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This entry is a Finalist in the “Corporate Responsibility” category on Thursday 23 June 2011
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Tara Mulqueen Duty Manager/Member The People’s Supermarket |
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| The People’s Supermarket |
| The People’s Supermarket is a commercially viable, social enterprise that aims to achieve its growth and profitability targets whilst operating within values based on community development and environmental sustainability. We offer an alternative food buying network by connecting an urban community with the local farming community. The Supermarket is a consumer and community cooperative: ownership is shared by our 1000+ members who also volunteer in the store every month, keeping our overhead costs down and thus enabling our affordable prices, and turning our supermarket into a vibrant community space. We have just successfully completed our first year of operation. |
| Impact | Innovation | |
| The motivation for the venture was to bring independently produced food and a more sustainable, communitarian form of food shopping to people living and working in cities in the UK. Customers are able to buy all the usual products that you would find in a convenience supermarket, including fresh bread from a local bakery and flowers from our in-house florist – but with a guarantee of local sourcing, freshness and affordability they would be hard pressed to find elsewhere. More than just a supermarket, we also partner with numerous social service organizations and provide opportunities for youth and the unemployed. | Supermarkets are generally top-down, enterprises where customers only engage at the point of purchase. Our cooperative model enables members to participate directly in this process through the 4 hour/month work component. This also enables us to develop a sense of community among members and have engaged democratic participation in the running of the business. In addition, traditional supermarkets are exceedingly wasteful, throwing away tons of good food every day. The People s Kitchen saves hundreds of kilos of produce we cannot sell and turns it into affordable, ready-made gourmet meals, reducing our waste to almost nothing. | |
| Insight | Inspiration | |
| There have been many moments when our project has seemed on the brink of falling apart – most often for financial reasons, but also simply because we are trying to run a supermarket in a new way. We have received no support from high street banking and the only public funding we have received has been from Camden Council. We have proceeded with a head-first approach and at times, while this attitude has benefitted us, it has also been a hindrance. In hindsight, we might have taken the project in stages and in general are now more focused on planning. | We use the standard business model of a convenience supermarket and twist it, to construct a social enterprise that is commercially sustainable to enable it to be socially and environmentally sustainable. Our project was initially met with much scepticism – however, our experience has taught us that nothing stands to convince a sceptic better than showing them how it works. From day one, we have been astonished at how complete strangers can turn up and without a second guess, start working alongside us. When people see our supermarket, something really captures them – we continue to thrive on this basis. |
| Tara Mulqueen |
 The Supermarket set out to use the standard business model of a convenience supermarket and twist it, to construct a social enterprise that is commercially sustainable to enable it to be socially and environmentally sustainable. It s the start of something significant: a movement that enables people to help create a credible alternative to the dominant commercial structures involved with our food production, manufacture and supply.The Peoples Supermarket recently won the Observer Ethical Award for Local Retailer and theUK Smart Urban Minds Award. |
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