RETAIL CORNER
26 ASIAN TRADER 17 OCTOBER 2025
eople usually don’t stumble into
retailing; they either inherit it, or
they take it up as a plan. Hardly
anyone takes it as a life mission to
intentionally create a sustainable community,
ending up setting a new benchmark of what a
convenience store can be.
Retailer Christine Hope is someone of just
such rare stature and her brainchild, Hopes of
Longtown, is more than just a convenience
store. With food, drinks, and grocery items
ranging from mainstream brands to local
artisan as well as organic products, from Post
Office to dry cleaning and even shoe repair,
from organising e-waste collection drives to
sponsoring the local church newsletter, Hopes
of Longtown is the lifeline of Longtown
village.
Speaking to Asian Trader, Christine shared
her journey, her thought process and most
importantly the spirit that drives her to keep
setting new definitions of convenience retail.
“I was feeling really rebellious when I
decided to save this village store and reopen it
back in 2001,” Christine tells Asian Trader. “I
wanted to show people that healthy and
low-carbon footprint food is not necessarily
pricier.”
Christine began in rented premises, before
rebuilding the shop in 2003. In between, for
six months, she traded from a Portacabin to
keep the business running.
“This building is now 20 years
old,” she recalls, “but the funny
thing is, there has been a village
shop at the premises for 100
years.”
Her arrival in retail was not an
obvious career choice, although
neither a thoughtless one.
“During my studies on rural estate
management, I realised how important
community cohesion is for a sustainable
society.
“So when the opportunity came to reopen
the village shop, I took it upfront, partly
because I didn’t have a job at the time since I
had been out ‘seeing the world’, and secondly
because I wanted to create a model store that is
truly local and embedded in the community.”
Two decades later, that spirit of rebellion
still defines Hopes of Longtown, an outpost
that has survived shifting demographics,
online retail, rising costs and a pandemic, all
while staying fiercely independent and truly
local.
At this store in Hereford, it is less about sales
and more about giving the village a healthy and
sustainable lifestyle, says Pooja Shrivastava
Today, on its shelves, alongside main
stream brands, sit organic options and
hyper-local products, from ice cream made
just ten miles away to artisan
treats produced locally.
The shop is focused on
promoting local products, and
by local, as Christine stresses,
she means products made
“within 30 miles of the shop”.
“I realised our customers
weren’t interested in me
stocking low-value items to
save them some pennies,”
Christine says. “They wanted something
special, with provenance, authenticity and
purity and they were prepared to pay for it.
“We have Booker and Bestway as our main
suppliers, but we also have Suma and Essential
Trading, which are specialists in healthy,
organic and vegan food.
“The store offers a real range of products
right from mainstream brands to organic ones.
In fact, I am proud that the store has some
thing for every dietary need.”
The store also has refill stations for cleaning
products such as liquid detergent and beauty
products such as shampoo and body wash.
“It’s been five years now since we started
refills and it is still very popular,” she says.
When the pandemic hit, Christine’s
conviction that retail is about commu
nity proved prophetic. Trade
doubled within ten days. Thanks to
her vast web of suppliers, she
could get stock others couldn’t.
“We had multiple supply
chains already in place,” she says.
“So, when supermarkets were
struggling, we kept going.”
She added home deliveries via
telephone, free for those unable to drive, a
service that continues today. Cleanliness
protocols brought customers from neighbour
ing villages as Hopes of Longtown became the
hope of its community.
Independence is very dear to Christine and
the main reason why she stays away from sym
bol groups.
“The reason why we are independent is
because this is how it feels correct.
“We have over 200 suppliers to the shop.
We have identified 23 different types of
customers, and to be able to keep that level of
flexibility, there isn’t a wholesaler or symbol
group that can completely meet the needs of
our business.
“We will continue
to remain independ
ent. I think some symbol groups out there are
quite good, but for our business model at the
moment, independence is a real strength for
us.
“We’re not a huge store turning over
millions a year. But we are happy with where
we are at the moment,” says Christine.
The store might be small in size but is big in
terms of technology.
The store’s EPOS system has each product
tagged by category as well as by location which
helps Christine track their performance and
make better decisions.
“This helped me when the energy prices
went up, and I thought whether I should
reduce the chiller size, my data showed me
that one in four of our products being sold was
coming from the chiller.
“With that analysis, I knew I could not turn
off my chillers and freezers or reduce their
size,” she says.
The rising cost of the business, however, is a
constant worry.
“It’s a small village. The next big store is
about six miles away, two in two different
directions.
“The pubs in the area are now shutting at
midday and open only in the evenings to cut
down running costs. Sometimes, it feels we
are the last business standing and keeping the
community served.
“I have to become more price-conscious
lately, considering the online rivals. We are
still cheaper than Amazon delivery, though,”
reveals Christine.
Hopes of Longtown has permission for a
café and co-working space, the kind of
additions that Christine believes will bring
value to the community.
Funding, however, remains the hurdle, but
she is exploring grants and sponsorship. The
goal is clear and that is to make Hopes of
Longtown a second home for everyone.
Fiercely independent, fiercely local