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The Food Programme: Why The Corner Shop Has Come Into Its Own

Why The Corner Shop Has Come Into Its Own

BBC Radio 4 - The Food Programme, Why The Corner Shop Has Come Into Its Own

Sheila Dillon hears from the corner shops thriving since the Coronavirus lockdown.

Babita Sharma, author, journalist and former 'Corner Shop Kid', joins Sheila Dillon to uncover the reality of running our corner shops and ask why business is booming for many.

Remember March? Before the UK lockdown. Remember desolate supermarket shelves? Toilet rolls, eggs, flour nowhere to be found? 

Where did you turn? Chances are you may have hit the jackpot in your local corner shop.

Sales in corner shops and independent grocers were up by 63 per cent in the three months to May according to industry analysts Kantar. For many small grocery shops, business has never been better. But as Sheila Dillon finds out, that's gone hand in hand with exceptionally long hours, miles and miles driven to cash & carries, finding new local suppliers, entrepreneurial social distancing solutions, and alot of community support.

In this programme Sheila checks in with the people running corner shops across the country, and with their customers. She hears from Caroline Craig and Sophie Missing, whose local shops inspired them to write 'The Cornershop Cookbook'. And Babita Sharma, author of 'The Corner Shop: The True Story of the Little Shops - and Shopkeepers - Keeping Britain Going' talks about her experience of growing up 'behind the counter'.

Presented by Sheila Dillon.
Produced in Bristol by Clare Salisbury.

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