This week we’ll be celebrating 5 years since Dig in opened its doors in our beautiful corner of Edinburgh.
We have come a long way during this time, and to help us think about the impact our small shop makes in the community, we asked some of our youngest, most loyal customers what they like about having Dig in nearby:
‘I like Dig in because it’s small and it’s the only one of its kind. ‘Cause there are lots of Waitrose and Sainsbury’s, but only one Dig in.’ – aged 7
‘I like the fruit and nut bars’ – aged 4
‘The fruit doesn’t have as much plastic packaging, and the milk comes in glass!’- aged 7
Memories from an early age
The following conversation from one of our Dig in families shows how influential even small moments around the shop can be:
“I like my pomegranate” was one child’s response to what he likes about Dig in.
Pomegranates? His mum asked, thinking it had been more than a year since she’d bought pomegranates, since they had been away when they were in season this winter.
Amanda’s son went on to say that he likes the people who work in the shop and how many different fruits there are at Dig-In.
On reflection, Amanda realised that he was remembering particularly tasty and beautiful pomegranates that they had found at Dig in nearly 18 months ago.
After all this time, her then 3-year-old held onto this memory for a few reasons –
- Taste – these pomegranates tasted great, the best Amanda’s ever had.
- Story – since their family talks a lot about the food they buy and eat, these seasonal red beauties gave them something new to learn. They made time to talk about the vitamins in particularly colourful fruit and veg and how although pomegranates don’t grow well in Scotland, Dig in tries to bring seasonal fruit and veg into the shop from nearby countries like Spain.
- Beautiful – ‘they looked good, were displayed beautifully and every time we went anywhere after that with pomegranates, he has wanted one!’
In Amanda’s words…
So, I guess the reason we support Dig in is because it has beautiful produce, as local as we can get, which is important to us. It’s also supporting the community we live in and it helps us feed and educate us and our family about the joys of food, food issues and eating well. We go in there to chat as much as to buy, and it makes us feel part of the community – particularly having no family ties ourselves.
It feels good to be buying fresh local produce, supporting the community and hopefully helping solve our huge global issues in a very small local way.
We couldn’t agree more, and we’re so glad you and your family are a part of our community!
Birthday celebrations – this Saturday
Thanks to all our customers for keeping us open here at the heart of Bruntsfield, and come see us on Saturday 27th April to celebrate our 5th Birthday with us!
This week we said farewell to Katariina, who has been a member of the Dig in team for more than 3 years. She started with us as a volunteer and later joined our staff team as a shop supervisor, primarily running the shop on Saturdays. Katariina brought incredible enthusiasm, warmth and energy to the team over the years, and she will certainly be missed. Thankfully, she’s not going very far!
have noticed that there’s a new face around the Dig in staff team – we are delighted to welcome Steph Marsden as a new shop supervisor!