Community shops are owned and run by local people, usually with a paid manager, then volunteers each help out for a few hours each month, and receive discounted food in return, and also have power to ask what they want.
For instance, if you like a particular brand of vegan cheese or certain types of organic apples from a local farm, you part-own the shop, so you can order them in for you and others. It’s more empowering, isn’t it!
Sadly, many village stores have gone to the wall. So community shops fill that gap, and often go into being, when a village shop with a post office is closing down, and the community want to stop it. Most community shops sell food, but also plants, art and some have in-built post offices too.
Read our post on food safety for people and pets. If buying plants for homes with pets, read up on pet-friendly gardens to know plants to avoid. Never face indoor plants to gardens, to help stop birds flying into windows.
Local Ownership Makes a Difference
Community shops really are locally-owned. You usually buy shares (from £1 to around £20) then you get access to affordable good food, and take part in decisions (not from head office say like a big superstore).
You can also have a say in how profits are spent, whether they are reinvested or go to local small charities. This keeps community shops tuned in, to what local people want and need.
Volunteers are the backbone of a community shop, volunteering a few hours each in the month, from stocking shelves to manning tills to book-keeping and taking deliveries, even doing decorating and handyman jobs!
Supporting Local Producers
Community shops tend to buy local seasonal produce, so it’s a great way to support local organic farmers and artisan makers. Most sell fresh bread, jam, and produce, and profits stay in the community, rather than going off to shareholders or head office.
Galleries Community Shop (Bath)
Galleries Community Shop is a gold-standard example of how to launch a shop that is owned and run by local people, and a thriving part of the local community and economy. Launched in a new eco-friendly building, it’s located just outside the city of beautiful city of Bath in south west England.
It focuses on selling quality locally-produced food and plants from local producers and its own community garden. This shop was fortunate in that the land was donated by a local couple, then the building was created which is powered by solar energy (excess energy is sold back to the grid, generating more income).
Outside, there is a little café that is popular with local people, and also has a tap refill station where people can fill up water bottles for themselves and dogs. The shop also has cloth bags, and you can ‘borrow a brolly’ if there’s a downpour, and just return it next time you’re passing.
The shop is run by a paid member of staff, alongside volunteers who work a few hours a week, to keep the shop running. Run as a charity, profits are then re-invested into the shop, for the benefit of the community.
The village is also one of the few nationwide that also has a community-owned pub alongside. The Hop Pole Inn also runs regular events like cycle rides and comedy nights, with a glass of bubbly or pint of beer.
Located on the Somerset/Wiltshire border, the shop is popular with walkers, and is both dog-friendly and wheelchair-friendly. It also has a children’s playground nearby, along with a community defibrillator on-site, free wi-fi and a large outdoor deck to enjoy countryside views.
The shop now has over 200 customers daily, which helps to support local farms, breweries and food wholesalers, with volunteers helping to serve customers, but also stock the shelves, clean and maintain the shop, and help with deliveries.
The shop’s Reverse Credit Scheme is a bit like a modern version of ‘put it on the tab’. Customers set up an account and pay at the end of the month, meaning not only do they not have to carry cash or cards to shop, but can send older children to pick up goods as well, without worrying about having to give them physical money.
Many people now prefer not to use cash, as bank notes are made from plastic and animal fat.
The post office not only provides an essential community service, but also offers a place to pay bills, receive pension payments and exchange foreign money, if going on holiday. It also happily receives parcels for local people if they are out, to collect when they return home. There are also InPost lockers to receive and send parcels. Along with a place to pick up repeat prescriptions through a small registered pharmacy.
Sourdough loaves are from an independent bakery, plus there are locally-prepared ready-meals, locally-brewed cider and locally-roasted coffee, alongside offers vegan and gluten-free food.
Member of the Move to Minus 15°C Campaign
The shop is also instrumental in a worldwide campaign to change the temperature at which frozen food is stored and transported, to save energy (from -18c to -15c. This helps the shop to save 27% on energy bills, whilst retaining its 5-star food hygiene rating.
Move to Minus 15°C was launched at the last Paris Climate Agreement Meeting, to help reduce global warming (despite huge changes in technology, the rules for frozen food temperatures have not changed in 100 years). Morrisons and Iceland supermarkets are on board, but it appears the other big supermarkets not yet so.
Plunkett (help for community shops/Pubs)
Plunkett supports groups that want to start or save community-owned shops and pubs. Its advice, training, and tools help ordinary people turn urgent concern into a plan. Community ownership keeps money local, gives residents a say, and keeps services within walking distance. And builds social ties.
You can get free advice, then business plan support, from staff and leasing to setting prices. They can also guide you through community ownership models, such as a community benefit society or a co-operative. It also can help with raising funds from grants and creating realistic budgets for crowdfunding.
Ideas to Save Community Shops & Pubs
- Offer outdoor car parks as Sunday farmers’ markets.
- Hold acoustic concerts or film screenings, if you have a license.
- Be the drop-off place for parcels, for local people to collect.
- Make your pubs dog-friendly if possible, with fresh water bowls, outdoor space and perhaps organic dog biscuits, for four-legged visitors!
- Register at Great British Toilet Map, to let people know they can use your loos. Many older people don’t go out, if they can’t find a loo.
