The best of both worlds
The aim is to create a shop that has all the best characteristics of a traditional village shop with the best of modern retailing practice

The best of the old
- friendly and personal service
- attractive, traditional exterior
- traditional interior layout

The best of the new
- attractive range of products
- fast, efficient service
- customer-friendly opening times
- good presentation and accessibility of products
- EPOS payment, cash-back & stock control
- research of local needs
- regular product and service innovations

The heartbeat of our community
Emphasis will be placed on retaining and growing services that support and convenience local customers, particularly those most dependent on a local shop. This includes existing services such as Post Office Counters, deliveries and ad hoc assistance in a crisis. The shop will also seek to maintain its role as a community contact centre – being not only a friendly meeting place but also a place to find out about and book local events, get information and source trustworthy local suppliers.

A traditional local village shop.
Run by the community, for the local community.
Valued and trusted by all its customers
Active in bringing the community together

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Staffing and managing it
Working on behalf of the community, the Community Management Team will be in overall control of the shop business. The management team’s involvement will include hiring staff, approving all retail development work, managing the finances and agreeing medium and longer terms plans for the shop’s evolution. In forming this management team, we will draw upon the relevant expertise of local residents, including: retail design, retail buying, consumer research, marketing and communication, web and graphics design, community services, project planning, accountancy, business planning, legal and insurance.

Day to day operations will be under the control of a full-time manager. We feel confident that we will be able to attract a qualified and suitable manager due to the attractive location, enterprising development plans and staff support offered.

Many of those surveyed indicated a desire for more convenient opening hours. Particularly Saturday afternoons and Sunday mornings for a few hours. We have a strong network of local people who area willing to work in the shop as volunteers and they could help cover these extended opening hours.
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Listening to customers – the customer is king
We intend to make listening to and responding to our customers preferences, an important feature of the way the shop develops. This will be done through online surveys, mailed surveys and structured doorstep and street interviews by volunteers. We intend to build a strong ‘membership’ of customers with whom we develop a relationship that will include formal and informal feedback.
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Shop format and character
The mantra we will apply to the shop design is:
      Traditional, friendly, personal
      Simple, convenient, accommodating
      Unique, inspiring, rewarding

The shop exterior has remained largely unchanged for many decades. However the true character and charm of the shop has not shone through and now needs developing. A modest make-over, could include:
-   more distinctive and attractive exterior colour scheme and signage
-   eye-catching, regularly refreshed, traditional window displays

In a similar way we should plan to make the most of the traditional features of the interior, many of which date back more than 100 years. The traditional wall shelving should be preserved but could be given a make-over using traditional materials. The counter that is the centre piece of Daws Stores should also be retained but could be made more of a feature.
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Getting the mix right
Our strategy for developing a more attractive product offering should begin with short-term, quick-return evolutions, based on customer preferences

Our initial research showed that many customers feel they would be likely to spend more if we were able to make some basic changes to the product offering. The most popular requests included:
-   Better fresh fruit and veg
-   Better quality breads and pastries
-   More local foods and products
-   Some better quality wines, cheeses and deli products

We will conduct further research, interviews and tastings to identify the new lines or buying priorities that will give us ‘quick wins’ in sales volume and customer satisfaction.
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Developing over time
Over a longer period, we can begin to develop and test more ambitious plans for creating wider customer appeal and a stronger reputation for the shop. Again these ideas will be evolved out of our researched knowledge of the various communities that make up the current and potential customer-base of the business.
Examples of these longer term plans might be:

- Weekender boxes
We could offer an online/telephone ordering service which would offer weekenders the benefit of a convenient box of essentials delivered to their house on Friday evenings.

- Own Grown Fruit & Veg
With the potential of donated land behind the shop, we could offer vegetables grown literally a few feet from the back door of the shop and ‘picked-today’ fresh.

- Community services
The retention and active promotion of Post Office Counters services will be central to our plans, as this provides a vital line of support for dependent locals including residents of Osborne House. We will also work to add to the shops existing role as an information centre. For example: by offering the windows to local community groups from time to time we could make the shop literally a ‘shop window on the community’.
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Marketing and promotion
To date, other than occasional small ads, there has been no attempt to seriously market or promote the attractions of the Rushlake Green shop.

Our marketing approach will begin at home. We aim to build up a strong community of loyal, committed and involved local customers:
- regular communications through a shop newsletter
- special offers and promotions
- regular issues of a ‘what we stock’ catalogue of products & services

With 60% or rural households now having broadband, the use of online to promote and market a local shop has now become a realistic aim.

(In England, 60 per cent of rural households (now) have broadband, 2 per cent higher than in urban areas at 58 per cent. – OFFCOM 2008)

If this is reflected in our local catchments, it provides us with potentially 360 or more local households with whom we can stay in touch and develop a relationship. We can develop the existing campaign website (www.rushlakegreenvillageshop.co.uk) into a portal for information, news and community contact.

We should generally become much more active, and focused, in our promotion of the shop through local press, free newspapers, parish newsletters, local notice-boards and other channels.

But more than anything, we need to actively encourage every loyal customer to advocate the shop to their friends and contacts, because a personal recommendation is shown to be significantly more influential than any other form of publicity or advertising – and it’s free!
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