Trainee Store Manager - Orange

The Company 

Harris Farm Markets is one of Australia's most loved fresh food retailers. We're not a supermarket we're a market. Our shelves are full of bloody good produce, real food, and the kind of dirt-on-the-spud energy that reminds people where food actually comes from. We exist For the Greater Goodness for our customers, for each other, and for the communities we trade in.

For over 40 years we’ve remained 100% family-owned and operated. We’re 34 stores (and counting) across Sydney, NSW, ACT and QLD and home to over 3,400 wonderful employees all with a common purpose, to reconnect Aussies with the joy of food. 

The Role

The Trainee Store Manager programme is how we grow our next generation of Store Managers and it's a proper runway, not a nameplate. You'll work alongside your Store Manager on the floor of a busy HFM market, learning the full craft of running a store: leading a team, hitting KPIs, keeping standards tight, and giving customers the kind of experience that keeps them coming back.

This is a hands-on, player-coach role. You'll be in the market, with the team, knee-deep in the day-to-day while also stepping up into leadership, compliance and planning responsibilities. You'll report to the Store Manager, with formal six-monthly reviews by a Senior Retail Operations leader (Area Manager, Senior Store Manager or Head of Retail Operations). Programme length depends on your experience and how quickly you pick things up, but the destination is clear: Store Manager.

What You'll Do

Leadership & Team

• Be a visible role model for the HFM values on the shop floor, every shift, every day
• Support the Store Manager to coach, develop and lead the market team
• Help build a work culture people actually want to be part of, engaged, proud, switched on
• Step up in the Store Manager's absence and run the show with confidence

Store Performance & Operations

• Help drive the store's KPIs, NPS, eNPS, sales, wage budgets and margin
• Support rostering that keeps the store humming without blowing the budget
• Keep the market looking sharp, merchandising, housekeeping, ticketing, uniforms
• Push weekly specials and bring local events to life
• Own stock control basics: ordering discipline, waste, rotation

Quality & Customer Experience

• Quality-check incoming deliveries against HFM standards, temp, date, condition
• Make sure the right product is on the shelf, at its peak, when the customer wants it
• Back the Store Manager in hitting NPS targets, customer experience is the whole game

Compliance & Safety

• Keep the store running in line with HFM systems, policies and processes
• Report incidents and hazards within the hour and close out corrective actions
• Make sure only trained team members operate machinery or serve alcohol
• Stay on top of routine compliance, sweep and mop checks, temperature checks, the lot
• Support injured workers through return-to-work and rehab

Recruitment & Development

• Support recruitment and onboarding, including probation reviews at 3 and 5 months
• Help build development plans for key retailers so the store bench is always strong

About You

Essential

• Prior retail experience,ideally in fresh food, grocery or supermarket with a genuine ambition to run a store
• Experience leading or 2IC'ing a team, department or section (5+ team members ideal)
• Comfortable with the commercial side rosters, wage budgets, sales, margin
• Strong customer instincts and a natural eye for presentation and merchandising
• Solid communicator who can coach up and push back when it matters
• Switched on about compliance, safety and quality, you sweat the small stuff because it counts
• Available to work across a 7-day trading pattern, including weekends and public holidays
• Full working rights in Australia

Desirable

• Prior experience as a 2IC, Duty Manager, Department Manager or Assistant Shop Manager
• Exposure to perishable categories, produce, deli/cheese, butchery and bakery
• RSA / RCG and any formal retail or leadership training
• A genuine love of fresh food (we can't fake this one,you've either got it or you haven't)

What We Offer

• A salaried role with a clear path to Store Manager, not a vague promise, a structured programme
• On-the-job and off-the-job training, with six-monthly reviews by Senior Retail Ops leaders
• 25% employee discount for you and a family member
• Real leadership experience in one of Australia's best-loved fresh food retailers
• Mentorship from experienced Store Managers who've walked the same path
• A market culture, noisy, proud, fast-moving, and actually fun to work in

How to Apply

If this sounds like your next move, we'd love to hear from you. Hit the apply button with your resume and a short cover letter telling us about your retail experience and why you want to run a Harris Farm market one day.

We review applications as they come in, so don't sit on it.