A brand-new shop, right in the heart of campus, opened this month. The Bloomsbury Shop, run by the team at Students’ Union UCL, stocks groceries, essentials, and food on the go at student-friendly prices.
The shop is open to all, and we hope it’ll become the go to place on campus for students, staff, and visitors to pick up that missing ingredient for dinner or to restock the staff room milk and biscuits. Like all our shops, cafes, and bars, our new shop is staffed by students, providing even more London living wage jobs on campus.
The Bloomsbury Shop is a brilliant example of what can be achieved when the students’ union and UCL work together to deliver improved services for students. The empty space has been transformed, with a huge amount of investment and time, into a bright, welcoming, and practical space that will serve the needs of our community for years to come.
This is the first new Students’ Union outlet opened on the Bloomsbury campus since the upgraded Institute Bar back in January 2019. Along with our recently opened Pool Street Shop at UCL East, it represents a commitment from UCL in helping us to expand our operation, reach more students, and provide a way for us to generate additional funding for our student activities. Both shops also mark a huge milestone as they’re our first Students’ Union convenience stores - a completely new service we’re able to offer our community.
So, what are we selling at the Bloomsbury Shop? We’re a one stop shop, with a little bit of everything you need to get by, from lunch time meal deals, snacks, frozen products and household goods. We have a coffee machine for the lunch time rush when the Print Room Café queue gets too long, and we also have a selection of merchandise from the Hanger.
Most importantly, we’ve worked hard to make sure the shop aligns with our social enterprise principles, which you will see displayed inside the shop. I’ll run through these now...
We’re a social enterprise, and everything we do is led by four promises:
We choose planet over profit – We’ve carefully chosen which suppliers and products we stock and have made sure that the products come from brands that align with our values. We have a huge range of vegetarian and vegan products, a a range of sustainable cleaning products.
We put every penny of profit back into the student community – This is what makes us different to a high street shop - 100% of our profits going straight back into the Students’ Union to fund all the exciting activities that bring our community together.
We’re always better value than the high street – we’ve made sure to keep prices low and student friendly. While other high street retailers are putting up their prices, we have launched a great value £3.50 meal deal.
And finally, we’re at the centre of the campus community – we in heart of campus, providing jobs for students, and an essential service for all of UCL.
