If you’ve ever wanted to fill the pantry with proper South Australian brands, you’ll know the drill: one tab for the bakery, another for the dairy, a scroll through the supermarket shelves hoping to spot something local buried among a thousand others. From this month, that’s no longer necessary.
Cart 8, a new online marketplace dedicated entirely to South Australian food and drink, launched on 1 August during Buy SA Week, bringing together producers from right across the state – Adelaide Hills to the Riverland, Barossa to Kangaroo Island – in one place to shop.
The line-up reads like the inside of a well-stocked SA pantry: Nippy’s, Fleurieu Milk Company, Kytons Bakery, Halls Soft Drinks, Craters Crumpets, Kangaroo Island Olives, Tucker’s Natural, mumamoo baby formula and toddler milk alongside smaller regional producers most families have never had an easy way to find. Everything from fresh produce and ready-made meals to pantry staples and snacks ships from a single Woodville warehouse, with weekday deliveries available across participating areas – so a family shop that would normally mean juggling five different websites (and five delivery windows) becomes one order.
Founder Ethan Tan, a South Australian food industry veteran, says the idea came from watching good local producers struggle for shelf space and visibility. “Even once products are on shelves, they’re competing for limited space and attention alongside thousands of others,” he says. “Cart 8 provides another pathway to market – we can create greater visibility, help consumers discover brands they may never have otherwise found, and give producers another way to grow their business.”
For time-poor parents, the appeal is less about sentiment and more about convenience – Tan is upfront that goodwill towards local brands only goes so far if it’s easier to just grab something off the supermarket shelf. “We want to remove the friction from buying locally,” he says, “by making it easy to find a wide range of South Australian products, add them to one basket, and have them delivered through a single order.”
Cart 8 plans to keep adding producers over the coming months, with an eye on eventually taking the marketplace model interstate.
Find the full range:
cart8.com.au | @cart8marketplace
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