RETAILER INTERVIEW
LINDA WILLIAMS PREMIER BROADWAY CONVENIENCE STORE, EDINBURGH
HOW’S YOUR WEEK BEEN…..
LINDA WILLIAMS? THIS WEEK WE CATCH UP WITH EDINBURGH RETAILER LINDA WILLIAMS AS HER STORE RECORDS RECORD SALES AND HER FANTASTIC HARDSHIP FUND IDEA TOPS £9,000.
putting out fresh sandwiches that our customers could help themselves to if they were struggling. I put out a Facebook post to let people know about the Fund – and suddenly I started getting a flood of offers from people wanting to help by making contributions or paying for the bread or the ham or whatever.
WHAT HAPPENED NEXT? HOW’S YOUR WEEK BEEN LINDA? It’s been another tough and challenging week, that’s for sure, but we also saw a record sales week.
RECORD SALES? Yes, our weekly sales were the highest they’ve ever been in 37 years in this store! It’s pretty remarkable. Not only that, we’ve also topped £9,000 for our community Hardship Fun which is even more remarkable in some ways.
CAN YOU TELL US A BIT MORE ABOUT THE HARDSHIP FUND? It all started about a month ago when
it dawned on me that some of our customers were probably struggling to even feed themselves. I started
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We decided to start a Facebook page to let people donate if they wanted to so my daughter Sophie and I set up a collections page. We set our target at £300 and even then I wondered if that would look a bit cheeky and high. But within 40 minutes we’d hit the target and by the end of that day we’d hit £1,500. My husband Dennis and I then decided to put £1,000 in ourselves and it’s just snowballed from there. We’ve raised over £9,000 in just a few weeks between Facebook and with donations made in the store. There have been quite a few tears along the way! We’ve just been overwhelmed by how generous and kind people have been, even people that don’t live in our community.
