Senate Inquiry into the same issue, due to hand down its recommendations this Friday. The Australian Association of Convenience Stores (AACS) has welcomed the report, with CEO Theo Foukkare saying it validated years of warnings from convenience retailers that excessive tax hikes were driving smokers out of legitimate stores. “This report…

The Consumer Price Index (CPI) rose 3.5 per cent in the 12 months to July 2026, down from 3.8 per cent in the 12 months to June, according to the latest data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS). The largest contributor to annual inflation in July was Housing, which rose by 5.0 per cent. The next largest contributors were Food and non-alcoholic beverages, rising 3.2 per cent, and Recreation and culture, which rose 2.6 per cent.  When prices for some items change significantly, such as automotive fuel, measures like the Trimmed mean can give more insights into how underlying inflation is trending without the impact of temporary shocks. Trimmed mean annual inflation remained steady at 3.6 per cent in the 12 months to July, unchanged from the 12 months to June 2026. Rachael McCririck, ABS head of price statistics, said: “Housing rose by 5.0 per cent in the 12 months…

The seasonally adjusted unemployment rate rose to 4.5 per cent in July, according to the latest data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS). Sean Crick, ABS head of labour statistics, said: “In July, we recorded a 16,000 person fall in employment, whilst the number of unemployed people rose by 4,000.” “The majority of the fall in employment came from males, which fell by 11,000 people. There were 10,000 fewer males employed part-time, and 1,000 fewer in full-time employment in July. “Female employment recorded a smaller fall of 5,000, with females employed part-time falling by 22,000 but full-time rising by 17,000.” The employment-to-population ratio and the participation rate both fell 0.2 percentage points, to 63.9 per cent and 66.9 per cent respectively. The underemployment rate was 6.4 per cent in July. Hours worked down 0.6 per cent in July “There were 12 million less hours worked this month, with those employed…