Introductions!
Hello, we are Alice and Ceri. We are seeking your help to fund the start-up of a new Eco Pantry shop in York. We want to offer shoppers in York the opportunity to buy a wide range of store cupboard and household essentials, without any horrible throw-away plastic packaging!
(Don’t worry, we’re going to spare you the lecture about ocean plastics.)
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(Alice made Sir David Attenborough's 85th birthday cake!)
What We Need...
In order to provide a large range of waste-free products to our customers, there are a number of start-up expenditures that go over and above everything necessary to open a ‘normal’ shop. We need to buy a lot of gravity dispensers, scoop dispensers, liquid dispensers, jars and caddies, as well as specialist ‘weigh and pay’ digital scales with labelling systems to make sure our customers always have a smooth and easy shopping experience with us.
We want to open the shop that our customers and our beloved Bishy Road High Street deserve; not a meagre attempt. We want to offer a wealth of choice of pantry goods and household essentials that take care of all our customers needs.
The specialist scales are vital in making the shopping experience for you as easy as possible, but with the funding we have, something will have to give if we want them. Realistically, the amount of products we can offer will take a large hit, and we have already had loads of requests from excited customers; we'd hate to let anyone down. This is why we're asking for a contribution of £5000 so that we are able to open the store exactly how we want to, starting as we mean to go on.
...And What You Get
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To the right you can see all the lovely perks we have to offer as a way of saying thank you for your contributions. We only had so many characters to fit in those boxes so here's some proper descriptions of what we have to offer! All the items will be available to collect from the shop when we open.
£10 - By getting this perk you'll get a personalised thank you from Alice and Ceri, and a voucher that will get you 10% off your first ten shops at The Bishy Weigh.
£15 - Along with a lovely thank you, and a cheeky discount, you also get a handy, reusable shopping bag with our logo on. This is a great start in helping avoid those pesky plastic carrier bags.
£25 - Not only do you get the thanks, discount, and canvas bag, you also get 3 produce bags (small, medium, and large) to use for your zero-waste dry goodies. Great for things like pasta, rice, and fresh fruit and veg. Between uses you can even chuck them in with the laundry.
£50 - With a big thank you, and 10% discounts, we upgrade the canvas bag to a larger, more robust jute shopping bag with our logo on it, setting you up great for zero-waste shopping. But wait, there's more! You still get the set of three produce bags, as well as a set of three (small, medium, and large) storage tins and a Husk Cup, which is a reusable takeaway cup made from rice husks!
£75 - Along with everything you get at the £50 perk, you also get a VIP +1 ticket to our exclusive launch party! Come along and be the first to see the new shop and team, with VIP treatment, and special offers on the day! We're hoping that this will be mid-late November, which we think might just be a great time to throw in some festive spirit too.
£100 - Not only do you get your zero-waste shopping starter kit and VIP entry to our launch party, you also get an entire tray of White Rose Bakes' infamous Sea-Salted Caramel Millionaire's Shortbread! We know you'll want to keep the whole tray to yourself...
£150 - You still get your zero-waste shopping starter kit and VIP entry to our launch party, but this is where you can have a little bit of choice! Either you can also get 3 month's supply of White Rose Bakes' gorgeous Millionaire's Shortbread OR a bespoke celebration cake for up to 40 people. Great for if you've got a birthday, work do, or just a good ol' knees up.
£200 - This perk is almost the same as the £150 one, except you get even more cake! You can choose from a 5 month's supply of that almost addictive shortbread OR a bespoke celebration cake for up to 60 people.
£500 - First of all, if you go for this perk: wow! Thank you so much. We're so grateful that this time, in addition to the zero-waste shopping goodies, discount, and VIP party, you get a choice of a whole year's supply of Millionaire's shortbread OR a bespoke celebration cake for up to 120 people. Perhaps you have a wedding or special celebration coming up, or you could throw yourself a party for being such a generous person! (This perk can only be delivered in the Yorkshire area)
£750 - This is super generous and we'll be super grateful if you go for this perk. You'll still get your zero-waste shopping goodies, discount, and VIP party, and we'll put together a beautiful, bespoke dessert buffet table for you and up to 150 people. Again, we think this should be in celebration of you, but it will also give any wedding or big celebration the WOW factor! (This perk can only be delivered in the Yorkshire area)
£1000 - This is the godly perk! If you are so kind as to grab this perk you will get all your zero-waste starter kit and discount, you'll be the most VIP at the launch party, and we'll create you the best bespoke dessert table for you and up to 250 people. Oh, and because you've helped so much, we'll also name our scales in honour of you and your help.(This perk can only be delivered in the Yorkshire area)
How will you benefit from this venture?
