A Royal Wootton Bassett shop is facing an uncertain future, its owner says. 

The Town Pantry zero waste store has been serving locals from its Apsley House, High Street store with its climate-friendly and package-free ingredients and foods since September 2020. 

But in a post on its Facebook page at the beginning of March, owner Jo Portsmouth, revealed that the cost of living crisis sent energy prices and stock prices up, meaning that some days the cost of opening the store was greater than the money it was making. 

She added that if things didn't improve she may be forced to close the store for good. 

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The post received a strong reaction, and Jo has since made another post saying she was going to do what she could to keep the store trading. 

"It’s been quite difficult, owning an independent business, we got our shop during Covid, which was fine because we were able to be open during that time and we had customers coming to us when the supermarkets were out of stuff," she said. 

"You expect a dip in sales in January but it was a lot worse this year than last year, and continued into February and March. I wasn't sure it wouldn’t have just continued to get worse and worse and I was soon going to have to make a choice between paying staff or buying stock."

"The cost of electricity has gone up noticeably, we're not open every day so it's not as bad as it is for some places, but it has gone up. Also, the cost of our stock has gone up, gone up over the months, which I hadn't really noticed until recently.

Jo said she follows a lot of other zero-waste shops on Instagram and noticed that a lot of them were closing and she feared hers would be next. 

She's attributed the struggle to the fact that everyone is feeling the financial pinch of rising costs so they are shopping less. 

But since her 'use us or lose us' post on Facebook, Jo said that the store's future is looking much more promising than it initially was.

"Things are looking slightly more positive than they were at that time," she said. 

"People don’t want to see another independent shop to close. I’m very grateful for the support we’ve received from the public, it's been overwhelming."

The Town Pantry does delivery and collection, and Jo has recently changed the opening hours to try and accommodate more people. 

You can find out more about the business on its Facebook page here: https://www.facebook.com/thetownpantry