We had the idea to start a community shop in 2011 after the village shop closed. Our idea was that we'd run a small community shop selling the things you run out of and the things you forget at the supermarket. We held a cake sale to fund it. The cake sale fund raiser that was used to open shop raised £477.
​We used this money to repurpose an unused beer store at the side of the village hall. Customers were able to visit and purchase items over a stable door. We really wanted to make things better for people in our community by giving them somewhere local they could go to buy essentials that they'd run out of, rather than having to go to the nearest town.
​Although we hoped to grow, and have a bigger premises. We simply wanted to help our community by providing a local service that local people would use.
​In 2012 the SITA Landfill Fund gave us a grant to allow the shop to expand from the stable door and store room set up to the shop building we have today. We also used this to provide the Post Office counter service, and this in turn allowed us to pay three members of staff.
​Some further funding from the East Cornwall Local Action Group enabled us to fit out the new shop with shelving, a chiller and freezers.
​Prince Charles paid us a visit in 2013 and from this  we were able to apply to the Countryside Fund. We were successful in this application which we used to fund our EPOS (till and and stock management system) and an extension to the shop stock room.
​Since we opened we've grown to fulfil local community demand, and some customers have recently started doing their weekly shop with us! The stock we hold has grown over time as well, and we stock what people want to buy, so you won't find any pickled snails' eggs on our shelves unless there is a demand for them. Where possible we source as much of our stock locally including fresh fish, meat, fruit and vegetables.
​It was never our intention to be the place where you'd do your weekly shop, but since opening, we've grown and stocked our shelves based on what people would buy. Some customers now use us to do their weekly shop. This wasn't a target that we'd set ourselves, but we're very happy that people in the local community can shop with us in the way they like to.
We also appeared in the Cornish Times on our 10th Birthday! You can read the story here.
Duloe community shop