The village is well-known as Formula One driver David Coulthard’s childhood home. It is beside the main A75 that links the towns of the southwest with Stranraer, so there is considerable passing trade. The shop’s turnover last year was £180,000.
The problems: Most village shops in the area have closed. As a result, say the agents, the surrounding villages and farms rely on the shop and there is “an almost untapped market on the doorstep”. Another interpretation might be that as the other village stores have closed, this one stands every chance of following them. The A75 narrowly bypasses the village, but it means that the passing trade is only those motorists who turn off the road into the village.
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The advantages: It is an ideal start to rural living. While retail experience would obviously be an advantage, it should not be too hard to learn how to run a village store. An imaginative new owner might turn it into a goldmine by moving into garden equipment, or hardware, for example. Living over the store might seem like a thing of the past, but it does offer advantages: no journey to work, no problems with out-of-hours deliveries. And no problems with security.
Perhaps most appealing of all would be the opportunity, a year hence, to write an I-gave-it-all-up-to-run-a-village-store book that might make your name and your fortune.