BOYCOTT YOUR LOCAL CO-OP: Co-Op to put single mums out of business

[MrsCuckoo]

I live in Cuckfield, a small Sussex village which is currently in turmoil.

The Co-Op, who already have a shop at one end of Cuckfield, intend to open a new, much bigger branch at the opposite end on a site which until this summer was a 200 year-old pub, The Ship.

What has really upset us locals is that the pub sits immediately next to a small village shop and sub post office, Wealdon Stores, which is run by a pair of hard-working single mums who live above the shop with their children. They make a modest living by working hard and supporting their families.

They sell all the usual, newspapers, basic groceries, a smattering of stationery and they do their best to stock local produce and their shop is always full of local chatter and gossip. Totally unlike the homogenised, sanitised CO-OP, which churns out nothing remotely locally produced or thoughtfully sourced.

The new shop being planned by the self-styled "ethical" CO-OP (as their new ad campaign goes to great lengths to emphasize), will put the shop and these ladies (Dawn and Janine), out of business within months, so that, along with their business, they also risk losing their home.

We have had no response from the CO-OP on the matter of what would happen to them, presumably because they couldn't give a damn about destroying their little shop and pulling the plug on their livelihood.
CO-OP representatives even had the gall to describe Wealden Stores as a health store in their application meeting with the parish council, thereby suggesting that there would be no conflict in business.
It would appear that there are no depths which CO-OP representatives will not plunder in order to get their new shop opened.
What complete nonsense and sheer hypocrisy.

The time has come for DIRECT ACTION.

    <strong>*</strong><strong>*</strong><strong>*BOYCOTT YOUR LOCAL CO-OP</strong><strong>*</strong><strong>*</strong>

Here's a video made by local celeb Christian Stephenson, aka DJ-BBQ, (from Jamie Oliver's programme), which explains the situation very succinctly:

If you have the time, please sign our petition:

www.change.org/p/mid-sussex-district-council-issue-an-immediate-article-4-direction-on-the-ship-inn-cuckfield

Please support us, sign and BOYCOTT YOUR LOCAL CO-OP in protest.

If you have the time, contact Steve Murrells of the Co-Op and register your feelings:

[email protected]

I'm sure he'd love to hear from you. He hasn't had the manners to reply to me, perhaps a slew of e-mails from other Mumsnetters will inspire him to be more courteous.

Have you heard about Tesco, OP
There was a programme on radio 4 the other night where they aren't just unethical in their practice but under investigation for fraud.
A little thing like this is not so bad when you look at the sacale of what the larger supermarkets are doing.

Having said that it is a shame that little businesses struggle against the larger ones, but that's life unfortunately.
Until we all go back to using the smaller shops on the high street it won't change.

If you lived down here you'd be less inclined to use the CO-OP once you saw their prices.
Their fresh produce is consistently between 10 and 20% higher than the main supermarkets.

In reply to shatners bassoon, there was no planning application. There is an existing Co-op in the centre of the village with ample car parking and a large empty shop premises opposite that it can rent if it wishes to expand - i.e. there was no need to move out to the edge of the village where there is practically no parking, and in the process wreck an otherwise healthy business providing the immediate needs of the neighbourhood. The Co-op, being a national organisation with large overheads to meet, cannot hope to meet these purely local needs profitably, and because of the inadequacy of parking will fail to get adequate 'passing traffic' business.

I like the co op to pop into. I'd also actively avoid the 'small shop full of gossip'. Sounds bloody awful. In fact thanks - you've reminded me to pop in tomorrow for some of the lovely 'balance' wine they sell. It's lush.

Indeed, the Tesco fiasco should have served to widen the gulf between them and the pure-as-driven-snow even wider.
Unfortunately, it appears that the CO-OP, of whom I have long been a staunch supporter, have no moral code whatsoever when it comes to adhering to the wishes and needs of the local community.
Bottom line: CO-OP is a business wolf in Fair Trade clothing.

I understand Mrs Cuckoo. I live in a small village with a community run village shop cum Post Office. It is the life blood for many older folk who struggle to get into the nearest town. It's not the cheapest place, and it too is full of gossip. It's the only reason I volunteer there!

I don't think you'll stop the process happening, but if enough locals feel the same way as you, then vote with your feet. It's the only way.

However, if the co op don't succeed in the space, someone else will move into the premises anyway.

