Opening Date Set For The Shop At Strood Green

Many of you will have noticed the intense activity at The Shop at Strood Green over the last few weeks. The shop unit has now been separated from the main house, and extended at the back by incorporating the former lounge.

The new shop front will be in place by the end of January. We are on course for our scheduled opening date Saturday, 21^st March

The opening hours will be:-

7am to 7pm (Mon, Tues, Wed and Fri)

7am to 7.30pm (Thurs)

7am to 6pm (Sat) and 8am to 2pm (Sundays and Bank Holidays)

The shop will stock a full range of convenience goods, newspapers, dairy, confectionery (including traditional sweets in jars!), hot pastries and bread baked on the premises, plus locally grown seasonal produce, flowers and gifts, greetings cards and business stationery.

We are also making a real effort to stock as much local produce as possible. In addition, there is to be a small internet café, offering good coffee, tea, home-made cakes, sandwiches etc, with a WiFi hub and two terminals. There will be a high quality colour A3/A4 photocopier for public use, and we are setting up a Post Point as an alternative to a post office.

There are numerous other services in the pipeline as well, and we have signed a contract with PayPoint to enable people to pay bills by cash over the counter.

In response to demand we are also applying for an off-licence. We shall be relying on continued public support and we wouldn’t have got this far without the tremendous contribution of effort and expertise from many people in the area. We have nearly 450 shareholders but it isn’t too late to join up! If you want an application form it can be downloaded from our website www.theshopatstroodgreen.co.uk, or ring Jane on 01737 845275 or Jo on 01737 842250.

The story of the community shop at Strood Green has aroused the interest of BBC Southern Counties radio, and the presenter Mark Carter did an extensive interview on 19th January with SGSA's chairperson, Helen Melia. The radio station has promised to be in Strood Green on 21st March to cover the opening of the shop.