Greengrocer wanted!

Please, please will someone out there consider opening a really good greengrocer’s somewhere in the vicinity of Forest Hill station?

Waters never really cut it as a combined greengrocer/fishmonger – not enough to offer – and then it disappeared.

I would love Stoke Newington Green or its sister shop Newington Green Fruit and Veg to open in FH, but someone modelling themselves on them would do well too. Big variety of good quality fruit, veg, herbs, and long hours seven days a week. Ideal!

I’d be a loyal customer…

There are so many convenience shops selling the same crap - fizzy drinks, sweets, cigarettes, cheap booze, tinned foods, almost nothing fresh except milk.

One of the shops near the station - which is a collection point for one of the parcel services - asked me to shop more often with him as he was “local”. I told him I’d bear it in mind, but when I looked round the shop, I couldn’t see anything I might want except a Bounty bar.

With fresh foods, you need to be prepared to take a loss until you build a customer base, and that is why there are thousands of shops with long life products and very few with a wide range of fresh foods. It’s very challenging and risky if your own money is at stake.

Agreed. It is also really hard to complete with supermarkets which can buy in massive bulk, have and the benefit of sales from non-perishable goods, and can afford to throw away plenty of less-than-fresh produce.

Talk to them. If they have experience of setting up successful greengrocers, maybe they would expand - and it would increase their own buying power to have multiple outlets.

There’s a good hybrid of a greengrocer and convenience store opposite the Bishop in Dulwich. I’ll speak to them whem I next pop in. Maybe an established business with such a mix of produce would be a less high-risk tennant but while also giving locals what they want.

I have thought about this.
I was talking to a local shop-keeper who sells some veg alongside his offerings and he said they make zero profit out of it - it is just done as a draw\attraction. I asked him about setting up a greengrocer’s and he laughed saying that they wouldn’t even cover the rent. Basically there is no profit in fruit and veg unless you sell high end or you own the premises- hence, I think, why Waters went that way with expensive “posh” offerings.
Either that or you try a hybrid approach (again Waters and others) or you add value by selling smoothies etc.
So I wonder how the likes of Beaumont’s in Nunhead and the shops mentioned above, make a profit.
Do they own their own premises?

My local store in Camberwell once started selling veg out front. You know the type. Anything in a bowl for £1. The store owner (coincidentally the nephew of the guy who owned the Dewanium in Forest Hill) told me these arrangement are all out sourced to one of a few firms who do nothing but this type of work. As @Foresthillnick suggested, he didn’t make a penny out of it but it was meant to drive traffic into the shop.

It didn’t. They stopped.

I’d love something like SMBS Food in East Dulwich. I go for their high quality veg… and always end up buying something interesting from its canned/dried goods section. I once mentioned a Forest Hill outlet to the guy and he was of the opinion we were all going there anyways.

And in case anyone wasn’t aware… Aga’s Little Deli has a decent yet small range of fresh veg for sale. Hardly on the scale or, or cheap as a green grocer’s but sometimes a nice alternative to hyper-packaged and sanitized veg of Sainsbury’s, or the often non-existent stock of the Coop.

SMBS is amazing. As is Pretty Traditional on North Cross Road which is a more traditional Greengrocer/Fruiterer - haven’t been there in a while but hope that is still open.

Am pretty sure these businesses hold the freehold and are family run.

Another fan of SMBS here. Also the Turkish grocers further down next to Chener Books – I think it is called Organic Village Market. They have olives, bread, simit, hummus at the back of the store.

It is. And I gather they own/operate the Cheeseblock further down the road too.

Turkish shops are amazing. Near my old house in Camberwell was the Turkish Food Centre (TFC) which was part of a small chain mostly based in North London. Besides veg you could get a bucket of olives for a fraction of the price anywhere else. I also used the Turkish shop near Catford Bridge when I was using their Charing Cross services before the Southern Line to London Bridge re-opened.

That would be a great addition as well though they require a fairly large footprint.

+1 re Turkish shops & TFC. I miss the Lewisham branch. Hope it re-opens after the building is re-developed. The 2nd best shop in Lewisham!

The Turkish supermarket on Forest Hill Road is also good.

Yes the SMBS is exactly the one I was referring to in ED - love it there. Turkish Express in Catford is fantastic too, go there regularly as is TFC on the Bromley Road but if these are business with long standing leases or they’re the owners of freehold on their shops, that maybe be the reason why they can afford to successfully run that style of shop.

Penge Food Centre on Sydenham High Street is brilliant, and across the road there’s a decent fruit and veg shop. In combination they’ve covered nearly everything I’ve looked for other than artichokes which I had to pick up in Franklins, East Dulwich.

I was wondering when someone was going to mention Fresh and Fruity in Sydenham .
I think some of this pining for Stoke Newington type hipster veg is missing the point .
Fresh and Fruity sell a wide range of fresh vegetables and fruits , nuts and dried fruit , African and Caribbean veg and spices and display where everything comes from - and loads of it is local , all of it is fresh and fairly priced . They’ve been in business many years - I’m sure it pays when you offer excellent customer service like they do -and they are a huge asset to Sydenham .
I hate those grotty little £1 bowls of unlabelled stuff - could they be you haven’t got a proper greengrocer ?