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A New Year Update (& a request for help)

A year on from Karen Mackay’s first post on the Facebook ‘Porty People’ page, proposing a community greengrocer, the project is progressing, albeit quite slowly. Our biggest hurdle remains the lack of empty shops on our High Street!

We have taken a stall at last three Portobello Markets and will be there again this coming Saturday, 2nd February. As before we will be offering a competitively priced selection of fresh, loose, fruit & veg. If you’ve never been, it’s held in Brighton Park and it runs from 9:30-1:30. Please come along and support our fundraising and the other traders there.

The Steering Group is meeting regularly and working on the details of our Business Plan. Whilst, within the group, we have a wealth of skills, none of us has sufficient financial knowledge to confidently compile that part of the plan. Is there anybody out there in Porty who has experience of preparing financial projections for a Business Plan and would be willing to spare the team a few hours to help out? We’re not expecting you to join the Steering Group, although you’d be very welcome to do so if you wish! Please get in touch if you think you can help.

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Project Update

Portobello Market, Saturday 1st December
PCG Stall at the Portobello Market, Saturday 1st December

Yesterday saw us take a stall at our third Portobello Market in Brighton Park. Whilst the weather and various other events conspired to keep the number of visitors down, we nonetheless sold almost all of our fresh, loose, seasonal produce. More importantly to us though, we were delighted that everyone we spoke to was very supportive of what we’re trying to do, namely, open a community-owned Greengrocers on the High Street.

Portobello
Portobello

We have a problem though. Portobello’s High Street is full! The Steering Group are certain that, to be successful, our shop should be somewhere between Windsor Place and Figgate Street; ideally, we think it should be between Bath Street and Beach Lane. But the last shop to fall vacant in that stretch was the last greengrocers, Banana Republic, and that has now re-opened as a Gents Salon.

But are we right? In recent weeks, and again at yesterdays market, people, clearly eager for us to open, have suggested that we could look further afield. Units past Windsor Place (heading east, obviously) have been suggested, but are they too far away from the established shops? Would you be a regular visitor to our greengrocers if it were to open closer to Joppa? Let us know in the comments, get on to the Social Medias (we’re on them all!) or drop us a message at hello@portobellocg.org.uk.

Thank you to everyone for your continued support. Let’s hope we can move this project on to its next stage in 2019!

 

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Meanwhile…

Our project is all about reinstating a traditional Greengrocer’s shop on Portobello High Street, but while we wait for suitable premises to become available*, we are continuing with our very popular stall at the monthly market in Brighton Park.

The next market is on Saturday 3rd November and our planning is already underway. There’s lots of great produce available at this time of year, but what would you like to see alongside the ever popular potatoes, carrots, onions and tomatoes? Leeks? Swedes? Brussels Sprouts? Pumpkins? Let us know and we’ll see what we can do.

See you on the 3rd!

** if you know of any shops which might be vacated soon, please let us know.

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Portobello Market – Saturday 6th October

With our stall at Septembers Portobello Market having been such a success, we’re going ‘full-steam-ahead’ with our plans for an even better one at the October market on Saturday 6th.

Market September 18
Stall at Portobello Market in September 2018

Once again, to raise funds for our project, we will have a selection of loose fresh fruit & veg on offer, at competitive prices.

Make sure to put Saturday the 6th on your calendar and get along early (the market opens at 9:30) as some of our produce sold out very quickly last time! (We will have more of the popular lines this time, but better to be safe than sorry.)

See you on the 6th!