Joanna visited the Company Shop on Dumbryden Road to find out more about what they do and how they help people across Edinburgh. Company Shop, and the award-winning social enterprise Community Shop enable the biggest retailers,manufacturers, food service and logistics providers to unlock value from surplus stock, which may have otherwise gone to waste. This means that they can deal directly with supermarkets and other retails operations to buy up food and other products that would have normally become landfill. They can then sell it on to their customers at greatly reduced prices. In fact, The Company Shop’s recent report demonstrated their significant impact by unlocking the value from surplus stock and have saved 109m products from going to waste and this has also saved over 103,000 tonnes of CO2 simply by stopping products being wasted. You can watch their video here.
In the Edinburgh store alone, local members saved £3,363,592 last year.
Company Shop members can access surplus products from well-known brands, helping stretched budgets go further by providing members with deeply discounted food, life-changing learning and development programmes, building stronger individuals and more confident communities.
Company Shop membership is free and open to
- employees and pension recipients of the NHS, Care and Emergency Services, Prison Service, British Armed Forces, Charity and the Fast-Moving Consumer Goods supply chain.
- Those in receipt of means tested benefits.
Community Shop membership is free and open to
- those who live locally to a Community Shop store and are in receipt of a means tested benefit (e.g. Job Seekers Allowance, Employment Support Allowance, Housing Benefit and Council Tax Support).
The Edinburgh store has plans to open a Community Shop too, meaning that more households will be supported. Community Shops in other locations in the UK have supported over 28,000 households and engaged more than 26,600 people in life-changing learning and development programmes. 92% of members say that Community Shop had improved their quality of life.
If you feel you qualify to use Company Shop or Community Shop, please visit the store with proof of eligibility.