You will get a richly stocked pantry store, offering all its goods to customers with either no packaging at all, or in some cases (such as our fully biodegradable bamboo toothbrushes) minimal recyclable/compostable cardboard packaging.
You will have peace of mind, knowing that your dedicated shop owner and manager will choose suppliers carefully to make sure that we have great quality products, and that we receive our bulk goods in recyclable/compostable sacks wherever possible.
You will have the opportunity to reduce your plastic waste, and be part of a great community while you’re at it!
You will be able to shop for what you need, when you need it. Need a little bit of an unusual ingredient for a recipe, or fancy trying out something new? Just buy the quantity you need, with no more part-packs getting left sitting idly in the cupboard.
You will get great customer service when you visit, with our team always happy to help or to chat recipes with you.
You will get a great addition to the existing family of wonderful independent food retailers on Bishy Road High Street.
Why are we the right people to do this?
Alice is already a business owner. She started a small bakery business with next-to-no start-up capital 5 years ago. Initially the business only supported Alice working part-time from home, but she has grown it steadily and White Rose Bakes now operates from a commercial premises and supports both Alice and Ceri full-time.
Prior to White Rose Bakes, both Ceri and Alice have vast experience working in food business management, retail management and customer service, giving them both the right skill sets to carry this venture forward.
Alice lives in York’s South Bank neighbourhood where the shop will be located, and is an active member of the community; volunteering for local events and helping out at the community garden.
We care deeply about the environment and regularly participate in beach cleans on the Yorkshire Coast, organised by Waves of Waste. We are also practical thinkers who want to bring about opportunities for easy, affordable, environmentally-friendly lifestyle changes in our community.
We love food! As keen foodies and accomplished bakers, we are confident we can assemble a pantry store that will offer everything you are looking for.
Why Bishy Road?
York has a reputation for its love of food and independent businesses. In particular, Bishopthorpe Road is the hub of York’s South Bank neighbourhood, and is privileged to have a strong residential community who are loyal customers to Bishy Road High Street and its independent traders.
The local community are already demonstrating their readiness to adapt to a greener lifestyle through the efforts of Planet South Bank, the local voluntary litter-picking walks, and the customer demand for green lifestyle products in the existing shops.
We feel that our offering will compliment those of the other independent traders on Bishy Road High Street, and enhance the already strong attraction of the street to shoppers.
Then what?
We've already started some great conversations with other local businesses, looking into some ideas like a recipe book, click-and-collect, and home delivery services. These are certainly a little way off, but we already have them as goals in mind that we would like to achieve as soon as we can.
Along with our own ideas, we also think it's important to draw on what the community would like to see from us, so we're always open to suggestions and we hope you're as excited as we are in seeing what we can grow The Bishy Weigh into.
Risks & Challenges
To be blunt, the biggest risk and challenge we face is running this crowdfunding campaign. We've worked hard to gather the funding we have, and just need this last extra push to make sure we can open The Bishy Weigh in the best way possible. Luckily, we'll still be able to open the store, but only with a basic range. We want to encourage more people to take up a more eco-friendly lifestyle, and a magnificent range of products will certainly help. By getting any of our lovely perks you will help us open an eco-friendly superstore York can be proud of!
This is where you can help!
Any contribution, big or small, will get us closer to our target amount, and closer to opening the best zero-waste store we can give York.
Don’t worry if you can’t make a contribution! Get the word out, talk to everyone you know about it, share the campaign on social media using the handy tools IndieGoGo has to help with that. Anything at all will be the greatest help, and much appreciated!
