3 Guys (also operating as Gubays) was a New Zealand, Irish and US supermarket chain that operated between 1973 and 2003.

History

Albert Gubay era

Albert Gubay Albert Gubay, Order of St. Gregory the Great, KC*SG (9 April 1928 – 5 January 2016) was a Welsh businessman and philanthropist, who made his fortune with the Kwik Save retail chain, building it further on investments, mainly in property develo ...

established the supermarket chain while living in New Zealand from January 1973 to April 1974. Shares in rival supermarket chain

Foodtown Foodtown was a New Zealand supermarket chain owned by Progressive Enterprises (now Woolworths New Zealand). As with Woolworths (New Zealand), Woolworths, the Foodtown brand was phased out in the late 2000s, with all stores rebranded as Countdo ...

fell dramatically when his move to New Zealand was confirmed. Gubay asked the Minister of Trade and Industry

Joe Walding Joseph Albert Walding (18 June 1926 – 5 June 1985) was a New Zealand politician of the Labour Party. He represented the Palmerston North for several terms. After his retirement from Parliament, he became High Commissioner to the United Kingd ...

to force

Unilever Unilever PLC () is a British multinational consumer packaged goods company headquartered in London, England. It was founded on 2 September 1929 following the merger of Dutch margarine producer Margarine Unie with British soap maker Lever B ...

and other suppliers to do business with him. However, an investigation found the suppliers were not breaking the law, and Unilever publicly offered to supply Gubay on similar terms to other buyers. The first store was opened in

Māngere Māngere () is a major suburb in South Auckland, New Zealand, located on mainly flat land on the northeastern shore of the Manukau Harbour, to the northwest of Manukau, Manukau City Centre and south of the Auckland CBD, Auckland city centre. ...

in January 1973. Further stores were added in

Papatoetoe Papatoetoe is a suburb in Auckland, New Zealand. It is the largest suburb in Auckland by population and is located to the northwest of Manukau, Manukau Central, and southeast of Auckland CBD. Papatoetoe was traditionally an important area fo ...

Mount Eden Mount Eden is a suburb in Auckland, New Zealand New Zealand () is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and List of islands of New Z ...

, and Northcote later that year. Construction on a store in

Glen Eden Glen Eden is a suburb of West Auckland, New Zealand, West Auckland, New Zealand, located at the foothills of the Waitākere Ranges. Originally known as Waikumete, the suburb gained the name Glen Eden in 1921. The suburb is in the Waitākere W ...

had begun by July 1973. Plans for a store in Green Bay were scrapped due to local opposition. Gubay instead opted to build a store in Avondale, which opened in September 1975.

International expansion

Gubay also established 3 Guys supermarkets in Ireland in the 1970s. He sold these stores to the H Williams supermarket chain in 1986, which subsequently collapsed in the same year.

Tesco Tesco plc () is a British multinational groceries and general merchandise retailer headquartered in the United Kingdom at its head offices in Welwyn Garden City, England. The company was founded by Jack Cohen (businessman), Sir Jack Cohen in ...

purchased many of the former 3 Guys stores, branded as either

Crazy Prices Tesco Ireland Limited is the Irish subsidiary of supermarket group Tesco. Tesco Ireland was formed by Tesco plc's 1997 purchase of the Irish retailing operations of Associated British Foods, namely Powers' Supermarkets Limited and its subsidia ...

or 3 Guys, to create

Tesco Ireland Tesco Ireland Limited is the Republic of Ireland, Irish subsidiary of supermarket group Tesco. Tesco Ireland was formed by Tesco plc's 1997 purchase of the Irish retailing operations of Associated British Foods, namely Powers' Supermarkets Limi ...

. 3 Guys stores were also opened in the United States from 1980, but the chain went bankrupt in 1985. The stores were sold to other chains like

Food Lion Food Lion is an American regional supermarket Chain store, chain headquartered in Salisbury, North Carolina, that operates over 1,000 supermarkets in 10 states: Delaware, Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia, Kentucky, Maryland, North Carolina, Pennsyl ...

Post-Gubay era

Gubay put the New Zealand arm of 3 Guys up for sale in 1984.

