La Vida Local 02: The Village Shop

Yesterday I drove back home from Sheepwash in Devon after a wonderful week at Retreats for You with Deb and Bob (highly recommended if you are working on a book, writing a thesis or just need some time out to paint, read or relax).  Knowing that I would get home to empty cupboards late on Saturday evening and curious to get the full village experience, I nipped over to the Sheepwash Community Stores.

With less than 200 residents, Sheepwash is a picturesque Devonshire hamlet with one pub, three churches and one very tiny shop.  The converted front room is literally bursting with fresh and packaged produce, drinks, toiletries, stationary, household items and a post office counter.  It was rather like a miniature supermarket with two or three shelves for each department and just enough room to swing a basket. 

 

Christine is the postmistress and she and her husband are the proprietors.  To keep overheads down and ensure that the shop can remain open and affordable to villagers, the shop is also staffed by a rota of volunteers.  Christine told me that she had been running the shop for 11 years and that it is hard to make much of a profit in such a tiny shop but that people always comment on how very many products she manages to stock in such a small space.

Christine tries to stock local produce that she buys directly from local producers.  The free range eggs are from Petrockstowe, the honey from Hatherleigh and the bread from Bideford; all small towns and villages within 15 miles of Sheepwash.  Residents can also put items on a personal tab for extra convenience and settle up at the end of the week; in fact, Bob popped in for a few supplies while I was browsing.

Knowing that I had some vegetables left over from last week’s Veg Share but nothing much else, having run my cupboards down in preparation for the project, I needed a few basics to get me through the first part of the week.  My ten items came to £16.83, which is £1.25 less than it would cost to buy the same products from Waitrose Online.  When one considers the delivery costs or the petrol to drive to and from a supermarket, the Village Stores are really very competitive indeed.

It was sad then to learn that the Sheepwash Village Stores is in danger of privatisation or closure due to a lack of custom.  It seems that supermarkets have convinced the residents of small English villages that they have more to offer and lured them into their cars towards their brightly lit aisles.  I was delighted with my basket of goodies, happy to read the names of the local famers on the packaging and glad to support an important lifeline for older residents of the village who can’t necessarily get to the supermarkets.