Retailer Craig Warren has - in one way or another - been involved in The Corner Stores in Mildenhall in Suffolk since 1987.
Admittedly, Craig was only five when his parents bought the store almost 40 years ago, but he says he can still remember its more humble origins, especially when you compare it to the store today. “It’s still family run but a lot’s changed. It would just have been a traditional newsagent when my parents first took over.
“We built one extension in the early 2000s and doubled the size then to what it is now. Then, in 2020, just after Covid, we did a massive refit and took on the Costcutter fascia and rapidly increased the chilled offering,” Craig recalls.
But the growth doesn’t stop there. This year will see a further expansion, again massively increasing the store’s retail footprint. “We’re going to nearly double the size again, taking it to 1,400 sq.ft.” Craig adds.
Described by the retailer as “a rural store that doesn’t feel like a rural store,” Craig’s shop has recently been making a name for itself with its Snappy Shopper deliveries over the past three years. He explains: “We’ve just been growing it. We did a lot of deliveries during Covid, but they were all via the phone.
”There’s definitely more out there for us to go and get.”
“Then it progressed to app-based deliveries, which we started in May 2023 through Snappy Shopper. I genuinely believe that we’re still scratching the surface. There’s definitely more out there for us to go and get.”
Craig’s imminent refit will, he believes, allow him to cater to what he says is a large passing trade the area around his store gets. “Having lived here for 95% of my life, it doesn’t seem rural to me, but it is, with lots of passing trade. We do a bit of food to go, which we’re going to try and increase when we reopen the store,” he says.
Craig goes on to highlight some of the other areas of the store he’ll be focusing on when he reopens after the refit - a process he’s assured should only mean four days or so of closure. “Chilled is definitely one of the growing parts of the business. Plus alcohol, and frozen actually is growing quite quickly as well. We do a lot of the frozen meal deals and stuff like that, like most Costcutter retailers.”
Locally, there are two military bases near to Mildenhall which affect the demographic. “The local community is well embedded in the military side of things as we have RAF Mildenhall and USAF Lakenheath quite close,” Craig says.
”The biggest challenges for us are legislation and taxation.”
Looking forwards, challenges for The Corner Stores will be familiar to most, if not all retailers, Craig believes. “The biggest challenges for us are legislation and taxation.
”Other than that, maybe it’s the rising costs from food inflation - it’s a struggle to communicate that sometimes to customers. It makes us look greedy and that really isn’t the case. Those are the three big things and that probably runs across the board for stores.”
On a more positive note, and outside of the refit, other Costcutter-related factors are giving Craig optimism for the year ahead. He says: “The refit’s taking up 99% of my life at the moment. I mean, there are worse problems to have, so I’m grateful and thankful. Hopefully that will catapult us into the next level.
“We’ll take on Costcutter’s Bargain Booze hybrid format so that will hopefully work really well.”
“We’ll take on Costcutter’s Bargain Booze hybrid format so that will hopefully work really well. The retailers that have already taken that model are really pleased with the Bargain Booze side of things. You can access a bigger range and a better price - better promotions too.
“The good thing about the increase in food to go, the increase in frozen food, more dairy choice - all these will lead nicely on to the Snappy Shopper app, so it all will roll into one and where we see an increase in the Bargain Booze side of things, that will go on to Snappy Shopper and then give everybody a better range, a better price and better promotions.”
That tech element of his business’ growth goes hand in hand with Craig’s approach to marketing. In 2025, he also appeared as a panel speaker at the Q-Commerce Delivered Summit, where he joined fellow independent retailers to discuss the growing role of social media and digital engagement in driving store growth.
“We have a Facebook page with about 2,600 followers, which isn’t huge, but it’s growing. We do a lot of our promotional work on there and we use an external company who also work with Snappy Shopper. It works well that they know what’s coming down the line promotion wise. We film it all on camera phones and send our files over and they tie it all up and put some music to it and make it look nice.”
While Craig certainly isnt chasing internaet fame, he concludes by admitting that retailers need to embrace technologies like social media. “I’d rather not be all over the internet, if I’m quite honest with you. This is where I probably differ to some of the other retailers that are really good at it. It’s born out of a need more than a want.
“I understand that it’s a necessary part of how we’ve grown that side of the business. I understand the importance of it. So we crack on and get it done.”
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