Proposed Co-op Stores in Scalloway & Sandwick ?

[Ghostrider]

There's a huge difference between a business remaining viable, and a business remaining viable in its current state.

I can't comment on Scalloway, as I don't know the current state of play for retail there very well, but Sandwick is a different story. The current shop is a bakery goods/convenience store/Post Office combo, with each complimenting the other.

Considering the proposed Coop site is barely a couple of hundred yards from the current shop its virtually inevitable that the convenience store aspect will either have to significantly downsize or cease, the Coop are going to be stocking identical goods next door, very likely at reduced cost. It only expanded to where it is nowing the closure of its previous competition at the Central, so is very likely at best to fall back to at least what it was previously in the face of more aggressive competition.

Reduce or remove the convenience store income from the equation and is the Post Office and bakery goods outlet still viable as a retail venture. The Coop will be selling bread, some of it at least much cheaper, so some reduction in bakery product sales is almost inevitable.

The P.O. is the only part of that retail venture that the Coop won't potentially negatively impact upon, and it can't survive as a stand alone these days. So if the negative impact on the convenience store and bakery product aspects downsizes their retail side beyond the point that either or neither can be viable and support the three way 'package' that currently exists then the P.O. is going to go too.

Given the size of the wholesale bakery operation at Sandwick and that the Coop's plans should only have relatively minimal impact upon it, it would be very surprising if it didn't remain a viable business, but for the entire operation remaining unchanged 'as is', maybe not so much.

Worst case scenario, Sandwick loses its P.O. as the chances of it being incorporated in to another local business are moderate to low, and someone taking it on solo, even lower, Sandwick folk having to buy their bakery and 'convenience store' products from the Coop, whether they would choose to, or not, and all the customers of retail outlets all over Shetland who take wholesale Sandwick bakery goods left a little more nervous than they currently as, as if the supplier has had to downsize to wholesale operations only, the viability and therefor security currently enjoyed by that business is diminished to whatever degree.

Maybe it'll all work out and everybody be happy, but I'm not holding my breath on that one. Or maybe the only winners are the folk in Sandwick who seldom if ever use the P.O. and would choose to buy everything from the Coop regardless, ans the Coop itself makes a few more quid, but everyone else loses to one degree or another in some way Only a roll of the dice will decide, and once they've been rolled folk will just have to put up with whatever that outcome is, as they can't be unrolled.

[Rasmie]

I use the Sandwick Bakeshop for a) the bakery products  and b) the post office. While i'm there i tend to buy a few other items such as meat.

I see anything that endangers a and b as a threat to my lifestyle. I am also concerned that the owners might simply say say "muck it" and close.

If the Co-op have any empathy for the community they would try and do deal to guarantee the continuance of a and b.

 

[Colin]

Fair comment but who's to say that, as the current owner is kicking the butt end out of 70, he will not jack it all in anyway sometime soon?

The Co-op, and others of a similar ilk, have no empathy towards existing business.  Hoping for such is pie in the sky.  It's all about money...

[fina]

... the current owner is kicking the butt end out of 70

?? Dunna think Knowsie is just that old?

Would have imagined that his son the Head Baker will carry on for a while yet.

 

Those of us that have been very grateful for, and depend on the Bakeshop doing home deliveries would lose out. Can't see a Coop taking elderly and housebound folks shopping lists over the phone and delivering for free- what was their quote about providing a convenient service to the community?

[Colin]

30 minutes ago, fina said:

Those of us that have been very grateful for, and depend on the Bakeshop doing home deliveries would lose out. Can't see a Coop taking elderly and housebound folks shopping lists over the phone and delivering for free- what was their quote about providing a convenient service to the community?

OK, didn't realise that his son was the head baker.  Thanks.

As for the quote..  Why not, don't Tesco do something similar?

[Ghostrider]

If the Coop wanted to offer an enhanced services to out of town customers, they'd had done well to offer home delivery via a website ordering service in direct competition to Tesco's one.

Taking over an existing shop when it came up for sale might have been a somewhat reasonable alternative, but doing what they're doing, creating brand new outlets on green field sites is always going to end up in a small number of winners, and a large number losing something in return for not much.

Its stirring a pot which didn't need stirring, and when it settles, while some may well find themselves in a 'better' position, some equally will be in worse ones. Its change for change's sake, there is no overall gain in it for any body of population, only for the Coop's bottom line if it works out as they hope.

No doubt the Coop has the support from some locally to do this, but when Tesco was talking about coming here, they had a significant body of local support too, and look at how that's worked out.....

Maybe ask those who very the most ardent Tesco supporters before the fact, if the reality lived up to their dreams. Personally I'm seeing the same gaps in shelves from poor stock control, questionable quality control, and the same gambit of dubious looking deals that always were throughout all their predecessors. Same crap, different branding.

