Mike Piercy meets

.Hallmark February 2024. Lacey Green Village Store. Report by Mike Piercy

It's been 6 months since the Lacey Green convenience store opened so | thought it was high time that we had a Hallmark article reviewing it. Most of you will remember Clive’s disco shop, this moved to Stokenchurch last winter and the place remained empty for many months. Eventually the builders turned up in early Summer and began ripping out the innards of the building to make room for a bigger shop. We watched with interest as the shop evolved, new ceilings and floors were installed and floor-to-ceiling fridges and shelves arrived.

Finally in June, lorry loads of food arrived and the shop opened for business. The new owners had decided to join the Londis franchise but the signage hadn't arrived so the forecourt looked a bit sad with just a temporary banner. Happily that has now been resolved and the proper Londis signs and window dressing have been installed so it looks fully professional.

I dropped in just after Christmas and chatted with the Manager, who likes to be known as Gumma. She runs the store with her two assistants – Harman and Priya. Her family have a long track record in retail and she was previously in a store in Uxbridge. Gumma has a strong sense of community and likes to Know her clients and chat with them – she seemed very popular when I was there! The majority of her customers are local elderly residents but she has also a good passing trade from builders and workmen who are working nearby.

I had thought that parking might be a problem, but Gumma assures me that she keeps an eye on customers and delivery lorries to ensure that they do not block the pavement for child buggies or children going to and from school.

Gumma told me that the shop is designed as a convenience store, selling top-ups to the big weekly shop that people may do at Asda or Tesco. he core items are newspapers, bread, milk, eggs etc. They seem to have one of everything and have a very extensive selection of beers and wines at very low prices. She does a few local deliveries to her elderly customers and is thinking about setting up to do daily newspaper deliveries. She is keen to listen to her customers and has a little book where the Staff write down anything they are asked to get in. The recent addition of hot food and hot drinks is in answer to customer requests.

Her plans for 2024 include reorganising the shelving and till area to increase the selling space available, enabling her to introduce more promotions.

The store is open from 7am to 10pm 365 days per year so do use it as much as possible and keep this great local resource going.