York Supplies, a hardware store in Birmingham, England, had been serving its customers for 75 years. Recently, it fell on hard times. The UK has been struggling with post-Brexit and post-Covid economic woes that make Canada’s economic challenges seem minor in comparison.
In what the BBC called the “first time in England a hardware shop had been saved in this way,” local residents were invited to invest in the business and form a single store co-operative. The equivalent of $588,000 in funding was raised in just six weeks. Naomi Standen, chair of the York Supplies Action Group, said members had been “astounded and delighted” by the level of support.
