| What is the point of a community shop? |
| To provide a focal point for the Village, while we aim to offer the range of products expected of a small shop, many sourced locally. It brings people together as the shoppers are also volunteers. The recent bad winters proved the usefulness of the village shop as many villagers could only get about on foot. |
| Why have a community shop rather than a 'normal' shop? |
| Our village had a shop but retail economics forced it to close, however a community shop is staffed by volunteers and so has much lower overheads. |
| Everything will be expensive! |
This is actually not true! Folk assume this but it is not always the case. For many items prices are comparable to local supermarkets, with a significant amount being cheaper. If one adds in the cost and inconvenience of travel shopping locally is very beneficial. With a typical car journey to a supermarket costing £2, buying locall can easily save money.
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| Is there anything that a local shop does better than a supermarket? |
| A local community run shops respond to the needs or requests from its customers, unlike their larger competitors. Solid community led initiatives like bulk oil delivery for villagers generating savings upwards of 20% per household. The last saved local villagers a total of £12400 across the households of Langham and Boxted who bought. |