The story of Go Local store in Stoke Orchard begins with a customer.
In December 2025, Mapreet Singh was approached by the chairman of the Stoke Orchard Community Centre, who also happened to be a customer at his convenience store.
The community was looking for an experienced retailer to transform an underused coffee shop space into a proper village shop – and Singh's reputation meant he was the person they trusted to do it.
The result is a 1,000 sq ft community convenience store near Cheltenham that has been designed around the practical needs of local residents. The former coffee shop has been transformed into a store offering everyday essentials alongside services including Relay parcel collection and returns, Royal Mail parcel services and Payzone.
There is also a distinctly personal touch. Every Friday, the store offers homemade Indian food, an initiative that has quickly become popular with customers. It has developed into more than another product line: customers come specifically for the food, chat with each other and support the store, helping create a social element within the shop.
Singh's approach is rooted in the idea that a village store has to earn its place in the community every day. The business was not simply about filling an empty retail unit; it was about creating somewhere residents could depend on for both shopping and essential services.
That thinking also shaped the decision to join Go Local through Parfetts. The fascia has brought additional support, promotions and range, helping the store strengthen its value proposition while allowing Singh to retain the community-first approach that brought him to Stoke Orchard in the first place.
The store has only been trading since December 2025, but Singh says its foundations were already there before the doors opened. The community's decision to approach him was itself a reflection of the relationships built through his other store and the way his team had served customers.
For a business only few months into its journey, the ambition is strikingly simple: listen, respond and keep improving. Singh's philosophy is that being the light of a local area is not about having the biggest shop or the newest fixtures. It is about being present, remembering customers' names and understanding what people need.
And perhaps that explains why the shop has found its place so quickly. In a village environment, convenience is not just about distance. It is about trust, and in Stoke Orchard, Singh arrived with some of that trust already in the bank.