Churchtown Stores | Support Our Independents

15/02/2023

By Lee Nottle

In January, we travelled down to the beautiful village of St. Agnes in Cornwall and spoke with Marie at Churchtown Stores. Marie has been growing organic fruit and vegetables for over 30 years and supplying Churchtown Stores with fresh locally grown and seasonal produce. At the end of 2022, Marie agreed to take over Churchtown Stores. We sat down and spoke about how this came about, the importance of the local community to the business and how things are done dreckly in Cornwall.

2023 is a big year for you! You are the new owners of Churchtown stores in St. Agnes. Talk to us about how that came about…

We knew the lady who was retiring, and she offered it to us, and, at first, we said no. We just didn't want to know (laughs). Then a couple of months after that, she came to us again saying, look, you know, people really want to buy it and turn it into a coffee shop. There are already too many coffee shops here, so we thought about it again and thought, why not? We should give it a go as long as the two main workers who literally run the store stay here and they want to keep going with it... So, yeah, we thought, wow, we'll do it because we do already supply the shop with the produce that we grow. We've been growers for over 30 years! I know everything's a bit iffy at the moment, but the shop seems to have such a good following and hopefully it'll go well.

This building has a lot of history and from what I can see the shop dates back to the 1800’s. How important is the history of the shop to you?

It's really important to try to keep it as it is. The frontage, and all that, is really, you know, like how it used to be. You don't want to modernise anything; you just want to keep going. I think the fact that it's got a really good history and a feel to the building makes a big difference.

Yeah. It's really beautiful…

You know, that's it. We're really pleased that it is and it looks the way it does.

Cornwall is a beautiful place that is bursting with rich culture and heritage. How does your location shape the identity of your business?

I think it's really important because St. Agnes itself is a very lovely community of people. It’s just a wonderful place to be because of the community. We also have a lot of holiday people that visit, which is nice, as long as they realise that everything here is a bit slower. Everything is dreckly (laughs). You know, there's no rush, which takes a bit of getting used to. The fact that it's in a nice little square and it's got other shops, the butchers and bakery are all close by, so it really kind of is in the middle of the village, which is really important.

It’s so good to see so many small businesses here…

Yeah, the independents are all still going strong here.

In Bristol, where Essential is based, there are so many chains, so it’s really lovely to come to somewhere like this and see so many thriving small businesses…

Yeah. It's kind of like stepping back in time, but in a good way. I think let's just do things gently. You know what I mean? If you want huge profits then you don't do things like this, but as long as you've got enough to keep local people employed, that's really important.

Yeah, well, I guess it's more than just a business as well, isn't it? It's a community thing.

Definitely. Yeah. I mean, it is like all of us here work together as a really good team. The fact that we grow organic veg and we can supply the shop as well, then that works well with us. Kind of seems like a logical thing to do.

It's really fantastic that you are a grower and, I was saying this to you earlier, that you know the history of that veg. You know when it was planted and when it was harvested. You know everything like that. It must be wonderful to sell things that you have grown...

Yeah, and the customer knows who we are, what we've done, and also the fact that I don't think gets any fresher. It’s harvested late in the morning and it's in the shop an hour later. Which is really nice! There are also other groceries around which are really nice groceries and if they've got surplus they'll bring it into the shop. Which is really good!

You have taken over Churchtown Stores at an interesting time, does this change your approach to running the shop?

No, the thing is, we bought it and it runs really well. So, why change something that works well? You know, we're not coming in with great ideas. The only thing we have done is increase the organic range of products slightly because we're passionate about that. But we're not going to change the whole shop to organic because some people just can't afford it. Which is fair enough.  We're going to bring in organic seeds from Tamar Organics because there's a lot of people with allotments around. So, instead of having to get in the car and drive miles to go to a garden centre, then hopefully they'll pop in and get their seeds for growing and things. So, we're not changing much at all. We might paint the walls in here… that's all (laughs).

We’ve touched upon this slightly, but St. Agnes seems, to me, like a very welcoming community. Although you only took over Churchtown Stores last month, what can you tell us about your customers so far?

From what we've learned and seen so far? Kim's got such a good relationship with the customers. The very elderly, young families, there's a real good mixture. It's like everybody knows if everybody needs a hand. Which is really, really nice. Yeah, so there is a very positive vibe in the whole village.

Kim was saying that she has been working here for 19 or 20 years…

She has been, yeah!

She must know people very well!

Yeah, she does. If you need to know anything, then Kim knows (laughs), you know, but she's so helpful with people. That's really nice!

It surely is an exciting time for you... What does the year ahead have in store for Churchtown Stores?

Probably a few sleepless nights (laughs). The biggest thing with us is doing all the computer-based things and getting involved with everything else. I think we just have to move forward gently. If anybody needs anything that we haven't got in the shop, then Kim will order it for them. So that's really good. Um, but no huge changes. Just going slowly. You know there's no rush. Life is too short to rush.

Just do it dreckly…

Yeah, exactly, just do it dreckly. Make sure that’s in the interview (laughs). You might have to put an explanation in there for people that may not know what it means. It means within five minutes or five years (laughs).

I was so surprised when I moved up to Bristol and barely anyone knew what that meant. I've been saying this my entire life. There are so many words and phrases that I didn't realise were exclusive to Cornwall. People were looking at me like I was speaking another language sometimes… (laughs)

I mean, we've got another little business, a converted horse box lorry for glamping. We've been doing it for 15 years. It's totally off-grid. There are no place names, there's absolutely nothing around but the woodland. You use these phrases to people, most of them are from London or Manchester, and they just haven't got a clue. Then you have to explain what it means (laughs). 

 

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Our next feature will be on Just1Swap, the largest zero-waste shop in Bournemouth.