Brighton, UK-based ‘supermarket rebels’ HISBE have opened their second store today, on Portland Road, Worthing.
Sisters Ruth and Amy Anslow and their friend Jack Simmonds opened HISBE’s (How It Should Be) Brighton pilot store in 2013 with the aim of offering an ethical alternative to the UK’s ‘big four’ supermarket scene.
Forward-thinking
The location for HISBE’s long-awaited second outlet was finally settled when Amy moved to the West Sussex town, just 10 miles along the coast from Brighton. She quickly really realised that its “unique mix of traditional local pride and forward-thinking spirit” could make it the perfect venue for store number two.
£450,000 worth of funding for the Worthing store was raised in early 2020 through Triodos Bank’s crowdfunding platform, and a May opening was planned. Covid-19 quickly put paid to that idea, but the HISBE team regrouped quickly and the opening was rescheduled for January 2021, a still ambitious date in the circumstances. The life-changing experience of the pandemic also provided the impetus for HISBE’s current ‘Back to Better’ campaign which sits behind the Worthing store launch and aims to engage people in “better food and farming”. The campaign draws on the “renewed hope” and the shift in public interest in food and sustainability issues.
Only way is Sussex
HISBE is operated as a ‘social enterprise’. The retailer pledges that “when you spend a £1 with us with us, we spend most of it in Sussex”. Of that £1, 68p goes to suppliers and the rest pays HISBE staff the Real Living Wage and covers overheads.
HISBE says: “Our shop is full of good stuff that you can’t get at the big supermarkets, from local and seasonal fruit and veg, and Sussex meat and dairy, to packaging-free food and cleaning liquids on tap.”
Main image: HISBE’s new Worthing store (HISBE, via Facebook)
