Community Shops – The way forward?

Last month the first ever community shop opened its doors to shoppers who are in need by offering stock at a discounted rate, which would have otherwise been wasted.

The initial pilot is being held in Goldthorpe, Barnsley to 500 people who are finding it difficult to cope in the current financial situation and are on the cusp of poverty. The shop offers fresh, ambient and frozen food which has minor labelling errors, miss-forecasting or a short shelf life.

Until now, the items that this community shop offers would have gone straight to landfill. Now it can be used to help those who need it most. Hopefully this can prevent people from having to choose between heating their house and feeding their family – a choice that shouldn’t need to need to be made in this day and age.

As well as offering food at a discounted rate, the shop will also offer cooking classes, CV writing skills and budgeting advice, making it much more than just a shop.

This shop is the first of its kind in the UK, following successes in Europe of similar ‘social supermarket’ models. The plan is for this model of community shops to be implemented nationally this year.

It will be interesting to see what is learnt from this initial pilot as well as where the further stores are being planned to roll out later this year.