A day in the life of The Naked Grocer
4AM: I wake up and venture to one of London’s bustling wholesale markets.
In London we are very lucky to have a multitude of choice when it comes to Wholesale markets, supplying fruit and veg. We have New Covent Garden Market, Western International Market and Spittalfields.
For fresh fish you have Billingsgate and for meat you have Smithfield’s.
So when I arrive at one of London’s bustling, boisterous wholesale markets I will walk around to see what is available from every corner of the earth and at what prices.
As you may or may not be aware the fresh produce’s prices fluctuate dramatically. Poor weather or problems in transportation, fluctuations in exchange rates or problems with a particular crop can all have a huge effect on the volume of product coming into the UK.
So after I’ve walked around to inquire about prices and availability, exchanged a bit of banter and more than likely been called a few choice words I load my van.
7AM: I get back to the shop and unload the van, ready to set up the shop. By this time my sisters have hopefully arrived to help.
After setting up the shop we start to put together our food service orders, this is the side of the business that deals with coffee shops, cafes bars, pubs sandwich shops, etc. So after the orders are complete we send them out on the vans.
9AM: Even though the shop has only opened it feels we have done half a day all ready, although it’s just beginning!
We keep the shelves restocked and continue to check the quality – as with fresh produce the quality is something you need to constantly monitor.
Then I will either go to a few of the local farms to pick up some local produce or to the ocal nursery we work with.
Dependent on whether we have enough cover in the shop I will then try and do my least favourite task; the admin, sorting invoices and bills, etc.
As we are only a new company I still spend a lot of my time trying to build up new customers, suppliers… or indeed writing blogs!
6PM: We start to pull the front in and pack away, stock check and write the list for the next day.
It is very long hours and hard work but when you have a good day with lots of nice people coming in it’s all worth it, and as long as you have a good team working with you, it’s all worthwhile. I have a good team, so thanks to Jacqui, Stephanie, Millie, Jeff, Chrissy and we are still waiting for craig!