Our business was spawned from an increasing frustration with supermarket shopping. Whilst we understand the needs of busy people to have quick access to a wide range of food at a reasonable cost, we have increasingly noticed that these goals have been achieved at the expense of quality.
In travelling to local farmers' markets and farm shops we have seen many good products that have been produced within a short distance of the point of sale. These products are genarally of high quality, but reasonable price.
What we have decided to do is set up a permanent retail outlet for these products, so that our customers can come 7 days a week and get a full range of quality local produce.
Well, what it means is that we will try and source our products according to the following rules:
- All products are sourced direct from the manufacturer/farmer.
This means that the product takes the shortest time to get to our shelves, and costs are reduced by cutting out the middle men, which benefits you, us and the supplier. It also means we get to know our suppliers direct, and we can understand how their products are produced.
- Products will be sourced as close to the shop as possible.
This means that the product is fresh as possible. For example, in talking to our soft fruit supplier, we can put their products on our shelves within a day. It also less damage to the environment, as the food travels less. Obviously not everything grows locally so we will use national suppliers, providing they meet our other rules. We aim for 90% of our products to be sourced within 50 miles of our shop.
There would be a temptation if we had more than one shop to combine their purchasing power and set up a central function. This we will not do. We believe that it is this process that has resulted in the muliples gaining, and using, excessive power with the producers. By ensuring each outlet is setting up its own supply arrangements our customers can be sure that they are supporting the local economy as well as buying food quality food.
We will only have products in the shop that are in season. We will not source them from overseas to provide lettuce in January. Having said that, current farming methods in the area have dramatically improved the length of the seaon. For example, last year our raspberry provider was still producing fuit in December. Imagine, fresh local raspberries for Xmas! We will freeze product to lengthen the season where we can, but we do feel that this can reduce the quality of some products, so that will be our first consideration.
Our business will supply our customers high quality local food 7 days a week:
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