Back to Basics Ethical Shop CIC, a community interest company which is not-for-profit, was set up in 2018.
We had rented a premises in Sutton Coldfield, which was the subject of harassment for the local residents due to being situated on a residential street with a train station around the corner which created many commuters to park on the same road.
The concept of our shop becoming successful was hard for some to fathom by means of creating havoc regarding car park spaces. No matter how much we tried to offer to assist with an application to the local council for residential permit parking, we were still faced with objections.
When a local vineyard got in touch to suggest supplying us with local organic vegan champagnes and wines, we decided to go in for an alcohol license. This was contested also, as it was possible that a licensed premises would create ABSOs and bring down house prices. With this, there became issues of harassment of our volunteers and our stock was sabotaged when parcels were delivered to neighbouring properties.
We then decided, for the safety of our volunteers and potential customers, that we would surrender our tenancy and start new somewhere else.
We have since located a piece of land in the corner of a beautiful garden centre, some 3 miles from our original location, and decided this would be a great opportunity for a bigger outreach of volunteers from elderly care homes and more available tasks for those with learning disabilities to gain work experience.
We have continued to keep our spirits high and our volunteers (manager and other members of the Ethical Shop family are all unpaid volunteers and refuse to accept even travel expenses!), have continued to spread the word of the Ethical Shop through requested markets within the Midlands and beyond, which have proven a success.
We have since been at a financial loss from the surrender of the tenancy and the finances which were injected at initial stage to which we are still attempting to recuperate from.
We have met some lovely small business suppliers, farmers and beekeepers since starting our project which started with local businesses but quickly became regional and international. We are proud to be able to support many small enterprises to witness and be part of their growth.
