Welcome to Nicci Barnett

Nicci has joined the staff to help on Saturdays, but once trained, she will also be able to give us considerable help in the school holidays.  Nicci lives in Kneesworth and has worked in shops before.  Her first Saturday will be the 9th October - be kind to her as she gets to know the complicated way we run things in the shop, and please make her welcome!  Jenny and David are getting up to speed rapidly and are already able to man the shop on their own on Saturdays, and Sue (who many of you will already know) is now playing a major role in our business.  Together with Helen and the volunteers, we have a great team and we feel very lucky!  We send Claire every best wish for her future and thank her for the excellent service she has given us on Saturdays for a very long time indeed.

The 100 Club

Almost everyone who bought a number in the first year of draws has returned for the second year.  There are a few people who are away from the village, or who we haven't seen for a while who have yet to declare but we are confident they will want to retain their numbers.  We have already sold plenty of tickets between 101 and 150 and when we complete this batch of sales, we will be offering four prizes per month, of £50, £30, £20 and £10.  If anyone wants to have a number, or another one, please contact us in the shop and we'll let you know which ones are still available.  Be lucky!

The next draw will take place in the Green Man on the evening of Wednesday 20th October. This will be the last one under the old prize system, only renewed numbers will go into the November draw.

New Items in the Shop

We have got a new selection of toys for the kids in the shop, and we've expanded the range of sweets available - the confectionery counter is heaving under the weight of the extra stock!

For the more mature customer (!) we have some lovely calendars with pictures of the village available to send to your friends overseas or far away - make them jealous of where we are lucky enough to live.  Look out too for new things in the deli - we have lovely game pie, smoked salmon, brawn, pate and specialist meat cuts.  We have some very cheap bottles of wine, but these won't last long so go get them now.  We have also got a few gift boxes of chocolates.  All this is a preview of how we are already preparing for Christmas - yes we hear you say, "it is only October" - but we have to get stock in before others take it.  Watch this space for more details of our Christmas offerings but rest assured we will have lots of small but perfectly formed gifts for you and your family to buy when the time comes.

If anyone is interested in the Wine Club, we are in the middle of the third round this year, please reply to this mail if you want to order anything.

Delivery to Order from Leech's Butchers in Melbourn

Anyone who has been in this area for a while will probably know that the best butcher in the region is Leech's on the crossroads in Melbourn.  Forget Tesco with its supposed "Finest" ranges, if you want good meat, you go to Leech's.  Now, you can get the same quality meat from Thriplow Shop.  We've done a deal with Leech's so that they will deliver to customer order on Thursdays, so your weekend meals can be catered for - no other local shop is provided by Leech's in this way!  All you need to do is to tell us by the end of Wednesday, what meat you need and how much it should weigh or cost.  We will gather together the orders and pass them on to Leech's and Simon Leech will deliver on Thursday.  We hope this will be a success and we would just ask you to give it a try and see how good meat can be.  It is fairly safe to assume that they will be able to provide anything you need.

Financial Performance

We were disappointed that August was only as good as it was in 2009, although it was perfectly understandable as people were away from the village.  However, we hoped to come back strong in September, and that we did!  Our sales were £13,500 in the month, that is 12% above our target and 30% and 45% above the previous two Septembers.  This shows we are on the right track, and progressing towards a safety margin.  Now, we can make decisions to buy good quantities of stock in advance of events and important calendar days, now we can afford to get our fridges serviced, now we can afford to take a few more risks in search of giving you a better service.  Thanks to our customers and staff for keeping faith through the difficult times.

That's all for now....

TVSA