Smart self-service pantries · Melbourne's north
The pantry your building forgot to include.
The Common Larder is a smart, cashless pantry for lobbies and common rooms: quality snacks, drinks and household essentials, open every hour the shops aren't. Tap a card, the door opens, take what you need. Installed, stocked and insured entirely at our expense.
Always open · Always provisioned
- The 10pm snack sorted
- The 3pm slump sorted
- Post-session protein sorted
- Laundry pods sorted
- The forgotten cable sorted
Downstairs, in your slippers.
No. 01The amenity
Three seconds between you and what you came down for.
A smart machine, dressed like it belongs in a good lobby. No coins, no buttons jammed with someone else's bad luck, no row of crisps hanging by a thread.
Any card or phone
Hold your card or phone to the reader. The door unlocks. Completely cashless, no app to download, no account to create.
Browse like a fridge
Pick things up, read the label, put them back. Smart AI cameras and weight sensors know exactly what leaves the shelf.
Close the door, done
You're charged only for what you take. A receipt arrives if you want one. That's the whole transaction.
No. 02Where it fits
One larder. Five kinds of downstairs.
The machine is the same everywhere: beautiful, cashless, watched around the clock. What changes is the shelf, which is ranged to the people walking past it.
Apartment buildings
Owners corporations · Building managers
The original. The snack run in slippers, the late supper when the kitchen loses, laundry pods before the weekend. The amenity agents mention in listings.
Gyms & fitness studios
Owners & studio managers
Protein within reach of the squat rack: recovery drinks, electrolytes and bars that aren't chalk, stocked beside reception. Revenue from floorspace you already own.
Student accommodation
PBSA operators · Colleges
Study fuel at 2am, sorted. Pantry meals, energy without the sugar crash, and household basics between paydays. Fewer midnight walks off site.
Retirement villages
Village operators & managers
The corner shop, brought into the common room. Familiar essentials at fair prices, no trip out in the weather. Independence, downstairs.
Workplaces & depots
Offices · Coworking · Crew rooms
Quality food and drinks inside the building, so breaks fit inside breaks. See the productivity case below.
Somewhere else?
Tell us about your foyer
If people pass through it hungry, thirsty or missing something, it probably suits a larder. It starts with a ten-minute walk-through.
No. 03The range
Stocked like a good pantry, not a servo fridge.
The selection is curated by a hospitality professional with fifteen years of menus behind him, and tuned to each site: what its residents, members, students or staff actually want, at the hours nothing else is open.
The good stuff
Small luxuries, properly chosen
- Proper chocolate pantry
- Specialty drinks chilled
- No sugar energy chilled
Protein & recovery
For the session just finished
- Ready-to-drink protein chilled
- Bars that aren't chalk pantry
- Electrolytes chilled
The late supper
For the nights the kitchen loses
- Pantry meals worth eating pantry
- Noodles, elevated pantry
- Better snacks pantry
Forgot it again
The household rescues
- Laundry pods pantry
- Personal care pantry
- Chargers and cables pantry
Every larder opens with the long-life shelf done properly, ranged to its people: protein by the weights floor, study fuel by the library, the familiar brands by the bowls club. Tell us what's missing and it appears on the shelf — and as each larder learns its building, the range grows with it. That's the point of a larder run by a human who answers the phone.
No. 04For buildings & operators
An amenity at zero cost, zero admin, zero risk.
The Common Larder is installed and operated entirely at our expense. We supply the machine, the stock, the cleaning, the maintenance and the insurance. Your site provides a power point and a square metre of floor, and in return gains the kind of amenity that residents mention to their friends, staff mention in the crib room, and agents mention in their listings.
The machine is monitored remotely around the clock. Stock levels, temperatures and sales are watched in real time, so shelves are refilled before they empty and any fault is known before anyone has to report it.
We work comfortably with owners corporations, building managers, workplace and facility managers, gym owners, accommodation providers and village operators, and arrive with a one page proposal and a straightforward licence agreement designed to be approved in a single sitting.
