Kiwis are now able to complete their supermarket shop in te reo Māori at any Countdown store across Aotearoa.
Working in collaboration with Te Taura Whiri i te Reo Māori (The Māori Language Commission), Countdown’s self-service checkouts (SCOs) now have te reo available as a language option for customers, allowing them to complete the checkout process in Aotearoa’s indigenous language.
Countdown’s Director of Corporate Affairs, Safety and Sustainability, Kiri Hannifin, says that with three million customers through its stores each week, Countdown has a fantastic opportunity to introduce te reo into everyday conversations and activities – including going to the supermarket.
“Our entire team is incredibly proud that not only can te reo speakers now complete their shopping in their own language, but that we can use our scale and reach to help ensure te reo is revitalised and used for generations to come.
“We have bilingual signage in our stores, te reo greetings in our customer communications and the te reo names on the packaging of all of our fresh fish products – adding te reo to our SCOs is an exciting next step.
“We are incredibly grateful to Te Taura Whiri for their support throughout this process to bring this important project to life. A project that wouldn’t have been possible without their guidance and ability to connect us to the people that could help us achieve this outcome,” Kiri says.
Currently, there is an audio greeting and farewell in te reo with further audio to be added to the system over the coming months so that eventually, customers will see and hear te reo throughout the checkout process too.
“While using the Te Reo Māori function is entirely optional, we’d encourage customers in our stores to give it a go when they next complete their shop,” Kiri says.
