Brightwell Village Stores

2011-09-07T16:28:00.000+01:00

Volunteers Meeting:

On Thursday 15th September in the village hall at 8.00pm

Existing and potential volunteers welcome for an informal get together with drinks and nibbles. A chance to meet one another and have a chat. We will be arranging future training events as well as social events.

New year, new services!

2011-01-20T10:02:00.000Z

We hope that 2011 has started off well for all our customers, and we would like to take this opportunity to thank you for all your support in 2010 - it has been great to see the shop become such an integral and vital part of the village so quickly. We hope you all agree!

Just to let you know that we now offer a couple of new services - dry cleaning is now picked up and dropped off on Tuesdays, see in store for more details and pricing. We also now have an olive oil refill service, costing £5 per 500ml or £4 if you bring your own bottle along.

Do come and see what else has changed - we add new stock frequently and as always, we appreciate your feedback.

It's that time of year again!

2010-11-09T11:06:00.001Z

There's no use denying it - Christmas is on it's way and we have the answer for all your gift shopping! Steph and team are holding a late night shopping event on Friday 19th November from 6pm to 8pm. You'll be able to sample our range of Christmas puddings, enjoy some complimentary mulled wine and mince pies and browse all the great gifts and produce in store. Come along and get in the festive spirit!

Spread the Whirred!

2010-09-19T18:19:00.002+01:00

The Village Stores now stocks the great new game, Whirred PLAY, invented, developed and produced in Brightwell-cum-Sotwell by Philip Annets.

Here's what Whirred PLAY's creator has to say:

'Unlike other word games Whirred PLAY™ is a game of skill designed so that any number of people can play and so that anybody can win regardless of their life experience, age or knowledge of words. It can be played by any sized family group, by groups of adults at dinner parties and by groups of children.

Whirred PLAY™ is based on the simple premise of spelling ordinary everyday words which just happen to be homophones; that is words that sound the same, but are spelt differently and have different meanings. There is a strong educational element to the game that has been successfully tested at schools in the local area.

The ultimate objective of Whirred PLAY™ is to select spellings of homophones that no one else does. The fewer players that you match up with, the further you move along the board. Watch out if you take the lead though, as you may be challenged to a head-to-head Pare UP and be brought back to the chasing pack.

An Entertaining, Enthralling, Exciting, Educational game for Everybody!

For more information visit www.whirredplay.co.uk , see the link in the right side bar, or pop in the the Village Stores to see it for yourselves!

Payment Options

2010-09-17T17:35:00.000+01:00

Just to let everyone know that our credit card machine is now up and running and accepts all major credit and debit cards (excluding American Express) - so please come along and spend even more at your friendly local shop!

Roll up, roll up - we're open!

2010-08-05T18:05:00.002+01:00

After many years of hard work, our new shop opened its doors on Monday 2nd August - and the customers have been coming in thick and fast! These first few weeks will be a busy time for everyone involved, making sure everything runs smoothly and the management team gets to know what people want to buy - and in what quantities. Feedback so far has been really positive - so do please keep communicating, without the village we couldn't have got the shop off the ground - so we want to make sure it's got what everyone needs on the shelves. Our sincere thanks go to everyone who's been involved so far, it's been a real group effort!

We're almost there!

2010-07-07T16:22:00.002+01:00

Almost! After all the patient waiting, the shop will now open on Monday 2nd August! The initial opening times will be as follows:

Monday to Friday - 8.30pm to 6pm
Saturday - 9am to 1.00pm
Sunday - 9am to 12 noon

The Manager is now busily putting together the stock, the volunteers are being trained and the relevant licenses have been applied for, so we're very nearly there!

Come along and see for yourself on the 2nd, and watch this space for details on the 'grand official opening' later in the year.

Building Update - 10th June 2010

2010-06-10T12:44:00.000+01:00

Check out the link to our flickr page for new photos of the build - internal fitting is in progress!

Building Update - 4th May 2010

2010-05-04T22:06:00.000+01:00

More photos up - the inside is looking less like a building site and more like the interior of a shop! Click the link to Flickr on the right hand side to see more images.

Building Update - 14th April 2010

2010-04-16T17:48:00.001+01:00

Take a look at the latest photos on flickr, by clicking on the link to the right.

Building Update - 26th March 2010

2010-03-31T20:16:00.002+01:00

Take a look at the latest photographs on our flickr page - link on the right hand side bar - for more images of the construction - the roof is on, and the building is really taking shape!

Facebook Group

2010-03-22T22:31:00.000Z

If you are registered with Facebook you can now join our new village stores group for even more up-to-date information on the shop's progress. Search for "The Village Stores, Brightwell-cum-Sotwell".

