| 20th April 2008 - Londis to become
One-Stop. End of an era.
From Richard Edwardson: We arrived with
a shed load of debt and no experience, about two weeks before the
beginning of the worst recession since the war. Interest rates soared,
businesses closed, people lost their homes and trade suffered, but we
survived. Unfortunately
we had to close down the butchery department a few years ago when that
trade went into freefall, but weren’t we lucky; along came Terry Wright
who started up the most wonderful deli counter in store. It got too busy The assets in Londis have never been the items on the shelf, they have always been the people who have been employed there, very special people, very carefully chosen, and so a massive thanks to all of you who have helped us over the year.
It’s time for
Lynda and I to retire now; our last day will be Sunday 20th
April. A number of parties expressed a desire to purchase the store but
only One-Stop were prepared to make a massive commitment to refurbish the
store inside and out, thus safeguarding its future.
Because you are
Wivenhoe people, you will know how much Lynda and I, and all our team have
enjoyed a very special relationship with you. Thank you all
for all your friendship and support for the last twenty years. Richard and
Lynda Edwardson
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It
was a leap year day, February 29th 1988 when Lynda and I took
over Londis. I had lost my job and couldn’t find another one; our very
old friends Gary and Christine Grant had run Londis for two years with
hardly a day off and were looking to move on. After about two minutes of
tough negotiating i.e. 
for Terry, so his wife Rita came to help, but that just made the counter
even busier and they had to enlist the help of Terry’s brother, Ron,
sadly no longer with us. Terry and Rita retired, no-one could have
replaced them, so we went over to boring old pre-packed stuff, (sorry
about that). For more about Terry and Rita - click 
For
many years Lynda has taken a step back from the store and has run the
office side of the business, a daunting amount of paper and an ever
increasing amount of red tape, whilst I have been concentrating on getting
my golf handicap down. So who’s been running the shop then? Once again
we hit the Jackpot. Jacquie Wiggins has been our full time manageress for
many years, responsible for absolutely everything, and it is a great
tribute to Jacquie and the staff she has chosen that the store has
developed such a strong community spirit. 
