People usually don’t stumble into retailing; they either inherit it, or they take it up as a plan. Hardly anyone takes it as a life mission to intentionally create a sustainable community, ending up setting a new benchmark of what a convenience store can be.
Retailer Christine Hope is someone of just such rare stature and her brainchild, Hopes of Longtown, is more than just a convenience store. With food, drinks, and grocery items ranging from mainstream brands to local artisan as well as organic products, from Post Office to dry cleaning and even shoe repair, from organising e-waste collection drives to sponsoring the local church newsletter, Hopes of Longtown is the lifeline of Longtown village.
Speaking to Asian Trader, Christine shared her journey, her thought process and most importantly her noble spirit that drives her to keep setting new definition of convenience retail.
“I was feeling really rebellious when I decided to save this village store and reopen it back in 2001,” Christine tells Asian Trader. “I wanted to show people that healthy and low-carbon footprint food is not necessarily pricier.”
Christine began in rented premises, before rebuilding the shop in 2003. In between, for six months, she traded from a portacabin to keep the business running.
“This building is now 20 years old,” she recalls, “but the funny thing is, there has always been a village shop at the premises for 100 years.”
Her arrival in retail was not an obvious career choice, although neither a thoughtless one.
“During my studies on rural estate management, I realised how important community cohesion is for a sustainable society.
“So when the opportunity came to reopen the village shop, I took it upfront, partly because I didn't have a job at the time since I had been out seeing the world and secondly because I wanted to create a model store that is truly local and embedded in the community.”
Two decades later, that spirit of rebellion still defines Hopes of Longtown, an outpost that has survived shifting demographics, online retail, rising costs and a pandemic, all while staying fiercely independent and truly local.
Today, on its shelves, alongside mainstream brands, sit organic options and hyper-local products, from ice cream made just ten miles away to artisan treats produced locally.
The shop is focused on promoting local products, and by local, as Christine stresses, she means products made “within 30 miles of the shop”.
“I realised our customers weren’t interested in me stocking low-value items to save them some pennies,” Christine says. “They wanted something special, with provenance, authenticity and purity and they were prepared to pay for it.
“We have Booker and Bestway as our main suppliers, but we also have Suma and Essential Trading, which are specialists in healthy, organic and vegan food.
"The store offers a real range of products right from mainstream brands to organic ones. In fact, I am proud that the store has something for every dietary need.”
The store also has refill stations for cleaning products such as liquid detergent and beauty products such as shampoo and body wash.
“Its been five years now since we started refills and it is still very popular,” she says.
When the pandemic hit, Christine’s conviction that retail is about community proved prophetic. Trade doubled within ten days. Thanks to her vast web of suppliers, she could get stock others couldn’t.
“We had multiple supply chains already in place,” she says. “So when supermarkets were struggling, we kept going.”
She added home deliveries via telephone, free for those unable to drive, a service that continues today. Cleanliness protocols brought customers even from neighbouring villages. In the truest sense of its name, Hopes of Longtown became the hope of its community.
Independence is very dear to Christine and the main reason why she stays away from symbol groups.
“The reason why we are independent is because this is how it feels correct.
"We have over 200 suppliers to the shop. We have identified 23 different types of customers, and to be able to keep that level of flexibility, there isn't a wholesaler or symbol group that can completely meet the needs of our business.
“We will continue to remain independent. I think some symbol groups out there are quite good, but for our business model at the moment, independence is a real strength for us.
“We're not a huge store turning over millions a year. But we are happy with where we are at the moment,” says Christine.
The store might be small in size but is quite huge in terms of technology.
The store’s EPOS system has each product tagged by category as well as by location which helps her to track their performance and thus make better decisions.
"This helped me when the energy prices went up, and I thought whether I should reduce the chiller size, my data showed me that one in four of our products being sold was coming from the chiller.
“With that analysis, I knew I could not turn off my chillers and freezers or reduce their size,” she shares.
The rising cost of the business, however, has been a constant worry for Christine lately.
“It’s a small village. The next big store is about six miles away, two in two different directions.
“The pubs in the area are now shutting at midday and open only in the evenings to cut down running costs. Sometimes, it feels we are the last business standing and keeping the community served.
“I have to become more price conscious lately, considering the online rivals. We are still cheaper than Amazon delivery though,” reveals Christine.
Hopes of Longtown has permission for a café and co-working space, the kind of additions that Christine believes will bring value to the community.
Funding, however, remains the hurdle, but she is exploring grants and sponsorship. The goal is clear and that is to make the Hopes of Longtown a second home for everyone.