Save our Kentucky Village Shop!

Kentucky NSW Co-op have decided it is not financially viable to pursue the existing shop premises in Noalimba Ave. We thank everyone who donated, or pledged to buy shares, filled in surveys, offered to support the shop and those who came to the public meeting. Our Kentucky community is a very small population, so it was an ambitious project and government grants toward buying the shop not accessible. A lot of time and effort was put into setting up the Co-op, but we were not able to raise enough funds to proceed. The shop is now closed.

We also wish the owners Rod & Deb well, to enjoy their new freedom without running the shop.

Thank you once again to all of you who so kindly donated on GoFundMe. We are refunding all your donations with our heartfelt thanks.

One very positive outcome of the project was that we learned a lot about the Co-operative movement in Australia and how many communities are having success in forming co-ops to take over village shops, pubs and other enterprises. It is an inspiring tale, with over 1900 co-ops in Australia, and several of them were very helpful to us in the process. We still have confidence in the co-op model, but the project didn't prove to be viable in this case.