7-Day Farm Shop

The farm shop has traditionally been closed on Mondays, but due to consumer requests will now open its doors every day and extend its opening hours on Sundays.

The expansion has led to three new roles being created, raising the number of people in the team to 24.

“The decision to open seven days a week was the result of a combination of reasons. Customers were keen, but it also made economic sense for us to do it. We were spending time on a Sunday afternoon completely closing down the butchers’ department and then we were spending time re-opening it on a Tuesday morning, while at the same time we were taking in deliveries of meat and trying to serve customers. Sometimes we had to discount items like bread on a Sunday, which had a sell-by date of the Monday, because we wouldn’t be open the following day.

“Every Monday we had cars arriving in the car park or turning round at the bottom of the drive when they realised we were shut. This will make it more convenient for customers. Some of our elderly customers like to lunch out on a Monday, when it’s quieter, so this will give them the chance to do that.

“Our labour costs will go up a bit but our fixed costs will remain the same – the fridges are on whether we are open or not. There should be less wastage of products that are past their sell-by date, and we won’t have to discount as many items with a short shelf-life as we have previously. We were missing out on trade on Mondays too. We estimate that turnover may increase by 10% as a result of opening seven days a week and extending our opening hours on a Sunday.”