Happy New Year! And a massive thank you to everyone in Dunkeld & Birnam who supported our fantastic local shops and producers in the run up to the festive season. The candlelit late night shopping evening in December really shone a light on the great shopping choices on our doorstep.
As we look forward to better times ahead in 2021, local food shop owners are turning their thoughts to how to best support our local community when the Coop in Dunkeld closes from 18th January through to some time in April.

In this special edition of The Bridge we’re focussing on those local independent food and drink shops who will ensure that we can plug the gap that the closure of The Coop will inevitably leave for a while.
We’ve put together some information and top tips here to share the ways that local residents can keep their essential food shopping local over the next few months, and beyond.
Some of you may worry about choice of products and about price when The Coop closes and it’s true that our smaller independent food retailers don’t have the massive buying power of big supermarket chains…. but we
do think you’ll be pleasantly surprised at the prices we are able to offer.
It’s also worth remembering too that local shops employ local folk and often buy products from local producers so are a vital part of keeping Dunkeld & Birnam a vibrant place to live and work. There aren’t many small towns in Scotland with such a great choice of food shops on their doorstep!
Please do come on in and see us over the next few weeks and months. We will be thinking carefully about the products we stock to make sure that people can get hold of all their usual shopping staples, at reasonable prices.
It goes without saying that local food shops operate in a Covid-secure way, making sure you’ll all feel safe and welcome. This is particularly important during lockdown of course.
Several local shops have been delivering food since last March and alongside the PH8 Group, can arrange to get your shopping dropped off, if that’s what you need. And if you don’t see what you want when you come in it’s always worth asking us if we can order your favourite products in; we can often respond more quickly than a bigger supermarket would.
So rather than jumping in the car or shopping online, why not look local and enjoy our famously friendly Dunkeld & Birnam food and drink shops.
We’re looking forward to seeing you soon!