DIRECTORS DIALOGUE

As part of our Twenty-Third birthday, we sat down with Co-Directors Rickie Dee and James Rigden to ask them some questions about the past, present, future of Superette.

Sit down with Rickie and James

Who are you and what do you do?

R:
I'm Rickie, I'm one of the owners of Superette. I mainly look after the buying side of things, the brand, and a little bit of all the things.

J:
I'm James, obviously the other co-owner of Superette, I more get involved in the digital side and business development side of things I guess.

How would you describe Superette?

R:
Well, I mean, obviously the name kind of says it all. It's sort of, like a store of all the things that we love and appreciate across multiple categories.

It is kind of always stayed true to itself, I think, you know, over the 23 years that we have been around, and there's kind of something for everyone in in my eyes.

J:
Yeah, it was always meant to be a curation of things that we love and I guess it stayed that way over the years.

There's no limit on what can go in the store and we try and keep it that way so that we can keep it fresh and evolving...

R:
And I think also our retail spaces are forever changing, you know, so there's no two days the same that you'll walk into one of our retail stores, so you know keeping that product or category refreshed.

J:
It's an inspirational collection of things.

Where did the name come from?

J:
My kids ask me this all the time.

R:
Thats actually a really good question. I mean, to be fair, the, the story is not too elaborate. I think one day when we were probably, you know, all of what, like 17-18 or something, maybe and we literally wrote a list of names and Superette really resonated because of that kind of market concept of, you know, multi-category.

J:
Everything under one roof, and yeah, it was kind of good.

How would you describe the first Superette store?

R:
Awesome!

J:
Fun

R:
Yeah, you've got to also remember we we're 21, you know, so not too much thought. Hah.

J:
Yeah it was a bit of a hangout, ya know?
Any anything went, especially with the cafe and the fashion and the artwork and the furniture, there were no limitations on it, so we would just clear out the space for an event. So yeah, it was, it was definitely good and fun times.

R:
There were no real boundaries. It was just whatever we felt like doing in that moment, we did it.

J:
We even at one stage got an alcohol licence and I don't think we sold any alcohol. I mean that was the attitude back then.

R:
Yeah, I think probably being 21 was on our side because you know it was never, what if this doesn't work, it was, it's gonna work and let's just keep pushing to get that.

Whats something that hasn't changed and probably never will?

R:
I think probably the fact that we're multi-branded is really strong to who we are as a business. I think our customers have grown to really love that, like they can come into Superette and, you know, get little snippets of so many brands which they love, and that's constantly evolving, but I think it's something we've stayed quite true to.

J:
Yeah, I the desire for us to make every location an inspiring space for both our team and our customers by curating that collection of inspiring multi-branded designers is probably something that will never change. Thats at the heart of Superette, so thats what we try and do every day.

R:
And I think even without our in-house brands, we never want them to get too much in store. We always want to make sure that they are part of one of our brands within the doors so that they don't necessarily overtake.