A VILLAGE shopkeeper is today warning residents that if they do not use her shop they will lose it forever.Pauline Percy, who has run Capel Greengrocers for about nine years, believes community stores are the lifeblood of villages.

A VILLAGE shopkeeper is today warning residents that if they do not use her shop they will lose it forever.

Pauline Percy, who has run Capel Greengrocers for about nine years, believes community stores are the lifeblood of villages.

Mrs Percy, 57, worked in the shop at Capel St Mary as a member of staff until she bought the business herself, selling everything from fresh vegetables, to flowers and bouquets made to order and delivered for free within the community, pot plants, farmyard free range eggs, nuts, grains and pulses to fruit.

Customers are also greeted by the smells of homemade jams and chutney being prepared for sale at the shop, which also offers tea, coffee, sugar, cakes, biscuits, drinks, and crisps.

There is even a dry cleaning laundry service and a pets' corner stocking food for rabbits, hamsters, parrots, budgies, and guinea pigs.

Mrs Percy said: “We are putting up use or lose us signs in the window. We want to wake people up, we are struggling.

“Once shops are gone they are gone. We used to have a butchers but he has vanished now. I think we will survive, as long as people keep coming in, and don't just use us when they have forgotten something they need.”

Capel Greengrocers can be contacted on 01473 310462 and are doing special bouquet deliveries for Valentines Day.

Has your village lost its shop? Write to Your Letters, Evening Star, 30 Lower Brook Street, Ipswich, IP4 1AN or send an e-mail to eveningstarletters@eveningstar.co.uk