Edited August 18, 2021 by Ghostrider

[Evil Inky]

3 hours ago, Ghostrider said:

Its stirring a pot which didn't need stirring, and when it settles, while some may well find themselves in a 'better' position, some equally will be in worse ones. Its change for change's sake, there is no overall gain in it for any body of population...

I'd have thought that, as an ardent Brexiteer, you be all for this

[Ghostrider]

^ I fail to see even the remotest connection.

Although I suppose much depends on individual political POV, *if* you support the fundamental concept of 'bigger is better' and that to achieve it you must have one central control mechanism dictating everything, as practiced by the EU, then I guess viewing Brexit as un-necessary pot stirring could well follow. I wouldn't know though, as I'm a supporter of minimal government and decisions being taken on as local a level as possible.

[Evil Inky]

10 hours ago, Ghostrider said:

^ I fail to see even the remotest connection.

Just pointing out that when it's suggested we put a customs border down the Irish Sea, and introduce a pile of red tape, you're all "woo-hoo! What's the worst that could happen?", but when it's proposed that the Co-op build a shop in Sandwick, you seem to think that's a bit too risky.

[Ghostrider]

15 hours ago, Evil Inky said:

Just pointing out that when it's suggested we put a customs border down the Irish Sea, and introduce a pile of red tape, you're all "woo-hoo! What's the worst that could happen?", but when it's proposed that the Co-op build a shop in Sandwick, you seem to think that's a bit too risky.

....and?

That's a bit like pointing out someone thinks 60 mph on the main road is fine and dandy, but not okay on a single track side road full of blind spots. There's no comparison, and more than there's any comparison between the finer points of international sovereign nation borders and a sizeable national company dumping itself in the heart of a rural community and competing against small local independent shops for a very limited customer base.

Edited August 19, 2021 by Ghostrider

[Colin]

https://www.shetnews.co.uk/2021/08/27/economic-development-chief-challenges-co-op-assumption-on-rural-shop-impact/

But, will the planning committee take any notice, or is it done deal?

I'm neither 'for' or 'against' either development.  Just wondering how much 'diligence' will be applied.

 

[Ghostrider]

^ The impossible has happened, the SIC have finally done something that I can be positive about. Its good, for this once to see at least somebody within that organisation taking the time and doing the work to publicise 'the other side of the story' to the Coop's professional PR baloney and attempt to level the playing field.

Personally the bit that concerns me is that if in the longer term the Coop's operations in Sandwick contributes to the current shop and bakery deciding to close down, my bread supply ends with that.

Given that the Walls Bakery has been on sale for an extended period without finding a buyer, its future remains very questionable, and it would be no surprise if it closed sooner rather than later. If we lose both Walls and Sandwick, we're going to be significantly if not entirely reliant on the tasteless/disgusting tasted imported factory mass produced lumps of stodge that try and masquerade as 'bread' but fail to do so almost entirely. I don't wanna think about having no bread to eat unless that stuff.......

In an ideal world I'd say whether the Coop comes or not should be a decision for Sandwick residents, and for Scalloway/Burra/Trondra/Tingwall residents, as they're the ones who will experience the vast majority of 'benefits' or 'negative impact', and the rest of us will just have to live with their preference insofar as it may have a knock on effect on the rest of us.

However, as things aren't ideal, and the Holyrood puppet regime that is the SIC are going to stick their oar in, then I hope they at least refuse the Sandwick one

 

Edited August 29, 2021 by Ghostrider

[Muckle Oxters]

I winder how many folk dat are complaining aboot da Co-ops will stick tae dir ethical guns and no use dem if dey open?

[Ghostrider]

^ While the Scalloway proposal is different, for Sandwick I would say that is a question for Sandwick residents only.

I can't see many folk from elsewhere in the South Mainland considering it attractive unless for one or two items 'to keep you going for now' that their local shop doesn't have.

By the time you've driven to Sandwick, then either festered in/out through bendy, slow single track roads, or had to double back on yourself some distance if using the only half decent access, for the same time/money investment you could have been out the north end of Cunningsburgh. So you may as well just do the whole hog and go to LK anyway where both supermarkets will have a wider selection and the Coop's rival at least, has some of it a bit cheaper.

I can't see any reason why I would want to drive 10 miles north to use it. Any saving in price over my local shops would be cancelled out and then some in petrol, and for anything my local shops don't stock, Tesco will deliver to my doorstep as many times as I like for a flat rate monthly fee of less than a gallon of petrol, and some of it cheaper than the Coop.

[XAM7102]

https://www.shetnews.co.uk/2021/10/15/sandwick-co-op-gets-green-light-from-planners/

Update 

Sandwick Co-op gets green light from planners

 

Edited October 16, 2021 by XAM7102