Fight for ‘spiritual home’ of Guildford as residents gear up to save 108yo general store as community co-op
When the general store in Guildford closed down after 108 years, the plucky little central Victorian community refused to take the news lying down. After previously saving the local pub, and reopening the primary school they’re now chasing investors as they seek to buy the store back and run it themselves.
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TVTranscript
00:00 The doors to the General Store are closed, but locals gather, united by a cause.
00:07 The Guildford General Store is the heart of the town, along with the pub. Without it,
00:12 I feel like part of the soul has been removed.
00:15 For 90-year-old Heather McGiven, known locally as Shop Nan, the General Store holds decades
00:21 of memories.
00:22 We used to play around the big tree there, run, rabbit run, and I used to pretend I was
00:28 the farmer with the gun and go chasing them. It just means so much.
00:35 For Lisa Daniel, the General Store inspired her to move from Melbourne.
00:39 I have been a regular at the General Store pretty much every day, spending my money on
00:44 stuff, and it's incredibly sad to not have it running at the moment. It's the spiritual
00:49 home of Guildford.
00:51 It closed in March, with the owners believing it was no longer profitable. But locals think
00:56 they can save it, and they've got form. In the last two years, the Guildford community
01:01 has run campaigns that led to the reopening of the local pub, and the local primary school.
01:08 These sorts of local, hyper-local institutions are what is the glue of any community, and
01:16 if they go, so does the community.
01:22 The plan to save the store involves locals buying into a community cooperative at around
01:27 $5,000 per share. So far, 70 residents have signed up.
01:32 We are very resilient. We won't stop until we actually get the outcome that we really
01:39 want.
01:39 For the General Store to reopen under the community co-op model, it needs another 130
01:44 residents to buy in. For a town of 360 people, that means Guildford needs residents from
01:50 other towns to get involved.
01:53 That would enable the co-op to buy the building.
01:55 It means that it's owned and run by the community. The community make the decisions for the store.
02:02 A dream for a store run by the people, for the people.
02:08 [laughter]
02:08 [end]
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