Since 1955 the family-run Scotts Fresh Fruit & Vegetable Wholesalers has being supplying restaurants, shops, and businesses throughout Northern Ireland with fresh produce. During the pandemic they decided to provide the same fresh produce directly to the public, so Peter Scott established the Farm Shop & General Store in October 2020.

Peter was inspired to open a shop where he could interact directly with his customers as he believes the experience of shopping is feeling, smelling, or tasting different products before buying and having a conversation with the shopkeeper. Scotts Farm Shop offers a mix of fresh, quality produce from all over the world alongside local artisan produce accompanied by great customer service. 

"The shop has introduced me to some very special people, which I believe is the soul of retail."

What makes Scott's Farm Shop so unique? The uniqueness of the shop is found in the blend of beautiful, fresh produce from all over the world, exemplary local artisan produce and in creating a relaxing, creative space where customers can feel both welcomed and inspired. We work hard every day to maintain the freshness of produce and great customer care.

Why did you open Scott's Farm Shop? I was inspired to open the shop really by the contrast of what we strive to do in our shop - retail in many ways and instances has become all about bargains and convenience and less about quality and customer care (meaning supermarkets and high street brands). I wanted to open a store that focused on these qualities above everything else to provide an alternative space that would inspire customers about their cooking as well as lifestyle. 

What do you love about being a shopkeeper? As cliche as it sounds, what I love about having a shop is the people it offers an opportunity to meet. Whether that’s suppliers, customers or staff, the shop has introduced me to some very special people, which I believe is the soul of retail. Without our many independent suppliers (many of them local) the shop wouldn’t be anywhere near as interesting and without a great range of personalities in our customers each curious in various way about some aspect of what we do and our fantastic staff all of which work very hard to keep the shop evolving whilst ensuring it stays the same. Without any of these groups of people, our shop would lose a great deal of its character which would be a tragedy. 

"It may be contrary to the corporate analysis and data that believes retail will shift to purely convenience and remove human beings from the equation either in the form of serving staff (ie “shopkeepers”) or by removing customers from coming into a physical store but the future of retail has to be personal and individual, as it has always been in the past. Our society has changed in recent decades to incorporate supermarkets and the Amazon’s into our daily lives which isn’t likely to be removed anytime soon but extracting the experience of going to a shop and feeling, smelling or tasting different products before buying them and having a conversation with the shopkeeper about their day or taking our time to take another slow lap around the shop to make sure you’ve seen everything are all things that I believe are part of the great future or retail. In my eyes, the future of retail is what retail has always been but back to a more focused version - people working with people."