Uptown | Four Square | Rachel Kennedy

A Four Square in Uptown felt like a small blessing, or a breath of fresh convenience air sent to serve the community. The owner, Rachel Kennedy, was quick to help Uptown's Branch Out Festival back in October. It was still early days for the new supermarket and she didn't hesitate to jump on board with food and drinks for our performers and volunteers. Already she feels like part of the fabric of our neighbourhood. In Rachel's words, "you can't miss a completely grey lady walking her very cute cavoodle Charlie girl."

Rachel was initially reluctant to do this column because she is incredibly down to earth and is at pains to say the success of her business is a huge team effort. It's Rachel's inclusive and friendly vibe that has made Four Square fit seamlessly into Uptown and serve its customers so well. We used the power of persuasion to get Rachel on board with this, because for her, it's the team at Four Square that she celebrates every day.

My alarm goes off…
6.30am, because Charlie girl, my dog, needs to do her business.

My work day begins

I arrive around 7.30am. The first thing I do is catch up with the team to see how everyone is. We have a coffee, lovely Sophia knows how I have mine and is ready to hand me one first thing. We discuss what happened last night and what's going to happen today.

My current job …
That's an excellent question. Even though I am the owner, my job is really being the problem solver in the business. I love the people side of the business, so part of my role is building, encouraging and backing the team to love their job and be proud of what they do.

It's important to me that everyone who works here enjoys their jobs and they want to come to work everyday. People enjoy their jobs when they feel supported and when there is a great team atmosphere, so I put a lot of effort into that.

My typical day…
I have to do the back office stuff like ordering, food safety - the nuts and bolts of running a small supermarket business. A lot of that is fairly mundane stuff, but what I really enjoy is being with the team and customers. I try to be on the floor as much as possible.

My big break…
My family were in supermarkets and I worked with them for 14 years. Then I had three cafés in West Auckland, but I found the café business can be quite fickle.

I had a goal of owning a supermarket and my first break was when I owned Paeroa Four Square. I loved it; the people, the customers and being my own boss.

I saw it as an opportunity to be the one making the decisions and to explore some of my ideas. Now at Uptown Four Square, we try out the team ideas because it's not just about me and my ideas. I'm keen on the team contributing their ideas too.

I'm proud of…
The people that work around me. They are genuinely good people. They are so eager to learn and be part of this journey with me. Without them, it just wouldn't have worked.

The store is amazing, every day I am proud to be part of it.

My worst work habit is…
I'm a bit of a procrastinator. I might venture out into the store to chat and I will put off the office work. Any excuse to get out of the office including walking the dog …

My most memorable moment…
Opening day of Uptown Four Square would have to be up there. It was a huge effort to get to opening day. Having the cool feedback from the Uptown people has been great. Everyone is pleased to have us here, so as a team, we feel chuffed about that.

Outside of work ...
Bugger all...

I chose Uptown because…
My first apartment was on Khyber Pass and I used to live in Grey Lynn, so I have been in and around this area a lot in my younger years. There were a couple of options for supermarkets that came up and Uptown was the one I chose to apply for, because I identify with this area and was lucky enough to be successful. Because I had my own cafés and worked in supermarkets, the 'food to go' section was a perfect fit for my skill set too.

I fall asleep …
With the dog owning the bed and sadly with the TV going.

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