Goodbye to Sound Bites

 Over 19 years ago, a group of passionate people had a vision to make healthy food accessible on the high street of Derby. From a tiny stall in the Guildhall market to the hodgepodge shop on The Morledge where we’ve been for the last 16 years, that dream has truly been accomplished. It’s brought us great joy to serve you all these years, but now’s it’s time to hang up our aprons and close Sound Bites.

I’m sure a lot of people won’t be surprised. We’re all constantly being inundated with news about the huge struggles being faced by small businesses during this ongoing cost of living crisis, so we won’t go into too much detail on that now. Yes, we’ve been massively impacted by these struggles and we’re making the decision to close the shop on a high, rather than watching it go into what feels like an inevitable steep decline as bills continue to increase.

But whilst the shop still has a wonderful and loyal customer base, the truth is that a lot less people chose to shop with us now and Covid-19 has seemingly permanently changed peoples’ shopping habits. Once upon a time we were one of the only places that catered for specialised diets in Derby, but now supermarkets have latched on to the popularity of veganism and have the buying power to sell things cheaper. That’s a double edge sword for us, as we’re obviously delighted that veganism and organic foods are on the rise, but supermarkets aren’t always a good substitution for independent businesses. Independent business owners will ask you how your day’s going, will remember what you like to order and we’ll even remember your pets’ names if you want us to!

We’ve watched on with heavy hearts as stall holders with businesses older than ours have been uprooted from the Eagle Market. And in their place are rumours of another supermarket or a 29-storey flat. We hope that Derby city council realise the value of having and actively supporting a diverse range of businesses to help the city flourish.

We’ll be closing at the end of May and until then, please do drop in for a chat- it’s a hard time for all the staff so please be considerate of their feelings. We’ll miss the weather updates throughout the day, debates about the best way to prepare cabbages and people’s constant protests that every day should be samosa day! We’d also like to take this opportunity to thank the 18 co-op members that have helped shape the shop over the last two decades and for all of you for making Sound Bites the community driven shop it always has been. We couldn’t have achieved any of this without your support. 

With love and gratitude,

The Sound Bites Team