A grocery shop in Britain sans shopkeeper

LONDON - No shopkeeper to man it. Yet, a grocery store in Britain opens round the clock and sell household goods to the residents without fearing theft.

The village shop in Draughton, North Yorkshire, is never locked or manned, and relies on old-fashioned honesty to balance its books, Daily Mail reported.

The phone box-turned shop has been selling bread, milk, sandwiches, newspapers, stationary and an assortment of other essentials for the 250 residents of the village. But, in the past two weeks since the store opened for business, nothing has been stolen.

People place their orders by phone and goods are delivered daily by Lewis Cooke, who owns a newsagent’s four miles away in Skipton.

Cooke said: “The parish council got in touch and explained that they had got this phone box and wanted to use it as a place to leave groceries and newspapers for people.

“I said that would be fine and I deliver the things to the phone box every morning just before 7 a.m. I put a list of everything that we have in the phone box and people can just call up and tell me what they want.

“They know that it will be put in the phone box the next day and they can just come by whenever they want and pick it up. Everything has the person’s name on it so they can just collect it and go.

“Customers either pay with a credit card over the phone or by leaving a cheque for me. It has been amazing the way everyone has respected the things that are left there.

“The phone box isn’t locked and people can come and go in there when they want, but no one has taken a thing, which just shows how honest everyone around here is.”

Parish clerk Jane Markham, 50, said: “It’s a good example of the community spirit of the village, we all look after each other. We talked about putting a lock on it, but we decided it wasn’t necessary.”