OFM awards 2015 best independent retailer: Beanies Wholefoods

In the age of the big supermarket, your winner is a thriving Sheffield co-operative with nearly 30 years experience – and a popular organic box delivery service

 The team from Beanies, Sheffield. Photograph: Murdo MacLeod for Observer Food Monthly

Killian Fox

For the past three decades Beanies Wholefoods has been selling good, healthy, seasonal food at reasonable prices to the people of Sheffield. This may not sound like a glamorous achievement but, as the many loyal customers who voted it best independent retailer will testify, it is worth celebrating. Recessions have struck, food trends have come and gone and supermarkets have popped up around it, yet Beanies thrives.

The shop, which operates as a co-operative, is on an uphill stretch of road in Walkley. Over the years, the business has colonised a pair of adjacent terraced houses, and now the shop floor spreads across both properties – bread, dairy produce and store-cupboard items on one side, green groceries on the other.

Down in the basement is where fruit and veg are packed for delivery: Beanies has run an organic box scheme in Sheffield for more than 20 years. “It’s half our business,” says Heather Adams, the friendly co-op member showing me around. “We wouldn’t be able to have such an amazing range – fresh organic herbs, handpicked salads – without the box scheme.”

Around 500 deliveries are made each week, and Heather tells me that recently a customer was worrying about a prospective move into the nearby countryside when she realised Beanies didn’t deliver beyond the city limits. Customers regularly cross town or travel in from Doncaster and Chesterfield to stock up.

Heather tells me there’s always been a market for organic and vegan food in the area, though the core community is reasonably small. “Everyone knows one another,” she says. “New companies come along but there’s never competition in the way supermarkets have competition. We encourage other independent shops, people support each other.”

Four years ago, one of the co-op members, Matt West, left to set up a market garden called Sheffield Organic Growers on the south-eastern edge of the city. He didn’t stray far. Beanies is now his main buyer and the shop can advertise organic stock that’s properly local. On the day I visit, a box full of Matt’s vegetables – including giant beetroots, rhubarb, fennel, cavolo nero and broad beans, all beautifully fresh – is on proud display by the window.

Beanies currently has seven core members who share responsibilities and ownership of the company, plus one member-in-training and four part-time staff. “There’s no hierarchy, though some of us are a bit bossier than others,” says Heather, before adding in a whisper: “I think that’s me at the moment.” In the past, all members were vegan or vegetarian, but they’ve relaxed that rule recently, allowing in the occasional meat-eater – if only to make it easier to convert them.

Beanies’ staff tend to stick around. Heather has been there 11 years and a couple of other members have been around for 15 or more. Dave, who is down in the basement boxing vegetables, is merely in his second year (his colleagues refer to him as “the spring bean”).

They’re all thrilled about the OFM award. “It’s a word-of-mouth kind of shop,” says Heather. “So it gives us a boost.”