Darfield Four Square Supermarket

Situated on the Main road in Darfield on State Highway 73, this road links travellers with Christchurch and the West Coast taking them through the picturesque Southern Alps.

Our area also features easy access to numerous ski fields as well as Fishing, Hunting, Golf, Horse Trekking and Jet Boating on our2 major rivers – the Waimakariri and the Rakaia. Darfield is also a stop on the Tranz Alpine Scenic excursion route.

A short drive of 30 minutes from the Christchurch international airport on sealed open roads sees you arrive at the supermarket with plenty of easy parking for the traveller and locals to enjoy.

Darfield serves a population of about 4000 in the Malvern community with this number steadily growing thanks to the continued growth of new housing areas and lifestyle blocks on offer in and around Darfield. It offers a range of services of the area, Supermarket, Café, Doctors, Hospitals, Bank, High School and Primary School, Rest Homes, Motels, Vet plus many more.

The Darfield Four Square Supermarket is a busy modern store that is locally owned and managed and staffed. It caters for travellers and locals, both young and old alike.
It stocks a great selection of fresh produce, grocery items and some hardware items.

The supermarket is open 7 days a week. Please don’t hesitate to ask one of the friendly staff for some assistance.
“We aim to please.”

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.