New vegan grocery store

Here is some excellent news.

Birmingham (in the UK, not Alabama USA) is about to get a brand new vegan retail outlet.  This will be the second 100% vegan shop in the city. Geez, Birmingham. Don’t be so greedy!

Get a sneaky look inside the still-being-built shop below and read what the owner has to say about the new outlet which just happens to be named Vegan Store. Catchy, right?

How exciting to imagine that shop front overflowing with vegan groceries!

I reached out to the owner of Vegan Store for a little introduction:

The actual owner of the Vegan Store is Karma Webb (me). I already own a vegan friendly tattoo studio and yes Karma is the name on my driving licence. I am a Buddhist and have taken Refuge vows in the Karma Kagyu lineage of Tibetan Buddhism which is why my name is Karma. To me all sentient life is linked and therefore a vegan lifestyle works hand in hand with my beliefs.

I plan to open the store in July and hopefully within the next 2 weeks though there is no definite date yet as I am at the mercy of the companies I order from and I have already experienced delays with deliveries so patience is most definitely needed. Hopefully it shall be worth the wait though. I am setting up the new business whilst running my studio and being a single parent so its meant some long nights.

There is only one other small vegan shop in Birmingham which I find ludicrous for such a big city, I felt there was room for another shop and I had in mind something bigger with a wider range of stock. Though I must stress I am not in competition with anyone else, I simply wanted to offer the vegan community my vision of a vegan store. The first stage is all about the food but I do have other things planned in my head should this stage be a success.

The main focus of the store to begin with is predominantly everything I struggled to find when shopping and the suggestions I received from the local vegan community prior to starting the ordering process. So there will be a variety of cheeses and deli meat substitutes and all the usual tofu, tempeh and seitan goodies as well as a large frozen selection. I also wanted to include our vegan pet companions so I am currently talking to some vegan pet food suppliers. Of course I also have to ensure I have plenty of vegan confectionary as otherwise I think I would be upsetting a lot of the local vegans and their children. I appreciate I won’t be able to please everyone immediately but with time and the help of the vegan community I feel I should be able to get products that most people want. Its difficult to know what to stock at times as we have to accept that mainstream supermarkets can stock some items at a far cheaper price than myself however I shall be happy to stock whatever I can that people need. Also I felt it was important to support local independent traders so I have some locals providing sauces and soaps etc.

The local community have been very supportive and I have had lots and lots of suggestions and requests. I merely had a vision of where I would like to shop and that’s what I am trying to open.

You can keep up to date with all things Vegan Store on Facebook.

Support independent vegan grocery stores!

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