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A Newsagent
An Off licence
A Post office
A Beauty salon
A Hairdresser
A Butcher
Now - the Butcher is retiring soon after 30 years and their plan was to sell out to a guy that would turn the shop into a takeaway restaurant. It seems, though, that this is facing planning problems and may not happen.
The village would hate to see the shop empty for years, but it is unlikely to be a butchers again in the modern world.
What kind of shop might survive in this environment, that woudl benefit the village? What sort of things could it do to add value to the community?
You could also be about to lose the Post Office as a cull is imminent, and it is also probably true that the newsagent and possibly the post office cover what the convenience store would sell. If they don't then I would hope you get either a Tesco Metro or a small Co-op. We have a Tesco in our village and a Co-op in the next and both carry a large range and are open from early til late.
In our small village we have a lot more shops but then we are cursed by being near the sea and on a tourist route. We have several hairdressers, several takeaways, a convenience store a post office etc., but we also have a chemist (pharmacy), a bakers, a bicycle shop, a hardware store, a computer retailer and a pet food store. All of these are incredibly useful when the nearest big town is a few miles away.
Statistically it is more likely that it will become an estate agent.
pubsYes - two of them. Also a doctor surgery which also dispenses, so a pharmacy might also be devisive in the village.
What's the economic base of the area and it's residents?Pretty high. Not Chelsea or downtown Manhatten or anything, but almost exclusively families who commute to London daily, with either two well paid incomes or one income which supports enough for the other to look after kids. Put it another way - if we can find a decent idea, I'd probably be able to find enough people in the village to put together enough backing to finance buying the building even though it is probably not the easiest way to make money in the world.
A nice bakeryMaybe... or patisserie or something. It might have more chance than a butchers I guess, but would compete against the Post Office (sorry - forgot to say, the Post office also sells convenience basics. Fair to say though, she might be happy to take the post office redundancy cheque... so another potentially empty shop!)
CafeThis would have support, but would probably fall foul of the same planning problems that a takeaway would have.
Any more ideas ar VERY welcome...?
[edited by: Receptional at 7:16 pm (utc) on May 18, 2007]
Seriously though, a coffee shop/cafe with outside seating (assuming you have the weather for it) where the locals can sit and chat would be good. Granted, the pubs already take care of most of all that, but would the locals be interested in a non-pub atmosphere?
It's quite affluent
[edited by: JudgeJeffries at 9:28 pm (utc) on May 18, 2007]
... almost exclusively families who commute to London daily, with either two well paid incomes or one income which supports enough for the other to look after kids....
We call those "bedroom communites" this side of the pond.
Day care center?
I don't mean the standard run-of-the-mill type - but a quality outfit selling organic and free-range meats, and organic and locally produced vegetables.
Alongside that, the store should run the food-box model as that works very well in more affulent villages. It's a model in which a subscription provides a box of good quality food each week (or more frequently) which provides the bulk of the ingredients required for home cooking. Good services are ready washed, come with matching simple recipe suggestions and make a feature out of locally produced fresh produce.
This fits well with a combined butcher and greengrocer as the stock is already available on the premesis (i.e. few items will need to be specifically sourced) and it matches an area with a high number of communters as it saves a lot of time for those who are time poor and money rich.
I work all over teh country and was recently working Oulton in Northamptonshire small village with its idiot.
However on the corner of the main square was a coffee shop bit Starbucks in flavour, now when I was bored at work id drive up and hide for an hour two within.
The surprising thing it was always busy.
At times youd be hard pressed for a table.
The area has a high level of social housing(lowish income) and posher areas along with the famous school, I saw all types of people coming in.
They seemed to employ several teenagers from the school which brought in trade as friends would pop in, mothers would stop in there and chat after the school run.
Ive a spate of Cannabis grow rooms and brothels springing up on the estates I manage, so maybe.....
last minute gifts, greetings cards, car wax/polish/cloths (really gets those sunday afternoon car washers!), weed killers, gardening tools, ice cream, BBQ coals, Snow shovels, pet food, batteries, sweets, soft drinks, lamps, seeds, bulbs - it's kind of aladdins cave really, but to me really well thought out for a village as it has those things that commuting families might just decide they need at the last minute and don't want to commute to town for
The only thing it doesn't have that I would perhaps add to it would be Internet/Fax/Copier facilities, coffee machine
but you need a little shop that sells simple household things that everybody needs all the time - lightbulbs, nails, screws, vacuum cleaner bags, fuses, plugs, bin bags and door locks. the kind of place that resoles your shoes and does key-cutting too.
either that or a strip joint.
They survive on just a few sales a month and the boom at Xmas. People in town buy their speical day gifts there. They only work if the product is truely one of a kind.
Another idea may be a candy store. Quaint but not subject to the same laws as food preperation shops (resturants, takeaways, cafes) would be.
