The last delivery of fresh goods arrived at the Burnham Co-op yesterday, apparently the price markdowns start on Thursday. The store closes in 3 days time, on Saturday at 10pm. Then there’s nothing until Sainsbury’s open a store here in “October” (no date specified).
The stock started being run down a few weeks ago. Now, every day brings a new diminution, not only of stock but also of the shop infrastructure. The aisles have been shrinking, first shelves were removed then whole bays. Smaller freezers have been emptied and taken out. Larger freezers have been depleted and turned off. More and more of the shop floor has been revealed and now ceiling mounted signs and stickers on the lino point to empty spaces.
Apparently the staff weren’t informed that the store would be exhausted like this and now they are bearing the blunt of anger and complaints from shoppers, many of them Co-op society members – part-owners of the establishment. This lack of communication continued the reticence to share information that marked the secrecy around the store’s future long after the decision had been made.
As recently as 15 April, by which time rumours of closure had been spreading for several weeks, the official response from the Co-op was ‘it is business as usual at our Burnham food store and the branch continues to trade as normal’ and ‘we do not have any further information to share at this time’.
Yesterday, staff were moving food around in the refrigerated bays consolidating the remaining items into some fridges and leaving others devoid of anything. Presumably this is an effort to keep up appearances and avoid a Soviet supermarket aesthetic. #FAIL
I heard some staff say they were concerned about the ‘little old ladies’ who depend on the shop, that they have been taking their phone numbers and are planning to help them get shopping during the closure period. This initiative is all coming from the basic human decency of workers who have a relationship of trust and solidarity with the customers. None of it has come from the decision makers who elected to close this shop, what CEO Andy Rigby described as “reshaping our trading portfolio“, and to run it down before closure.
On 13th May, the Maldon & Burnham Standard quoted Burnham Mayor Doug Bown saying:
‘the period between closure and reopening is important, and we would encourage the retailers involved to work closely with the community to minimise disruption. This could include clear communication about timelines, consideration of temporary provision, and support for residents who may be most affected during this interim period’
But, 3 days from closure, there’s still no re-opening date, no offer of ‘temporary provision’ from either the Co-op or Sainsbury’s (how about free online delivery during the closure period?), nor any support for residents
The Coop shop in Burnham has never utilised its space well. It has persisted in maintaining shelves of rarely sold non-food items instead of broadening its grocery offer. It has sub-let space to other, commercial, businesses like M&Co and The Original Factory Shop rather than use the shop floor to improve the range it offered to customers. Most of the staff are good at their job, but a few have been persistently awful and rude to customers. Their prices have been higher than competitors. Nevertheless, I appreciated being a member and the ethical stance of the organisation, member dividends rather than stockmarket returns – I was happy to put up with the stuff I didn’t like to support a store with a commitment to ‘people, planet and place’.
I am disappointed that the commitment to place has been proven false. The Coop’s interest in our local store has been coldly revealed as a means to ‘leverage our property portfolio’. Members had no say in what happened to this local asset.
I must repeat what I wrote in Rural Futuring:
A story in the Maldon & Burnham Standard about the closure of the East of England Co-op includes comment from their CEO Andy Rigby:
“Protecting jobs, maintaining local services and supporting our colleagues throughout this process is our absolute priority.
“The transfer and lease of our Burnham store will provide secure long-term rental income, enabling us to prioritise investment where we believe it will have the greatest long-term impact.
This includes supporting new store openings, investing in existing sites, and developing new, innovative business ventures, as part of our focus on maintaining a strong, independent, and financially sustainable business.”
Mr Rigby said the decision would provide long-term financial stability for the Co-op, allowing it to reinvest in other stores and future projects across the region.
I.e. we are closing this store and ditching our local members and customers because we don’t think it’s worth investing here, we’d rather just collect rent in their town and spend it on our vision of the future somewhere else. This happy news relayed to the people of the Dengie reminded me of the words of the Vietnam era US Army Major: “It became necessary to destroy the town to save it”
I’ll visit the shop again today. It won’t be worth it as a customer, there’s not much left worth buying, but there remains a grim fascination in observing the daily decay. Not just the depreciation of stock but also the disintegration of the values the shop seemed to represent. Every two-bit corporation has some line about serving its communities. It’s the boiler-plate bullshit we all just ignore. I’m disappointed the East of England Co-operative is no better.
Alternative forms of association, like public-common partnerships, co-operatives, mutual societies and the rest, should offer different pathways towards a democratic economy free of the corporate gibberish and community-washing platitudes.
Many folk will shrug their shoulders at the Co-op closure and welcome the arrival of Sainsbury’s. The loss of a store like this is more than just a change of hands though, it’s a winding of evermore of our lives into the tight profit focused world of a handful of players. The Co-op returned profits to the town, the broader Dengie catchment and the region, through dividends, wages, local sourcing and community grants. Now it will simply extract rent.
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