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Family shop a supermarket cannot match
• ONE of the real benefits of living in Dartmouth Park is that we are lucky enough to have a fabulous local shop in the centre of our “village”.
It is known as George’s in York Rise and the Georgiou family, starting with George’s parents, have served and enhanced the local area for many years.
Very recently George has announced that he and his extended family will be retiring from the business and he will hand the lease over to a new owner in the next couple of weeks.
This is really sad news for the neighbourhood, the Georgiou family have become friends to many of us and we have followed the lives of their family as they have with ours. Many children have grown up with them and learned how to shop and how to count money while George or his sister Christine sit patiently at the till.
The shop is our larder, our local meeting place, we meet friends and neighbours and exchange invitations, news and, dare I say, benign gossip.
For some privileged customers, mostly those of us who have lived in the area for decades, there are the coveted accounts. I’m sure many of these account holders do most of their shopping at George’s, I certainly do. We know that we can request new products and George will bring them in and try them out. In this way the shop has a fantastic and varied stock, from baked beans to pomegranate molasses, fresh bunches of coriander and delicious Cypriot cheeses, a huge range of bread, from white sliced to organic sour dough and on Friday the lovely fresh bagels and the milky sweet Chollahs. I am a beekeeper and he has even sold my honey.
It is true to say that our family diet has been influenced by George’s, we eat like Greek Cypriots and often pop into the shop to ask Christine for a recipe for broad beans or chard stalks.
None of these advantages can be had at a supermarket, we can and we all know we really should shop locally and having a shop like George’s makes it possible.
We really need our shop and the new owner will find loyal, friendly customers. George’s is a hard act to follow but if he keeps the same stock and listens to customer’s needs he should do really well.
I would like to take this opportunity to say a really heartfelt thank you to George, Christine, and Chris as well as Mary, Dora, Joanna and Christina, We wish them well with their new ventures.
I know we’ll keep in touch. Might I suggest a small experiment, as a mark of gratitude to George for his long service to us all. Do your weekly shop in York Rise instead of a supermarket. Leave your car at home and don’t forget to take your cloth bag with you.
See you in George’s.
Deborah
Schneebeli Morrell
York Rise, NW5
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