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STUDY FOR CAE: READING
PART TWO (sequence of paragraphs)
The Village Shop
Complete the passage with the correct paragraphs from those (A - G) which follow. There is one more paragraph than you need.
Attempts are being made in England to save the village shop which has been under attack from the supermarkets and from changing consumer habits. It is estimated that half the village shops in Britain will close within five years unless something is done to save them.
1.
Too many people with no previous retailing experience are buying village shops, often with redundancy payments, and discovering through harsh experience that running them is not the idyllic experience they had imagined. They come in with dreams in their head and insufficient capital behind them with no awareness of the practical implications, like low profit margins, the very long hours, the need for strict administrative discipline to cope with things like VAT and control a relatively wide product range. While big supermarket chains can secure large discounts from suppliers. the small retailer cannot hope to compete on big value items.
2.
Counselling of village shopkeepers by consultants familiar through personal experience with small shop problems can solve many difficulties and greatly increase efficiency.
3.
As a long-time salesman for H J Heinz, from which he had taken voluntary redundancy, Mr Perkins, now aged 48, thought he knew a lot about the grocery business. He said, " We had always holidayed in the West Country, so we decided a village shop would be the ideal way to invest our money."
4.
In the first week they were open for business, they took £352. Although Kingston is a cul-de-sac village. off the Plymouth to Kingsbridge main road, it is near the sea, and has a public house, so an uplift from summer tourist trade was expected. After 12 months they had used their surplus cash. The overdraft was mounting every week.
5.
Mr Perkins enlisted the help of the parish council in a "Your village shop use it or lose it " campaign He also called in a consultant - "he ripped us apart - in the nicest possible way." The village used the Perkins's shop over the Christmas period: £2,000 came over the counter in eight days.
6.
The emphasis is on personal service: cheese is cut on the board, ham is sliced off the bone, there is no pre-packed bacon, and goods can be delivered. The result has been that last year turnover reached £38,000, or £730 a week on average, with about £50,000 in prospect for this year, which would be not far short of £1,000 a week. In the first quarter, takings were up nearly 70 per cent over the same period last year.
Mr Perkins is planning to bring in more upmarket products like luxury ice cream and delicatessen lines. " if you get it right on what people want, the fate of a village shop like ours does not necessarily revolve round the issue of price. Now I'm watching the overdraft come down," he said.
A. One success story is that of Mr Derrick Perkins and his wife, Margaret, who run the village post office and store in Kingston (population, 250) in south Devon.
B. This would be a disaster for the community which today revolves as much round the shop as it does round the pub or church.
C. They were falling short by £40 to £50 a month. They knew they were up against it.
D. Of course, a small shop in an idyllic part of rural England may seem to be an idyllic job if you enjoy the way of life of a small community in which everyone knows everything about everyone else. It would not appeal to everyone.
E. There is an embarrassing number of village shopkeepers to be seen buying stock at the hypermarkets in the same queue as some of their own villagers.
F. Improvements like new shelving displays and lines which brought customers in more regularly, from newspapers and milk to wines and spirits and chilled fresh foods, generated more business.
G. The couple had been told to expect an average weekly turnover of £650 a week.
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