SHOP TALK IF I’D KNOWN THEN WHAT I KNOW NOW... JENNIFER OSBORNE-CLAMP, co-owner, Wilde & Greene, Tuddenham, Bury St Edmunds
As well as having 35 years of retail experience, my wife Sue is a marathon and ultramarathon runner – she’s run 256 marathons to date. In 2019, during the Great Barrow Challenge, she spotted the shop at Longwood Farm. We both love farm shops, so I went in and got chatting to the owner, Jill. I was originally a secondary science teacher and had set up a first aid training business, and I ended up running some summer school sessions at the shop. That September, Jill contacted us to let us know that she was thinking of closing the shop and asked if we wanted it. We got the keys on a Sunday and opened the following Wednesday, 25th September. We had already discussed how things might work differently – the take-out café was at the front with retail at the back. We thought the retail stock was too tucked away, so we switched it around and broadened the range, which was mostly organic. Sue has a keen eye for what will sell and while we think organic is great, we wanted to make our range more comprehensive and include as much local produce as possible. We expanded our convenience offer, too. I wasn’t convinced there would be much call for mainstream essentials in a farm shop, but Sue had this idea for a ‘convenience corner’. Now it’s not just a corner; we have organic coconut sugar next to ‘normal’ sugar, Heinz Beans are juxtaposed with Hodmedod’s baked beans, and so on. Retail sales account for 80% of revenue. The rest comes from takeaway coffees, teas and snacks, such as cakes, Scotch eggs and sausage rolls. We’ve made this retail-focused model work for us by being savvy. We seek out the best deals from our suppliers and our waste is very low – even on our fresh fruit and veg. If, for example, bananas have gone past their best visually, we might make up bargain banana muffin boxes. Knowing what our customers want and how and when they shop is key. We know 80% of our customers by name. We don’t try to push for high margins. We are reasonable in our pricing. We could, for example, double the price of our brownies, but we want to be known for being fair and offering good value. We have worked hard to forge links with the community, to win their trust. We enjoy raising money for a number of charities, and (pre-COVID) ran art sessions and a ‘jeffing’ (run-walking) club. During the pandemic, we were very adaptive. We told customers to send us their ‘wishlists’ and bent over backwards to source what we could. That has stuck and customers appreciate that they can ask for specific items. The challenge now is building our customer base as people return to supermarkets. A farm shop is like a puppy: it’s not just for Christmas… or for COVID. Interview: Lynda Searby Photography: Richard Faulks
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August 2021 | Vol.22 Issue 7
