The Woman travelling to every Four Square supermarket

Just as she was coming to what felt like her “midlife crisis”, a plan of action started to take place.

“I decided I did wanna travel more of New Zealand, because at the time that was the only place you could travel, but I wasn’t really in a position to do it."

“Then I started following Four Square, and when I mapped it all out, they’re all in places - like rural places - where I would have never gone otherwise.”

“It’s been around all my life, it’s really recognisable New Zealand to me and then it was their 100th birthday this year, which was really exciting.”

Since the start of the year, Jess reckons she’s visited around 80 of the supermarket chains.

According to the Four Square website, there are 230 currently across the entire country.

“I’m getting there, and I think they’re going to come fast and furious as Summer comes on.”

Jess is based in Auckland and plans her journey by trip, averaging around 10 Four Square visits each time.

Her next trip is a drive down to New Plymouth, where she estimates she’ll hit about 40 Four Squares once she finishes in Wellington.

One thing that constantly stresses her out is that while she’s taking on this mission, Four Square are always opening new stores, or sometimes in renovation.

“Murchison’s store is being brought back from rubble at the moment, and I have to wait till that’s there, and I can’t just keep going back to places, especially in the South Island.”

Even amongst the stress though, there are small wins, like Four Square promoting her at a Foodstuffs North Island conference.

“I got a Four Square tattoo for their 100^th birthday this year, and they put it up on their projector and the conference, and it’s helped me get recognised a bit more.”

After travelling to each Four Square, she outputs videos of each stage of her journey to her Instagram and TikTok pages in the following weeks.

Some of the stops on the journey so far have included parts of Canterbury like Diamond Harbour and Darfield, and parts of the upper North Island like the Coromandel and Thames.

After all the travel so far, her biggest takeaway has been what she’s found out about herself.

“I found in my life I was facing a lot of changes, kind of freaking out, giving me a lot of time to go on these road trips alone."

“It’s being okay with myself and that I don’t have to follow the template that was before.”

To conclude her epic journey across Aotearoa, she wants to finish off with a bucket list location for her and her friends, Stewart Island.

You can follow her journey @4squarejess on Instagram and TikTok.