The topic for this year’s investigation is to assess if the location of the business is suitable and suggest if an alternative location would be better suited for the business.
Eight girls, Gina, Anoushka, Sophia, Kitty, Maria, Samantha, Emilia and Sophie travelled 10 miles by minibus to The Village Shop in Finchampstead. They interviewed the shop owner Sandy Barrie and customers visiting the shop to find out if the shop was in the right location. Luckily the weather was kind to us and it was a sunny but breezy morning. Finchampstead is a small village with about 1,700 residents, who are mainly retired, or directors, managers and other professionals. The girls found footfall was slow and to begin with only retired people or customers passing by to buy petrol. At midday the parents of pre-school children arrived at the village hall opposite the shop to collect their children. As they left the village hall the girls were able to interview them and add more data to their collection, although some parents jumped into their cars and drove off saying they didn’t know there was a village shop across the road and several who were interviewed did not use the shop. After about one hour there seemed to be no customers as it was now 1.30pm and people may have been at home or work having their lunch. We then decided to tour the local area to assess other suitable locations for The Village Shop.