Co-op opens first store since lockdown

The St Mary’s Lane store is the first to be launched by the retailer since its building programme paused back in March due to the onset of Covid-19.

The store, which opens 7am until 10pm seven days a week, has created 12 jobs. The launch heralds a permanent home for the post office, upgrading the current mobile offering, which previously visited the village hall for 12 hours per week.

Opening the store was Co-op Food’s chief executive Jo Whitfieldand founder of Glastonbury Festival Michael Eavis.

Whitfield said: “Co-op’s arrival in Pilton is extremely symbolic for us and encapsulates the way in which our stores sit right at the heart of local communities. It’s wonderful to know that people living here will no longer have to travel to buy basic groceries and will also be able to enjoy the freedom that a full-time post office service brings. We’d like to thank Michael and everyone in the village for welcoming the Co-op so warmly.”

Eavis added: “When I was a small boy living in Pilton there were four shops – my favourite one was called Strickies, which sold sherbet in sticks of liquorice for one penny each. One by one, each shop was closed, the last one in 2012 following the village Post Office a year earlier. We managed to resurrect the Post Office in the Working Men’s Club building and, thanks to the Co-op, will remain there for the good of the village for years to come. It’s such a terrific thing to get these two most important parts of village life back again.”

In 2019 the Co-op was selected as Glastonbury’s first retail partner, with a 6,000sq ft store being erected on-site for the duration of the festival.