I wish you luck. It's the sad price of "progress".

How would boycotting my local co-op help?
I like co-op much more than other shops including the corner shop which is just grubby with no fresh produce.

Would you like to see my DS out of a job, Mrs Cuckoo?

I grew up in a big, anonymous city.
It's lovely now to live in a place where people are happy to bother to stop and say "hello" or "how are you today?".
I feel sorry for you. I seldom feel the need for "lush" wine these days.

dmort if what you say is correct the surely the new Co-op Shop will fail as the locals won't use it and there is not enough passing trade, or adequate parking facilities to support it?

I still fail to see how someone 100's of miles from Cuckfield not shopping at a local Co-op will have any impact on this, and demanding people who post on MN do so is not going to do the campaign any favours.

I don't think it's me that needs to boycott coop. It's your village. I don't even have a coop to boycott

I'm sorry if you feel the co-op are making a bad decision in your local area. In my sort of somewhere between a village and town they have 2 stores - a small one in th middle of an estate and a larger one in the middle of the village. The large one has amazing concessions - the kind of butcher every village dreams of, an artisan bakery and a stand for locally produced veg. The smaller one is more limited but the prices for own brand goods are the same - certainly I've never seen that anywhere else, that a smaller footprint shop has the same prices as a busier one.

Most people still shop in the nearest Tesco.

So I'm not going to boycott a store that provides a great service to my part of the world. Sorry.

Surely the way to go about this is for the locals to boycott the Co-Op when it opens and make sure the current shop doesn't go out of business?

I have sympathy but live in a village with only a Post Office and a Co-Op, so will not be boycotting the Co-Op.

We are trying to raise awareness about what is going on.

I was in the shop yesterday and one of the ladies was close to tears.
She is on the verge of a nervous breakdown due to the stress and uncertainty about her future.

This is not about some quaint, Dickensian scene.

This is about the lives of two, very real people who, through no fault of their own, are about to lose everything they have very hard worked for.

They have families to support and is not a whimsical matter to be derided so carelessly by others who have no sense of empathy.

What the CO-OP is doing is deeply unethical and morally bankrupt and goes against the policy of their founders' principles, which, until recently, I genuinely believed and respected.

'I feel sorry for you, I self one feel the need for lush wine nowadays'
You really don't see it, do you. I'm guessing that attitude, along with the other gossiping morons in the tatty shop will be exactly why normal people will be glad to see the new co op open.
Good luck to the co op, it sounds like they're doing a great public service there.

No, what the Coop are doing is opening a shop. The ridiculous hyperbole of your posts makes you sound very naive.

Deeply unethical to open a new shop?
It's very sad for these ladies but surely a risk of running a local shop?

This is going to sound very snippy. But where in their founders' principles does it say 'we won't expand our shops?' I mean, I get that it is very distressing to two people. But most villages and towns have a co-op and I guess that wasn't the case 200 years ago? They must have opened hundreds of shops and put hundreds of people out of business. Conversely they must have opened hundreds of shops and made lives easier for hundreds of communities.

Why be so unpleasant and nasty?
Have you visited the shop? It is neither shabby nor is it used by morons.

The point is that the village already has a CO-OP which does the job very well and serves the local community brilliantly. Relocation will leave those at the other end of the village without a convenient shop.
The CO-OP Movement was established to serve the local community, which this move will not.
It will only serve passing trade and the CO-OP's coffers.

A response to your snippy, holier than thou attitude. And not nasty at all. Gossipy places and people are awful.

Of course it will serve the community. If the current shop does it'll give people a (highly probably) much needed choice.
Op, you do realise you're not the best advertisement, don't you? Or do you work for the Co Op?

I think I'm neither unpleasant or nasty if that post was aimed at me.

I think you are being a tad hyperbolic and naive though, if we're doing personal attacks.

Surely this is a campaign for local people not something you can expect most mumsnetters to get involved in?

I live in a small city and the co op is one of our most ethical retailers as well as a large employer in an area where there is generally very low employment. I do feel for the hard working women you are fighting for and understand why they would feel unfairly treated but that doesn't detract from the fact that the co op employ thousands of people across the country and you can't expect people to support you by putting their jobs at risk!

Perhaps if we all had the opportunity to shop in small local ethical shops it would be different. But we don't.