The closure of the general store in Guildford, Central Victoria, after 108 years was a significant blow to the small community. However, the resilient residents, having previously saved their local pub and successfully reopened the primary school, refused to accept this setback passively. Motivated by their past achievements, the community is actively seeking investors to help buy back the store and run it themselves, demonstrating their strong commitment to preserving their local institutions and sustaining their community's spirit and economy.
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00:00The doors to the General Store are closed, but locals gather, united by a cause.
00:08The Guildford General Store is the heart of the town, along with the pub.
00:12Without it, I feel like part of the soul has been removed.
00:15For 90-year-old Heather McGiven, known locally as Shop Nan, the General Store holds decades
00:21of memories.
00:22We used to play around the big tree there, run rabbit run, and I used to pretend I was
00:28the farmer with the gun and go chasing them.
00:33It just means so much.
00:35For Lisa Daniel, the General Store inspired her to move from Melbourne.
00:39I have been a regular at the General Store pretty much every day, spending my money on
00:44stuff and it's incredibly sad to not have it running at the moment.
00:48It's the spiritual home of Guildford.
00:51It closed in March, with the owners believing it was no longer profitable, but locals think
00:56they can save it, and they've got form.
00:59In the last two years, the Guildford community has run campaigns that led to the reopening
01:03of the local pub and the local primary school.
01:09These sorts of local, hyper-local institutions are what is the glue of any community and
01:17if they go, so does the community.
01:21The plan to save the store involves locals buying in to a community cooperative, at around
01:26$5,000 per share.
01:28So far, 70 residents have signed up.
01:31We are very resilient, we won't stop until we actually get the outcome that we really
01:37want.
01:38For the General Store to reopen under the community co-op model, it needs another 130
01:43residents to buy in.
01:45For a town of 360 people, that means Guildford needs residents from other towns to get involved.
01:52That would enable the co-op to buy the building.
01:55It means that it's owned and run by the community, the community make the decisions for the store.
02:04A dream for a store run by the people, for the people.