IN FOUR decades working at the Junee Co-Op Society, there isn't much that Ian Cooper hasn't done.
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From driving the delivery van, administration, maintenance and cleaning up to managerial roles.
But above all, after 40 years with the one business, he remains proud the society is here to serve locals.
"Any profit made by the Co-Op Society goes back to the town, either to community groups, our shareholders or through investment into the store," he said.
"The society owns the supermarket, we're a local business owned by the people of Junee and district.
"I believe every medium-sized town like Junee needs to have a business like (the Co-Op) to support the town," Mr Cooper said. The opportunity to provide employment for hundreds of Junee residents has made a real difference.
"I couldn't put a number on the amount of young people who've worked here," he said.
Mr Cooper said what many young students find is if they leave for university, getting a part-time job is relatively easy thanks to the training provided by the Co-Op.
There's been plenty of changes to the way the shop has operated over the time Mr Cooper has worked.
"We've had five or six different banners including Foodtown, Super Value, IGA and Supa IGA, but we're still the Junee District Co-Op Society," he said.
It isn't just the brand on the front of the shop which has changed however, in 1974 there were just 11 employees in the shop in Lorne Street - there's now more than 60.
"I've seen everything with the old manual systems to where we're up to now with computerised systems," he said.
In years previous Mr Cooper said every order and item on the shelves was recorded and ordered manually.
A new order would take two weeks to arrive from the date it was posted.
"Today the order is transmitted electronically at 1pm on the day before and it's here at 7am the next day," he said.
Stocktake was a complex job which would take 12 weeks to complete, now it takes just a few days.
The way the Co-Op serves customers has changed radically as well, with the first EFTPOS machine arriving in 1989 - it processed around $1000 a week in transactions.
In 2014, the store processes an average of $35,000 a day through EFTPOS.
With phone, fax, personal shoppers and online ordering Mr Cooper expects it will continue to increase.
"We're one of the few independent grocers with online shopping."
It hasn't always been easy however, with the business seeing its fair share of struggles.
"I've wondered at times if it would be able to continue, this company has battled its life away," he said.
"Moving here nine years ago is one of the reasons why we're still here."
Mr Cooper credited the support of his family for being able to dedicate time to the business.
"If something broke in the store, a light globe or a belt in a compressor, you went and changed it - it might otherwise have cost $100 (to get help) but it was $100 you saved," he said.
"These days with the Work Health and Safety regulations you'd be in trouble getting that done."