A supermarket that aims to wrestle some of the control away from the big superstores by putting the power back into the hands of local shoppers and growers, is set to open in a few weeks time in London’s Camden district.
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The People’s Supermarket’ is the latest project of ethical entrepreneur and chef
Arthur Potts Dawson, who previously launched eco friendly restaurants The Acorn and Water House in London.
The £1 million project – which Potts Dawson says is being realised on a £200,000 budget from "borrowed money" – is essentially a
food co-operative, owned and run by the people who shop there and selling fairly priced food that also supports local growers. But through the venture, Potts Dawson also hopes to change the food market by offering an credible but ethical alternative to the big supermarkets.
"The People’s Supermarket is a response to British agriculture being on its knees at the hands of the big supermarkets," the entrepreneur told
GreenWise. "This is about supporting your local growers in your country and European nations by giving them a fair price for their food. This is about acting together to buy food knowledgeably and then working together to sell it at a fair price."
Fairer pricesThe first People’s Supermarket will open in Lamb’s Conduit Street, WC1, at the beginning of June. People who shop there will be able to become owners and members of the supermarket by paying a £25 annual fee plus giving up four hours of their time every month to work there. In return they will get a 20 per cent discount on everything they buy in the shop. The idea is that by not paying people to work at the supermarket, it will be able to cut down its overheads, which in turn will enable it to cut its grocery prices.
Ethically-sourced foodFood sold in the supermarket will be sourced ethically from "trusted farmers in the UK and Europe", according to Potts Dawson.
"It will be fairly priced and not over-package, but it’s not going to be labelled as organic," said Potts Dawson, who doesn’t want the store to be labelled as an over-priced wholefood shop. "This is not 'a sandals and hairy armpits’ outfit. It’s a modern supermarket with owners and members working together to lower the price at the till."
With his knowledge of setting up eco-friendly restaurants (Water House has been dubbed the UK's greenest restaurant having pioneered waste reduction systems), Potts Dawson is applying everything he knows about green refurbishments to the 45-year old site in Lamb’s Conduit Street, which is currently a building site.
"Everything in the building we are taking out we are reusing rather than
recycling. For the paint we will be using organic paint and we’ll be sourcing our electricity from [green energy supplier] Ecotricity," he said.
Potts Dawson would like to see other People’s Supermarkets springing up all over the UK, but he won’t be setting them up himself or franchising them out. "If it can be emulated, if people want to do it, then we’ll help them, but we can’t franchise it because it's a community project."
Related news:Sustainable food newsRelated links:www.peoplessupermarket.orgwww.youtube.com