The Plunkett Foundation has developed a series of advice sheets covering all aspects of setting up and running a village community owned shop. You can either access them as pdf files from this page or if you prefer you can purchase a full set in hard copy. Please contact us if you would like answers to questions not covered by these advice sheets.
All advice sheets are in PDF format approx 60Kb. You will need the free Adobe Acrobat Reader to view these documents.
You can download the following advice sheets.
Click on a heading for more information.
- Community-Owned Shops - An Introduction
- Why open a Community-Owned Shop?
- Consulting the Community
- Setting up Committees
- Organisational and Legal Structures
- Plunkett Foundation Industrial and Provident Society Model Rules
- Location, Location, Location
- preparing the Business Plan
- Environmental Considerations
- Sources of Funding from within the Village
- Sources of Funding from outside of the Village
- The Post Office
- Shop Design, Fixtures and Fittings
- Shop Display and Merchandising
- What to Stock
- Sourcing and Managing Suppliers
- Stock Rooms and Storage
- Applying for an Off-Licence
- Security
- Income, Profit and Pricing
- Cash Register or EPOS
- Manning Your Shop
- Opening Hours
- Publicising the Launch
- Trading Requirements
- Health and Safety
- Food Safety and Hygiene
- Fire Safety
- Disabled Customers
- First Aid
- Underage Customers
- Purpose, Passion and Profit
- People
- Place
- Product
- Price
- Promotion
- Committees
- Financial Management
- Stock Management
- Volunteer Management
- Staff Management
- Tourism and Attracting the One-off Visitor
You can also download the following:
Shop questionnaire - This is a word document that can be adapted to suit your requirements.
Staff handbook This sample staff handbook for community owned shops has been kindly provided by Urchfont Community Shop and can be adapted for your own requirements.
See publications to order a full set of advice sheets.
