Community Shop
With rump steaks for 50p, 30 eggs for £2.10 and products from rival stores sitting alongside each other on the shelves, it is obvious that the Community Shop, which officially opened on Monday, is not the average supermarket.
– Haroon Siddique, The Guardian, 15 December 2014
Community shop is the social branch of Company Shop, which sells on surplus food goods from retailers, manufacturers and suppliers at very large discounts – about a third of retail price. The idea is to help people on the cusp of food poverty to prevent them from entering a downwards spiral by providing them with heavily discounted healthy food. In addition to cheaper food, members sign up to “tailored, professional development programmes” to “make positive change in their lives” and improve their situation.
In order to become a member and benefit from Community Shop’s discounts and support, you must live in a postcode that counts as ‘deprived’ according to the 2010 Indices of Multiple Deprivation and be on means-tested benefits.