Russell Four Square

Many Four Square Stores are of important historical significance in the development of this country.

One such store is Russell Four Square, which is listed as a Category 2 building in the Historic Places Trust Register, (Category 2 standing for a significant place).

It is the only surviving 19th Century trading store still fulfilling it’s original purpose on the Russell waterfront.

Built in the 1880’s, the store was strangely designed. The sleeping quarters were upstairs and were reached by an outside staircase. The stairs have long gone and access is now by way of a vertical ladder onto a flat roof leading to a porch. Consequently upstairs is no longer used. The kitchen-living room was a stand-alone single storey building situated in the back yard of the shop.

The exterior of the building is corrugated iron and forms the main bracing for the building. If the corrugated iron were removed, the building would fall down.

Many alterations have been made to the exterior of the store over the years. Large plate-glass windows replaced the flat front with its two doors and casement window. A veranda-roof was added for shelter and shade, and small “eyelids” were built over the upstairs windows.

The little kitchen was joined to the rear of the store where it still serves as part of the storeroom. Nooks and crannies in the store are used for storage space.
A monstrous heavy safe is a legacy of when part of the building was a Post Bank Office.

Little has been done to alter the structural interior of the shop. Counters used to run around the perimeter walls but now the layout is typical of any modern Four Square Store. The store also offers a Dive Tank filling service.

During a recent interior redecoration, 60 tubes of No More Gaps were used to fill the cracks in the sagging Kauri ceiling. Painting took two months at night to complete.

The present owners, Paul Fitzgerald and Christian Daum took over the business in November 2002. They have worked hard to bring the standard of the store up to today’s customer expectations both in service and offering.

The old building has seen many changes within the town over the years. Not every one appreciates its architectural design or age. A common saying when people discover it’s over one hundred years old is “it looks like it!”

Some information contained within this article was sourced form an article by M. King in the Russell Review Volume 4 1981 with the kind permission of the Russell Museum.

The household name Four Square emerged in the 1920s out of the Foodstuffs grocery buying co-operative. Foodstuffs’ founder, Mr J Heaton Barker, became concerned at the activities of the grocery chain stores of the day that were making life very difficult for independent grocers in Auckland. On 6th July 1922, Heaton Barker called together members of the Auckland Master Grocers Association to discuss plans for the formation of a co-operative buying group of independent grocers.

On 1st April 1925, this buying group registered a company, Foodstuffs Ltd [later Foodstuffs (Auckland) Ltd], the first of three regional co-operatives based in Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch, which now form the Foodstuffs group of co-operatives.
The name Four Square emerged when Mr Barker, while talking on the telephone to one of the buying group members on 4th July 1924, drew a square around the 4 of the date on his calendar. He immediately realised he had a suitable name for the buying group, stating that “they would stand ’Four Square’ to all the winds that blew”.

By the end of 1924 products were appearing under the Four Square name, and by 1929, discussions were underway on the use of a common branding on stores. Early versions of the Four Square sign were produced in the form of red and gold hand painted glass panels for display in members’ stores.

In February 1948, New Zealand’s first self-service grocery store was opened in Onehunga by Phil Barker (the son of the founder of the group) and Ray McGregor. This soon became the norm for grocery retailing.

During the 1950’s the Foodstuffs advertising department designed the famous Four Square man who initially appeared only in newspaper advertising and posters, but was developed to become part of the Four Square identity, appearing in every Four Square store and eventually becoming a nationally recognised icon in New Zealand, remaining famous to this day.

Four Square stores continue to serve local communities and towns throughout New Zealand.