Progressive Enterprises Woolworths New Zealand Limited (formerly Progressive Enterprises) is the second largest grocery company in New Zealand (behind Foodstuffs (company), Foodstuffs), with revenue of NZ$6.2 billion for the year to June 2018. Alongside Foodstuffs, Wo ...

bought the company in 1985. Fourteen houses were demolished to build a

New Plymouth New Plymouth () is the major city of the Taranaki region on the west coast of the North Island of New Zealand. It is named after the English city of Plymouth, in Devon, from where the first English settlers to New Plymouth migrated. The New Pl ...

store in 1992. The

Onehunga Onehunga is a suburb of Auckland in New Zealand and the location of the Port of Onehunga, the city's small port on the Manukau Harbour. It is south of the city centre, close to the volcanic cone of Maungakiekie / One Tree Hill. Onehunga is ...

store, which included a

New Zealand Post NZ Post (), shortened from New Zealand Post, is a state-owned enterprise responsible for providing most postal services in New Zealand. The New Zealand Post Office, a government agency, provided postal, banking, and telecommunications servi ...

shop, was redeveloped into

Dress Smart Dress Smart is a franchise of shopping centres in New Zealand that specialises in outlet stores. Auckland Dress Smart Onehunga opened in 1995 as New Zealand's first factory outlet shopping centre. Onehunga was chosen for its central location an ...

in 1995. In early 1997, 3 Guys and

ran a campaign for the right to sell

liquor Liquor ( , sometimes hard liquor), spirits, distilled spirits, or spiritous liquor are alcoholic drinks produced by the distillation of grains, fruits, vegetables, or sugar that have already gone through ethanol fermentation, alcoholic ferm ...

at their

Grey Lynn Grey Lynn is an inner suburb of Auckland, New Zealand, located to the west of the city centre. Originally a separate borough, Grey Lynn amalgamated with Auckland City in 1914. Grey Lynn is centred on Grey Lynn Park, which was not part of t ...

stores. 3 Guys and Progressive Enterprises merged into a single company in 1997. The Avondale supermarket closed in June 1997, and its building was demolished.

Auckland City Council Auckland City Council was the local government authority for Auckland City, New Zealand, from 1989 to 1 November 2010, when it and Auckland's six other city and district councils were amalgamated to form the Auckland Council. It was an elec ...

took ownership of the site, selling part of it for private development in 2001. In 2000, the Glen Eden supermarket was closed to make way for a new

Housing New Zealand Housing refers to a property containing one or more shelter as a living space. Housing spaces are inhabited either by individuals or a collective group of people. Housing is also referred to as a human need and human right, playing a crit ...

development. According to the Glen Eden Community Protection Society, it was established to protest the development and persuaded the developer to down-scale its plan. The supermarket carpark and part of the building was then sold to new owners in February 2001.

Closure and legacy

The chain had six stores at the start of 2003: its original

store, three other Auckland stores in

Orewa Orewa () is a settlement in the northern Auckland Region of New Zealand. It is a suburb of the Hibiscus Coast, just north of the base of the Whangaparāoa Peninsula and north of central Auckland. The Auckland Northern Motorway, Northern Motor ...

Point Chevalier Point Chevalier (; commonly known as Point Chev and originally named Point Bunbury after Thomas Bunbury) is a residential suburb and peninsula in the city of Auckland in the north of New Zealand. It is located five kilometres to the west of t ...

Flat Bush Flat Bush (also known as Ormiston or Flatbush) is a southeastern suburb in the city of Auckland, New Zealand. It has recently become one of the city's largest new planned towns after being developed as an urban area of Auckland for several de ...

, and stores in

Huntly Huntly ( or ''Hunndaidh'') is a town in Aberdeenshire, Scotland, formerly known as Milton of Strathbogie or simply Strathbogie. It had a population of 4,460 in 2004 and is the site of Huntly Castle. Its neighbouring settlements include Keith ...

and

Te Awamutu Te Awamutu is a town in the Waikato, Waikato region in the North Island of New Zealand. It is the council seat of the Waipā District and serves as a service town for the farming communities which surround it. Te Awamutu is located some south ...

. The

Commerce Commission The Commerce Commission () (sometimes shortened to ComCom) is a New Zealand government agency with responsibility for enforcing legislation that relates to competition in the country's markets, fair trading and consumer credit contracts, and r ...

required 3 Guys Te Awamutu to be sold in January 2003. The remaining stores were rebranded as

Price Chopper Price Chopper may refer to: United States * Price Chopper (Northeastern United States), a supermarket chain based in Schenectady, New York, with stores in eastern United States ** Price Chopper Tour Championship, a golf tournament in the Albany, ...

. The

Pukekohe Pukekohe is a town in the Auckland Region of the North Island of New Zealand. The town is located at the southern edge of the Auckland Region, between the southern shore of the Manukau Harbour and the mouth of the Waikato River. The hills of Puke ...

supermarket site was redeveloped into a strip mall, which was sold as a single lot in 2007. The site of the former Avondale supermarket remained vacant in 2019. It became popular for street art in 2017, and a structure was built to host street art in 2021. A similarly named "Free Guys Supermarket" opened in Avondale during the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...

to provide free groceries to low-income households.

References

{{Supermarkets in New Zealand Supermarkets of New Zealand Defunct retail companies of New Zealand