Faigans General Store

Faigans General Store (Millers Flat Four Square)

In 1896 Mr Louis Faigan recognised the need for a multipurpose store in Millers Flat, so he opened his store and set up business.

It had a lot of purposes:

Post Office,

Bakery,

Medical Centre,

It was really useful because it was in the centre of town and was easy to access all of its services.

Faigans store has changed over the years. The building has been extended and modernised to suit generational needs.

Faigans is special to Millers Flat. It's world famous to us and very useful.

In the early 1980's the shop was threatened with closure. The community pooled together to buy the local icon and create a co-operative.* Since 2000 the store has been run via management lease and the community to this day still own the building. The store remains an integral part of this small community, and is still a multipurpose store acting as agents for CRT, Central Vets and other essential services.

The original Faigans stores.

*A co-operative in this case is the business being owned and operated equally by a group of individuals (community members) who use its services or who work at it. This is known in Millers Flat as The Faigans Trust.

We would like to thank Tui Moore for information on Faigans.

By Jordan and Heather.