Sustainable supermarket prepares to open new Worthing store

HISBE will welcome customers at its shop in Portland Road on Saturday, January 16.

The store offers a full range of fresh food and groceries, household and bodycare products – but does things very differently to your average Tesco’s, a spokesman said.

HISBE focuses on local produce, Sussex suppliers, packaging-free goods and eco-friendly brands.

Staff are paid the Real Living Wage and, of every £1 that goes through the tills, suppliers get 68 pence.

HISBE signed a lease on a new retail premises at 38 Portland Road in Worthing in February last year.

Owners planned to open the store in May, but within two weeks coronavirus had changed that.

However HISBE now has an opening date and has launched a crowdfunder, inviting people to support the new store and win free shopping for themselves and others – visit the fundraiser here.

Ruth Anslow, who launched HISBE’s pilot store in Brighton in 2013 with her sister Amy and their friend Jack, said she was excited about opening their long-awaited second store.

“These are uncertain times, and people might say we’re a bit bonkers to be opening a new store in the middle of a pandemic!” she said.

“But even before Covid hit, we had spent 18 months looking for the right place.

“So, ever since we found it, we can’t wait to get going….

“Our interest in Worthing started when my sister moved here and declared that HISBE would be ‘right at home’ in Worthing.

“We didn’t know the town well at first but have found a unique mix of traditional local pride and forward-thinking spirit here, that comes through from the community, the businesses and the council.

“From talking to local people, we were excited to discover its proud history with food, land and sea, its thriving independent business sector and a growing buzz of action on local food and sustainability.

“And then it seemed like fate when someone at the council told me the town motto is, ‘From the land plenty and from the sea health.’

“That’s right up our street - and we can’t wait to be of service to this town!”