Villagers are in a state of shock this week after it was announced that another of Arran’s local grocery shops will be closing at the end of the summer.
Owners of the Corrie Village Shop, Marion Logan and Marvin Elliott, sent letters to all their local customers informing them that the shop is no longer viable as a grocery store and that it would have to close.
‘We are very sad to have to shut the shop,’ said Marion. ‘We took it on in the first instance because the previous owner was closing it and the villagers didn’t want to lose their shop.
‘We have kept it going for seven years but we can’t go any further. It is just not viable to keep trading.’
Both Marion and Marvin were keen to point out that they do not blame anyone for the closure of the shop; it is mainly the fault of the current economic climate.
Marion said: ‘Even with voluntary help and government minimum wages the shop still runs at a loss. We cannot continue to subsidise this loss.’
Rachael Phillips from Sannox is a frequent customer. She was upset to hear of the closure. ‘This is the fault of the villagers. If they had given as much support to the shop as to saving the school it would never have been forced to close.’
Once the shop closes in Corrie, there will be no fully stocked grocery store, post office and newsagent between Brodick and Pirnmill, a distance of 19 miles.
Iain Robertson, owner of the caravan and camping site in Lochranza opened a small grocery shop at the site a year ago.
He said: ‘After the closure of the local shop in Lochranza I had very little choice but to open a shop here. The visitors to the campsite needed somewhere nearby to buy essential groceries.
‘During the summer I have nearly ten thousand people coming through my gates and using my shop. However, there is no way I could keep it open in the winter because it is not really used by locals.’
Mr Robertson said that despite the fact that he is now one of only two shops in the Northend of Arran he would only stock more goods, like newspapers, if the demand permitted it.
Campbell Laing, chairman of Arran Community Council said it was very sad to hear of the closure. ‘Unfortunately there is absolutely nothing that ACC can do about it. This is a purely commercial decision and if the shop isn’t paying its way then it is the owners decision how to proceed.’
The couple took over the running of the Corrie Village Shop from Drew Crawford in 2000. At the time villagers mounted a campaign to keep the shop open and Marion agreed to run the shop with local support.
However, Marion now believes that no one will fight to save the store this time. ‘There is not enough people living in Corrie and Sannox all year round to support the shop,’ she said. ‘This restricts what we can sell as we must abide by sell-by-dates which in turn means that we don’t buy in as much stock. The shop just isn’t viable anymore.’
A spokeswoman for The Scottish Co-operative said: ‘The Corrie Village Shop has provided a very local and complimentary service to our shops on Arran, which have been serving their own communities for very many years.
‘The Co-operative Group supports community co-operative shops across the UK which provide similar services to the Corrie Village Shop, therefore, we are very sorry to learn that it is closing.’
The couple own the shop building and they plan to keep it open as an outlet for Marvin’s world famous wooden sculptures.
