According to adamant staff and locals, one of Australia’s oldest supermarkets is also its most haunted.
The local IGA store in the Tasmanian seaside town of Swansea is gearing up for the spookiest day of the year this Halloween.
The supermarket has been operating for 185 years in what is believed to be one of Australia’s first rural settlements.
Originally housed in the historic Morris General Store building, the Morris family owned the store for 170 years and has had only three owners during that time.
The supermarket was continuously operated by the Morris family from 1860 until last year, when IGA took over.
Store manager Greg Raspin personally had no scary encounters during his 12 months in charge.
But his staff tells a different story, insisting that a ghost lives upstairs in the adjacent original building and often hears footsteps from the third floor.
IGA Swansea manager Greg Raspin (pictured) runs one of Australia’s oldest supermarkets. Employees and locals say the adjacent original building is haunted
A former former employee who worked there for 25 years and did not want to be named claimed she always felt a “presence” when she was in the building.
She even greeted the presence at the beginning of each service, believing that if she was polite to her, she would be left alone.
She also refused to go to the bathroom after 5:30 at night because of the “haunted” floor.
“The girls say things are getting lost and things are flying off the shelves,” Raspin told Ny Breaking Australia.
‘They hear footsteps from the third floor. Some still refuse to go up.’
According to Mr Raspin, builders and tradesmen working on the third floor have also reported ghost disturbances and that paranormal activity would stop once work stopped.
Photos and footage inside the dilapidated building, obtained by Ny Breaking Australia, reveal why locals believe it is haunted.
The unused upper floors are littered with an assortment of abandoned items, shop shelves and boxes scattered across the dusty and creaking wooden floorboards.
The names and signatures of locals are scrawled on the walls from the 19th century.
Greg Raspin says some employees refuse to go upstairs for fear of disturbing the spirits
The Morris General Store building (pictured inside) is part of local ghost tours
The supermarket (left) is now located next to the adjacent original building (right)
The supermarket was continuously operated by the Morris family from 1860 until last year, when IGA took over.
Swansea was the first community to be established in Australia after Hobart and Sydney.
Original owner Jim Morris Sr. took over an established business and started Morris’ General Store in 1868.
Located on the town’s main street, the Morris General Store, on a registered heritage site on the Tasmanian Heritage Register.
Built in 1838, the building is considered an “important landmark” in the city and has “value to Tasmania as a relatively rare rural example of a detached commercial warehouse”, according to a heritage report recently presented to council.
Although it has been significantly expanded over the years with the construction of an adjacent supermarket, the original warehouse is still used for community purposes and is part of a local ghost tour.
Some IGA employees claim they hear footsteps coming from the third floor of the original building
Even builders and craftsmen working in the building (pictured) have reported experiencing ghost disturbances
Many of the signatures and names scrawled on the walls (photo) date from the 1880s
The city council recently approved plans for a large-scale redevelopment of the site.
The proposed project would see the adjacent supermarket demolished and replaced with a new catering complex. A second IGA would remain nearby.
The original building will undergo conservation and stabilization works.
The supermarket is not the first IGA store in Australia with ghostly connections.
In 2012, the local outlet in Brompton, South Australia made headlines around the world after in-store CCTV captured a box of fruit roll-ups flying off a shelf and landing six meters away in an aisle.
“The previous owners told me it was haunted,” owner Norm Hurst recalled at the time.
“I was like, ‘Yeah, whatever.’ But since we’ve owned the house, strange things have happened.
Greg Raspin says he hasn’t experienced a single scary encounter with the building’s ghost
Jim Morris Snr took over an established business and started Morris’ General Store in 1868.
The store was owned by the Morris family for 170 years before IGA took over ownership in 2022. The store has only had three owners during that time