Friday 10 January 2014

Local champion my arse................

I volunteer for a few hours a week in our community shop here in the village.  yesterday, I learned that the bakery in the next village but one, a distance of maybe 2.....3 miles will no longer bring bread supplies to our village shop as it couldn't always meet the minimum order value. This bakery has been in business for 100 + years, and I should think that the good people of this village have gone some way to keeping it so over the decades. I was told it is not financially viable to continue small deliveries like ours. I feel this is a real slap I the face to both the extremely hard working manager (who has lived in the environs all of her life) and the village in general. I have told them not to expect me to champion any aspect of their 'local' supplier/business, and that unless this decision is reversed I will not buy any of their goods, or recommend their  company to others. They can still find the time and make the effort to go as far afield as Wimborne, Blandford, Sherborne and Canford Cliffs, but cannot go the 2/3 miles up the road?  I feel very strongly about this one, if it wasn't for the smaller orders and local people, this business would not be where it is today, am fairly certain of that. They seem to be concentrating now on building up their more 'artisan' bread boxes and selling courses (don't start me on 'courses'!!). Bite the hand that feeds you, why not? PPhhhhtttt. Glad I bake my own a lot of the time.


http://www.oxfordsbakery.co.uk/
 

9 comments:

Blue Shed Thinking said...

Would they refuse to serve someone in their shop if they only bought a couple of rolls?

Time to turn the shed into a bakery...

gz said...

hear, hear !
Just been to the post Xmas Volunteers evening in our community shop

Dartford Warbler said...

Is it worth contacting your local paper? A bit of adverse publicity might shame the bakery into supplying your community shop again.

I`m not surprised that people in your village feel let down!

MrsL said...

Thanks all :) A fiend of mine came up with a great idea - offer to show folk in the village how to bake easy bread for themselves, using local flour. Been pondering on it. I'd hire the village hall (approved kitchen and all that), demonstrate a simple loaf, give out recipe sheets and samples, ideas, suggestions and cups of tea, all for nothing. Get the local paper along to explain how and why. What do you think?

MrsL said...

That should ofcourse read friend, not fiend lol

MrsL said...

Not that there are folk who don't know how to do it, am sure, just a bit of a re-awakening I think

mrsnesbitt said...

We had a coalman like that! Needless to say we don't use him anymore.

Ian and Luis said...

It seems very shot-sighted to me. Shame on them for not supporting their local communities.

Ian and Luis said...

The course/demonstration idea is a great one. I am sure more people would bake their own given a bit of encouragement.