Operations Team Update - 15 March 2010

2010-03-15T11:27:00.000Z

The shop's Operations team is meeting regularly and dividing up all the different tasks between its members. We are putting together a list of local suppliers to contact to see what they can offer us in terms of stock and pricing and maybe you can help us with some recommendations! Do you have any favourite local suppliers for meat or cheese or bread? Have you tried a particularly good, locally produced sausage or loaf? If so, email us at brightwellvillagestores@gmail.com and we can check out what they have to offer.

Building Update - 2nd March 2010

2010-03-03T17:18:00.002Z

Check out the latest site photos on our flickr page by clicking on the link to the right - you will be able to see the shop really starting to take shape!

Stock options

2010-02-28T11:27:00.006Z

We will soon be deciding what the village shop will stock - and we are hoping to sell as much locally sourced produce as possible, as well as the usual, expected staples. What would you like to see on the shelves on opening day? Leave a comment or email us and let us know - we'd love to hear your ideas....so the shelves will look more like the photo above than the one below!

Building Update - 18th February 2010

2010-02-18T17:17:00.003Z

The shop build is going very well - as you can see from these photographs taken this week!

And a couple more have been added to our flickr page - so click to the images on the right hand sidebar to take a look.

Photographs courtesy of Phil Jones.

Photographs on Flickr

2010-02-08T18:11:00.010Z

We have just added a new feature to our blog. On the right sidebar you will see a little collection of photographs we have put together on the website, Flickr. Click on the photos to see the collection as it grows - and send us any you may have of the old shops in the village - or if you have managed to have a sneak peak through the fence of the new build with your zoom lens ;) Many thanks to Sally Dugan for starting the collection with a few shots of the Old Bakery.

Thanks for the memories.......

2010-02-08T09:48:00.002Z

When looking to the future at our new, exciting shop, it seems prudent to remember what we have been missing for the last few years, since the original post office closed. We found this photograph online in an article that describes all the facets of a wonderful village - with a shop being one of the most important! Have you lived in the village long enough to remember the old post office and shop? Do you have any memories you'd like to share with everyone? Is there anything about the old shop that you would like to see us incorporate into our new village store? Let us know, either by leaving a comment or by emailing us at brightwellvillagestores@gmail.com. And if you have any old photographs we could share with everyone - send us those too!

Hello!

2010-02-04T17:22:00.001Z

If you are visiting us for the first time from the Brightwell-cum-Sotwell village website - a very warm welcome! This blog is only in it's infancy, but we hope that it will soon become a great resource for our community and a way for everyone to keep up-to-date on all the new shop developments. If there's any information you would like to see here, or you have any ideas on how we can improve the information we already provide - do let us know! We hope this website becomes just as much a community project as the shop itself - so feel free to join in the fray. Do keep popping back to see what's new and don't forget to let family and friends know about our blog!

JOB TITLE: Volunteer, IDEAL APPLICANT: You!

2010-01-30T18:06:00.009Z

As you are hopefully aware, our new village shop is due to open later this year. It's a very exciting time for everyone involved, as it has taken many years of hard work, along with very generous donations from villagers, to see this project come to fruition.

What you may not be aware of, is that the shop will be a "community store", run by a manager but staffed by local volunteers. And that's where you come in! We are looking for people with a couple of hours to spare, maybe once a week, or once a month or as little or as often as possible, to pitch in and help run the shop. You don't need any formal training or experience (you will be given guidance on how to use the till, procedures etc), just a willingness to help out. You can volunteer with a friend, relative or even bring your newborn along for support! It's a great way to meet people in the village, or a chance to spend a couple of hours with a friend whilst helping your community. Only with the support of the village can we make our new shop the great success we all know it can be!

If you think you can help, by volunteering an hour or so of your time, please contact me with a basic indication of how often and for how long you could volunteer. This doesn't sign your name on any dotted line, or commit you to any particular date or time - it just gives us an idea of who we can count on when the time comes. We would really appreciate your support.

Contact us at brightwellvillagestores@gmail.com for more information.

But please, human applicants only.....

Building Update

2010-01-30T18:02:00.003Z

Yesterday saw the foundation of the new shop being poured - a very exciting milestone! There's now an even better reason to visit the village post office - you can take a sneak peak out of the window to see the shop's progress for yourself ;)

WELCOME!

2010-01-25T10:21:00.000Z

Welcome to the Brightwell Village Stores new blog page, where we aim to keep you up-to-date with the latest information on the building progress as well as details on what the Management Committee are doing to get prepared for the big opening this Summer. Feel free to leave comments, suggestions and ideas as our shop really is a community project - and we would like to hear what YOU want the shop to provide.

Keep checking back, as we hope to start posting regular updates with photographs of the building work, reports from the architect and information on how you can get involved in this exciting project!