Community Fund

“Engaging with your local community is the route to success,” says award winning convenience retailer, Rav Garcha.  As the organisers of NCS, we wanted to make that route easier for you to take. A handful of lucky retailers received a little extra financial help to plan some truly spectacular community get-togethers thanks to the National Convenience Show Community Fund. Apply for the Community Fund 2013 here. Here are some of the events that benefited:

“It was such great fun judging all the posters, although it took an age to clean up all the glitter left behind afterwards!” laughs Guy. “We then spent the best part of a day displaying all of the entries in each of the stores. Simply doing this created a great atmosphere as the kids and parents came in to see their posters on display.

“We didn’t insist that the schools spent the money in our stores, but as we had so much wonderful jubilee-themed stock including big name brands and local products, most of that money did go on our food, drink and party accessories. Each of the winning classes went round the stores with their shopping lists for party cakes and drinks. It was really sweet.”

 

He also acknowledges that events such as these aren’t just about the sales. “It’s just such a great feeling to be involved with the community and see how much enjoyment you can bring to people. The goodwill that it generated was amazing and we’re really grateful to the NCS Community Fund organisers and C-Store for helping us to do it.”

“The idea was that everyone pitched in. It showed that each member of staff is part of the business,” says Rav. “It was also a way of communicating our independence - something local shops don’t often do well enough. This was a way of showing we’re not like the mults.”

 

The event was also an effective way for the staff to engage better with the customers. Says Rav: “We wanted to show that our staff don’t just stand at the tills saying ‘£2.50 please’. This is a great talking point - I hate it when people come in and just ask about the weather.”

 

What’s more, the store was giving something back to the community by providing a free lunch - a line of customers queued up to taste the delicious food.

 

By celebrating the staff’s credentials, Rav hoped to inspire some of the young people in his community. “I want to inspire people to train and learn, and positively change their lives. The primary school has nearly 400 children, some of whom come from different backgrounds, and I want them to inspire their children and meet employees who are positive role models.”

 

Independents’ Day was the highlight of a week-long celebration of his staff and the store’s community involvement. Other events included wine tasting, and a session by a local pork supplier to show off its products.

 

“We’ve done similar events with the Jubilee and Royal Wedding and so on. It’s all about in-store theatre,” Rav adds.

 

The final word goes to Pat, a long-standing Irish employee. “It’s a way of showing we’re more than just a regular shop. We’re part of the community - we’re part of them, and they’re part of us.”

In addition to food and drink, Sunder says the plan was to offer an array of fun activities such as bouncy castles, sumo suits, space hoppers, a steel band, raffle, face painting and much more. “The bouncy castle alone was going to cost £110 to hire, and seeing as we wanted all the activities to be free I jumped at the chance to win some funding,” Sunder continues.

 

And as if space hoppers and welly-wanging aren’t exciting enough, Sunder thought he’d spice up proceedings further by launching a competition to design a poster advertising the fun day.

 

“My plan was to award a prize to the best poster from each of the school’s three classes, with an additional top prize for the overall winner. Each prize winner would receive a family ticket to the Eden Project, and the overall winner would receive the additional prize of a family ticket to Cadbury World.

 

“I reviewed all of the entrants, which was great fun, before displaying my final shortlist of 24 in the store. This alone created a great buzz as children and parents came in to view their work.”

 

The competition winners were announced on the day itself, and the top prize went to 11-year-old Abbie Collett, of St Patricks School. 

“The whole thing was a raging success, the rain stayed away, and a great time really was had by all. I had so many thank-yous on the day and have since had loads of letters from parents, teachers and the children, all of whom are also customers of mine.”