Union Mart
Union Mart is returning for 2025 on 3rd March. Watch out for Updates.
You should never have to go without food or other necessities
Union Mart has become a staple on the Parkville campus. It provides a variety of food, drink and household products for free to all students. In 2024, the Union Mart will be expanded to combat the increasing pressure inflation places upon students. Students should always have access to the essentials, it is not a luxury; it is a necessity.
Union Mart operates upon a no-questions-asked honesty system. We ask that students take what they need as opposed to what they want. Our product range is largely determined by what we can source at the lowest prices, however, we acknowledge that the University of Melbourne is home to a diverse range of cultures and so we intend to cater to the widest range of diets possible to ensure that all members of our community have access to what they need.
What time is Union Mart open?
Union Mart will be running all 5 days of the week during the Semester at the Parkville Location.
The Parkville Location is quite popular, but just for the sake for completion: Room G30, Building 1888.
The timings for Union Mart at Parkville is 10:00 – 11:00 for the Morning session and 16:00 – 17:00 for the Evening session. However, we do have a capacity of 100 students per session, 200 per day, so if we reach the capacity before closing time, we will not be able to allow more customers to enter. To ensure that you don't end up wasting your time in the queue and realise the capacity has been reached for the day at the gate, we will have a volunteer at the queue to communicate that to you.
On Tuesdays, in addition to the Union Mart at Parkville, we will be running Union Mart at both Southbank and Burnley. The Southbank Union Mart will run from 12:00pm to 1:00pm with the same timings for Burnley.
Union Mart in 2025
Union Mart shifted to a points system in 2024. Essentially, each student can choose how they spend their points to ensure they are accessing products they need. We will continuing with same system in 2025.
How many points do I have?
Each student has an allocated 40 points per week. These points do not stack up over weeks. All items within Union Mart will be assigned a point value that is proportionate to the cost of that item when purchased by Union Mart. Students are able to take whatever they like as long as their total spend is less than or equal to 40 points and within product caps.
What about product caps?
Product caps will be put in place for some products depending upon the level of stock we have available. This goes mostly for 0-point products. This is mostly for period products. We do give out diapers and baby food for 0 points to help students, who are also parents, to tackle the Cost of Living crisis. These baby products are unlimited, no product caps for 0 points. If there is any other such instance, either Filia, the POS Team or I would tell you. These will be clearly signed around Union Mart.
The end of ticketing
Union Mart will no longer require registration in advance. We will now operate on a physical queueing system. We have a daily cap of 200 students per day, each session having a capacity of 100 students, with no student able to come more than once per week. This product cap is intended to be expanded if later budget changes occur.
The new structure of volunteering
Union Mart is proud to introduce three new distinct volunteer roles. These are General Attendants, Delivery Drivers, and Union Mart Managers. This is to ensure that all volunteers can find a task suited to their skills and experience. Further, we intend for these roles to serve as valuable experience on resumes to aid future employability.
Managerial Discretion and the Reserve Fund
Union Mart has set aside a portion of our budget to be put aside each week for the Reserve Fund. This Fund can be accessed by any student who requires extra points, needs access out of hours, needs to attend more than once per week etc. This is purely an honesty system and we ask that people only request to access the Reserve Fund if they are in genuine and urgent hardship.
Apply for the Reserve Fund here .
Check out what we have to offer in our catalogue
View Union Mart catalogue
Where is Union Mart? Union Mart has a new location!
It is now located in G30, Building 1888.
We share this space with Unimelb Food Relief, to deliver a range of food relief programs including SecondBite Frozen Meals, Fresh Food Project Boxes and more programs to come.
Find us here:
Feedback and product issues
We love to hear back from the community on ways we can improve Union Mart. This can be our service, the products we purchase etc. We would also appreciate feedback on things we are doing well. The feedback form can be found here.
Contact Us
The Welfare Department is here for all students, irrespective of their nationality, race, gender, sexual orientation, or socioeconomic status. If you are trying to deal with an issue and are not sure who to turn to, we can point you in the right direction. If you are ever unsure of anything, feel free to shoot us an email and we’ll get back to you as soon as we can, or come visit us in our offices. We are located on Level 2 of Building 168.
Email: union-mart@union.unimelb.edu.au