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Food and drink update

Chapel Lane Stores, Abbotsbury, Joint winner of Best Dorset Village Shop 2019 Chapel Lane Stores, Abbotsbury, Joint winner of Best Dorset Village Shop 2019

The Dorset branch of the Campaign to Protect Rural England was very pleased to be sponsoring again the Best Village Shop competition

Dorset CPRE sponsored for the sixth year running the class ‘Best Village Shop’, in the Best Dorset Village Competition hosted by Magna Housing. The winner was announced at an awards event held on 1st October 2019. The judges declared both Chapel Lane Stores, Abbotsbury and Thorncombe Village Shop as Joint Winners.

Village shops face relentless competition from the supermarket chains and discounters, but we can say the shops, for now, seem to be holding their own, with fewer closures than in recent years.
 
One trend has been for more shops to belong to a symbol group

One clear trend has been for more shops to belong to a symbol group, such as Spar, to help their buying and provide marketing support. Another has been the higher proportion of quality local produce on sale, which we wholly applaud, although it is not always clearly marked as such, which is a pity. We should add that three years ago we also started a campaign to promote quality local food and drink producers. Overall customers seem more ready to appreciate the local convenience and provenance, and pay for it, as long as the shops are inviting, with friendly staff and enough stock. More shops are offering tea rooms which boosts footfall and generate higher margins. You will be glad to hear the war on plastic has been taken on-board faster in village shops than in the supermarkets, with more produce sold without packaging.  Another factor has been the relative success of those located in south Dorset which see more tourists, with numbers boosted by sterling‘s decline since the Brexit Referendum and the recent heat waves.

 

Campaign to promote quality local food and drink producers
In 2014 we launched a campaign to help Dorset village shops. In 2017 we started a campaign to promote quality local food and drink producers, and we held our summer Open Day at the Langham Wine Estate in 2017 with a number of food producers showing off their delicious foods to complement the award-winning sparkling wine made there.

Therefore, please spend more in your village shops, but particularly on the wonderful local produce they showcase.

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