Gregory Hills fruit store’s David and Goliath fight talk of the town

You wouldn’t believe that the talk of the town across the Macarthur region the past few days has been about a fruit shop.

Incredible really, but there you go.

I couldn’t go into a business last week without the owner or operator mentioning it.

What about that Grima Bros fruit shop drama at Gregory Hills, hey, they’d say.

About three weeks ago someone I know really well told me about how she had discovered this excellent fruit and veggies store but it could close down soon.

Which would be a bummer at least for this person who makes the trek from Mt Annan to the Minto fruit shop.

She told me that the Grima Bros had started a petition in a bid to stay open and were asking their customers to sign it.

So, what’s going on?

Well, my informant told me that she was told by Grima Bros staff that the people who own Narellan Town Centre were trying to close the new shop down because it was a threat to the fruit and veggie store at the newly expanded Narellan shopping complex.

You mean the Perichs and the Vitoccos, I said.

Yep.

So the Grima Bros were making it out to be a David and Goliath story, with them being the little man and Dart West their giant foe.

I looked through the ever expanding business card tower on my desk and sure enough there was one there for the general manager of the company which runs Narellan Town Centre, Dart West Developments.

So I called the general manager, David Taylor, and he didn’t mince his words.

Their position is that the Grima Bros store is way too big for what the rules say it should be, Mr Taylor told me.

More than double and it gives them an unfair advantage in that they can buy in bulk and then offer lower prices.

I went in and bought a few things a couple of weeks ago and true enough the receipt says “Grima Bros Wholesale”.

Dart West have taken legal action on the basis that Grima Bros should never have got approval in the first place, not for a store that size.

It seems a private certifier, not a Camden Council one, gave the nod for the store to open.

So what will happen now?

I doubt if Grima will close their store – it’s more likely that they will shrink it back to the floor space allowed by the Camden Council regulations.