- I.No cost, everInstallation, stocking, servicing and power contribution are all covered by us.
- II.Fully insuredPublic liability cover held by The Common Larder, certificate of currency supplied with every proposal.
- III.Kept beautifulCleaned and merchandised to hospitality standard. If it wouldn't pass in a fine dining room, it doesn't pass in your lobby.
- IV.Local and accountableOwned and operated in Melbourne's north. Anything that needs attention is sorted the same day, by the person who answers the phone.
No. 05For workplaces & depots
Every lunch run is a work vehicle doing a milk run.
When there's nothing worth eating on site, people leave to find it. At a workplace, that looks like this: the ute pulls off the job at noon, joins the queue at the drive-through, idles back at half past. Multiply by a crew, by twice a day, by two hundred and forty working days — the dearest sandwich in Melbourne is the one someone drove to get.
A larder collapses that whole excursion into thirty seconds in the crib room. The vehicle stays on the job. The break fits inside the break. The apprentice isn't third in line at a servo holding the keys to forty thousand dollars of company equipment; he's back at the bench with something decent and change from a tenner.
Time is the one thing nobody restocks. We give it back by the shelf-full.
The lunchtime ledger
- The ute stays on the job
- Half an hour, twice daily returned
- Fuel & wear, five days spared
- The "back in 20" sign retired
- The afternoon slump catered
Minutes in, productivity out.
No. 06Who's behind it
Run by a hospitality lifer, not a logistics company.
The Common Larder is owned and run by Gavin Chan, who spent fifteen years running restaurants, bars and venues around Melbourne, from fine dining rooms to 250 cover weekend services, before bringing those standards to a lobby near you.
He lives in one of the buildings he serves, which is the whole idea: the larder exists because he wanted one downstairs.
Terribly good taste, genuinely hospitable.
No. 07Questions, answered
The things every committee asks.
What does it cost the building or business?
Nothing, ever. We cover installation, stocking, cleaning, maintenance, insurance and a contribution to power. Your site provides a power point and roughly one square metre of floor. The people who use it simply pay for what they take.
How is this different from a vending machine?
No coils, no coins, nothing hanging by a thread. Tap any bank card or phone, the glass door unlocks, and you browse like it's your own fridge — pick things up, read the labels, put them back. AI cameras and weight sensors record what leaves the shelf, and you're charged only for what you take.
How does it keep staff on site at lunchtime?
When there's nothing worth eating on site, staff drive to find it — often in a company vehicle, often twice a day. A stocked larder puts quality food, drinks and snacks inside the building: the vehicle stays on the job, the break fits inside the break, and nobody queues at a service station holding the company keys.
What's on the shelf?
Each larder opens with the long-life shelf done properly: better snacks, proper chocolate, specialty drinks, no-sugar energy, protein and recovery, heat-and-eat pantry meals, and the household rescues — laundry pods, personal care, chargers. Every larder is ranged to its site, requests appear on the shelf, and the range grows as the larder learns its people.
Which sites suit a larder?
Apartment buildings; gyms and studios; student accommodation; retirement villages; workplaces, offices, depots and coworking spaces — anywhere in Melbourne's north where people pass through hungry, thirsty or missing something. It starts with a ten-minute walk of your ground floor.
Who do we call when something needs attention?
Gavin — the owner, not a call centre. The machine is monitored around the clock for stock, temperature and faults, and anything that needs attention is sorted the same day. Public liability insurance is held by The Common Larder, with a certificate of currency in every proposal.
How long does approval and installation take?
We arrive with a one-page proposal and a licence agreement designed to be approved in a single committee sitting or management meeting. Installation takes a morning: a standard power point and about a square metre of floor is all the machine asks of you.
No. 08Enquire
Bring the larder to your site.
Building managers, owners corporations, workplace and facility managers, gym owners, accommodation providers, village operators — and anyone who'd love one downstairs: it starts with a ten minute walk of your ground floor.
gavin@thecommonlarder.com.au