The Re Store celebrates 90 years: charting the evolution of Perth’s most iconic grocer

Whoever said to keep business out of the bloodline had clearly never met the Re family. Ninety years after Moreno Berti’s grandparents, John and Maria Re, pawned their wedding ring to open a humble fruit and vegetable shop in Northbridge, the business is not only still thriving — it’s still firmly in family hands. Moreno — who modestly prefers the title “caretaker” as opposed to “owner” — now runs the two Re Store establishments alongside his brother Lorenzo and sister Maria. Their children are already stepping in behind the counter, continuing a legacy that now spans four generations. “It’s in our blood to serve — but not as a chore,” Moreno says, in the chilled cellar beneath the bustling Oxford Street store on a busy Wednesday afternoon. “We enjoy it, and that’s become such a rare thing these days.” Upstairs, that philosophy is tangible. Staff greet customers by name. Conversations stretch between shelves of imported goods. Some rituals have remained unchanged for decades. “I’ve got a group of Italian guys who come in every Saturday morning and stand guard at the front,” Moreno says, smiling. “At eight o’clock, they open the door — they’re always the first four in. I’ve been here 35 years and they’ve been doing it since I started.” The Re family’s entrepreneurial roots stretch back far beyond Perth. Moreno’s great-grandfather, Giuseppe Re, left the Aeolian island of Salina in 1885 to run a grocery store in Sydney. When news of the gold rush spread, he tried his luck prospecting and struck a find worth £2000. Word of the riches in Kalgoorlie brought Giuseppe to the west coast in 1894, alongside thousands of other immigrants on a quest to strike it big on the precious metal. But it wasn’t gold that would define the family’s future. “Who made a lot of the money wasn’t the miners — it was the people supplying them,” Moreno says. “So he got into food.” By 1904, Giuseppe had opened a deli in Fremantle, followed by a second store in Northbridge. His son John grew up immersed in the business, learning the trade from the ground up. That experience proved invaluable when John and his wife Maria struck out on their own in 1936, opening the original Re Store on the corner of Lake and Aberdeen streets. Alongside fresh produce, they sold coffee roasted in-house under the Braziliano name — now one of Perth’s largest coffee roasters. After the hardships of World War II, a wave of European migrants arrived in Western Australia and found a sense of home at the Re Store. Stocked with familiar flavours, imported goods, and even magazines from overseas, the shop quickly became more than a grocery store — it became a cultural hub. As demand grew, a second location opened in 1955 on Stone Street in West Perth. By then, John and Maria’s four daughters, Carolina, Adriana, Aurora, and Anne, were deeply involved in the business alongside their husbands. “The husbands didn’t have a choice,” Moreno laughs. “My grandfather said ‘You want to know my daughter, you’ve got to work’.” The offering expanded to include wines, spirits and ports, with the family even launching their own label, Farnese. But a pivotal moment came in 1959 with the establishment of European Foods, allowing the family to commercially import cheeses, pasta, olive oil and chocolates — many arriving for the first time in Western Australia. “I think that’s the secret of the family,” Moreno says. “We absorb all cultures and we love everything, as long as it tastes good. For many Perth residents, however, the Re Store isn’t just about imported delicacies . . . it’s about what happens at the deli counter. The shop’s legendary continental rolls, or “conti rolls”, have become something of a rite of passage. Built generously with layers of cured meats, cheese, antipasto and crusty bread, they’re as much a lunchtime institution as the store itself. But their origins are far more humble and deeply tied to the migrant experience that helped shape the store. “It goes back to the late 40s, early 50s,” Moreno says. “The migrants would come in on a Saturday and stand around chatting like we’re chatting now. They’d open their little bags of sliced meats, have a roll, break it up and just stuff the meat in while they were talking.” What began as a casual, communal way of eating soon became a practical solution to a growing problem behind the counter. “One of the issues we had was wastage,” Moreno explains. “You’d have all the ends of the salami, the mortadella and ham because people always wanted a fresh cut. So what do you do with all these ends?” The answer was simple — and, in hindsight, genius. On any given day, the line snakes past shelves of olive oil and pasta as customers patiently wait their turn. Regulars tweak their combinations, staff remember preferences, and recommendations are offered freely across the counter. It’s that interaction — part transaction, part conversation — that Moreno believes keeps people coming back. “You can’t replicate that online,” he says. “It’s that human touch. You’re not just buying food.” The business evolved with Perth city around it. In 1974, construction of the Mitchell Freeway meant the Stone Street store had to move to Oxford Street, where it still stands today. In moments of loss, the strength of the Re Store community has been unmistakable. When John Re died in 1991, thousands attended his funeral, and both stores closed in tribute. Decades later, that same sense of community revealed itself again in a moment of crisis. About 20 years ago, a fire broke out at the Oxford Street store, sparked by an electrical fault in one of the fridges. It left the space covered in black soot just weeks out from Christmas — the store’s busiest time of year. “The insurance company told us we’d probably be closed until April or May,” Moreno recalls. “The roof had to be replaced, air-conditioning, refrigeration, everything.” But what could have been a devastating setback quickly became something else entirely. “Everyone was lining up to help,” Moreno says. “Tradespeople, electricians, friends — you name it. They were cleaning, ripping out ceilings, doing whatever needed to be done. And hardly anyone charged us properly.” The store reopened far sooner than expected because of the people who rallied behind it. “It really made me feel part of the community,” Moreno says. “You realise people do look after you when you’re down.” In 2018, a major shift occurred when European Foods was sold. Using the proceeds, Moreno and his siblings bought out the remaining family shares of the Re Store, consolidating ownership and ushering in a new chapter. “We’re all focused on the same goal,” Moreno says. “We’re headed in the same direction and we all love what we do.” Despite the rise of online shopping and large-scale retail, Moreno is confident there will always be a place for the Re Store. But expanding into a chain has never been the goal “People still want to touch and feel products. They want advice,” he says. “They might already know what they’re looking for, but they want that human connection — someone who says, ‘Try this, you’ll love it.’ “Why put a Re Store on every corner? That’s not us.” That connection is what drives him — especially in the small, everyday moments. “The best feeling is when you recommend something and someone comes back and says, ‘That was the best cheese, the best wine — everyone loved it’,” Moreno gushes. And with the next generation already finding their feet in the business, Moreno hopes the legacy will continue. “They say the third generation is the one that breaks it,” he says. “So if we can get it to the fourth — that’s something special.”