Peanuts Liquidators The Forgotten Tasmanian Discount Retailer

If you ask a Tasmanian born in the 90’s or later about Tasmanian discount retailers they will likely remember Chickenfeed Bargain Stores the retail chain that closed all of it’s locations in 2013. But people born in the 80’s or earlier and that lived in southern Tasmania may also remember the discount retailer that started before Chickenfeed and laid the ground work of what Chickenfeed became. That retailer was called Peanuts Liquidators and other then peoples memories there is very little information about them online this post will try to change that.

In March 2022 an old Peanuts Liquidators commercial was upload to Youtube by the channel Tassie TV this is the first time I had seen one of their commercials since I was a child. A reddit thread on the /Hobart subreddit linking the commercial provided some more information about the retailer as other users shred their memories. Here is was we know.

• The retail chain was owned by Purity supermarkets (now called Woolworths).
• They had a monkey puppet for their mascot which presented the tv commercials.
• They had locations at Moonah. Claremont, Eastlands, Huonville and Centrepoint and maybe more.
• They closed all locations in the early 90’s and excess stock was sold in Purity supermarkets.
• The Moonah store had a picture of the monkey painted on a lane way near the Moonah store that had him saying “Bargains this way” after closing they left the picture and changed the message to “shops this way” until it was panted over in the early 2000’s.
• After closing the monkey puppet went to the Richmond Toy Museum which closed in the mid 90’s the current whereabouts of the monkey is unknown.

The opening and rapid rise of Chickenfeed drove Peanuts out of business. The chain has a lot of great memories for me visiting the Moonah store in the early 90’s I also loved seeing the ads on tv hopefully more information about the chain will be found soon.