Gillian Harvey explores the growing success of community shops
FOR those living in small villages or rural areas, a local convenience store is a facility many cannot manage without. However, small shops often prove unprofitable for conventional retailers, with around 200 to 300 village shops closing every year.
This is where the community shop comes in. Drawing on local support, such shops are able to operate at reduced cost due to the input of volunteers, who give their time for free to enable the enterprise to flourish.
And the sector is growing. According to the Plunkett Foundation, an organisation that supports the set-up of community co-operatives, there were 348 community shops operating across the UK at the end of 2016, creating 1,114 paid jobs and supported by over 9,000 volunteers.
One such shop is Clapham Village Store, a community-owned shop situated in the Yorkshire Dales that opened in 2015 after the local convenience store closed.
Sue Mann, aged sixtyseven and Chair of the shop’s management committee, was involved from the outset.
“When I heard the local store was to close in 2014 I was alarmed; it’s such an important service for people who can’t go shopping, and the nearest small supermarket is three miles away,” she explained.
A meeting of local residents was held, and with the help of the Plunkett Foundation the management committee was formed. In the September, fund-raising began in earnest, with over £33,000 generated through a community share offer.
Additional financial aid was obtained from the local parish council and several other charitable organisations, with enough money raised to cover start-up costs, and the shop opened its doors in March 2015.
“We took the decision to have a core of paid staff: one full-time member of staff, a weekend
supervisor and a bookkeeper,” Sue explained. “This helps to ensure continuity. But the hours given by the volunteers are invaluable – if you paid someone for the hours they work it would amount to over £25,000 and the business just wouldn’t be viable.
“I do several shifts behind the till, but there are many different roles.
“Some people bake, others sort the newspapers, bank the money, carry out DIY or deal with wholesalers. I’m just a small link in the chain that makes the shop work.”
In addition to providing an important community resource, which now includes a prescription collection service for local residents, Clapham Village Store has also set up a grant scheme, meaning that some of the profit is ploughed back into the local community.
“From the outset, we decided to keep a reserve that was sufficient to cover the running of the shop for six months,” Sue said.
“Anything over and above that goes into a community fund for other local organisations to apply to for small grants.
“We’ve just reached the stage where we’ll be able to do that this year. We’re really pleased as it helps us to feel part of a bigger community.”
The small Hertfordshire village of Sarratt began a similar initiative in 2010, when the local store was put up for sale.
A consortium of locals, alarmed that the store was set to close, raised sufficient funds through a share scheme to buy the store with a view to running it as a community shop.
“The nearest shop is four miles away.” Grainger Biggs, fifty-one, is one of the shop’s four paid employees. “So it was really important to keep the store open.”
Local residents also managed to save the post office – situated in the store – from closure after mounting a campaign, ensuring the outlet is an even more valuable resource for many.
Since becoming a community store, Sarratt Post Office Stores has adopted a more locally focused ethos.
“We try to purchase locally produced goods as best we can,” Grainger said. “And if people ask for something to be stocked in the shop, we do our best to get it in for them.”
Now serving up to 300 customers a day, the store is thriving, with any surplus money raised being ploughed back into the shop.
“We’re getting a new stock-room and office at present,” Grainger explained.
In addition to providing an essential local service, the store has become an important hub of the local community, with volunteers ranging from those in their teens to retired residents.
“Many of the volunteers say that one of the main benefits is how many people they’ve got to know in the village. I get great satisfaction from working with lots of different people from all different backgrounds.”