Save Glossop Co-op Store

Early this years, following concerns raised by one of our members, the High Peak branch of the Co-operative Party, organised a gathering of folks to meet with Hazel Blears.

The gathering had two aim, one was to give folk an opportunity to hear from one of the member directors of the Co-operative, the other was to look at establishing a ‘friends of’ for the Glossop store.

The reason for the ‘friends of’ was because despite the long history of the Co-op in Glossop, the store itself could possible owe more to the looks of the last century than the current one, and a general air that whilst other stores have been rebranded and updated, our store had been forgotten and left to rot.

Following on from that meeting, we wrote to the Co-operative, receiving a reply that they were grateful for the community support, they recognised that the store needs some work to improve the shopping experience, and that they were looking at ways of how to do this, and that they would advise on the decision of what to do next by early next year.

Alas despite the warm words the next news we heard about the future of the store, was when details appeared on Facebook, of the news that the store would be closing to in September to be taken over by B&M.

This news was then further updated with the details that the store would close on the 3rd August to allow B&M to gut and refurbish the store, and that the Post Office was ok in its current location for 12 months, and that the chemist would remain.

Derek our secretary has written expressing our concerns, along with establishing an online petition to help save the store, and whilst we may be up against it in terms of timing, if enough folk sign the petition we might be able to make the co-op remember its member led and community roots and think twice about riding roughshod over members and customers feelings.

You can sign the petition by clicking here