BARGAIN-HUNTERS are flocking to Britain’s cheapest shop ahead of Mother’s Day – where for just 40p you can buy your mum a card and a present.

Owner Steven Nelson, 65, runs The 20p Shop in Otley, West Yorkshire, where absolutely everything is priced at just 20p.

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And he has vowed not to raise his prices – even though it can be a struggle for him to break even.

Steven told The Sun his shop is definitely the cheapest place in the UK to grab a Mother’s Day card and gift.

“We’ve had Me to You cards for Mother’s Day which in other shops cost £3.99 – everything is 20 pence,” he said.

“We have some really nice ones. We buy in bulk to bring the price down. The reason why it’s 20 pence is we’re not frightened of buying 50,000 cards if they’re the right money … so people get the benefits of buying them cheap and people know where to buy a card from.

“Most people that come in this shop will buy at least one card, to save money in the future because in different shops, without naming them, but you go in a big supermarket and they’re £2.99, so you buy four cards, you’ve done 10 or 12 quid.

“An average family can’t afford to spend 12 quid on cards in this day and age. So to spend 80p instead or something, I think it helps.”

As well as greetings cards, the shop sells books, toys, DVDs, crockery, clothing, ornaments, gift bags and jewellery.

Steve said: “It’s probably the best kept secret in Yorkshire… we sell absolutely everything apart from electrical goods. Although we have in the past – we once sold someone a washing machine.

“That was the heaviest thing I had to carry – and then she wanted it fitting because she was an old lady so we did that and then she gave me 20p. That’s probably the funniest thing we’ve sold…

“A guy came in and bought a ring took it across the road and got £120 for it – so anything and everything is possible in this shop.”

Steve said he opened the shop as a service to the community and that it has become vital for people as the rising cost of living has been hitting people’s wallets hard.

“People can’t afford a lot of things that they’d love to have,” he said.

“In this shop there’s no barriers. Everything is 20p. It’s not like a pound shop where you go in it’s £1.99 or £3.60 or whatever, and it’s still called a pound shop. This is 20p and that’s what it is.

“That’s why it’s so good. And people know that kids can come in with their mum and dad and they go, ‘Have whatever you want’ – even if they pick five things – it’s only a quid.

“It’s like a phenomenon. It just started and won’t stop as more and more people know about it.

“In this shop there’s no barriers. Everything is 20p.”

Steven Nelson, owner The 20p Shop, Otley

“We take donations from people sometimes, so rather than have things go to the landfill, which we don’t want, people bring things in they couldn’t get rid of.

“It helps with the rent. We don’t try and be a charity because we’re not, it’s a business, but we don’t like throwing things away.

“We like to recycle as many things as we possibly can and if that helps the people locally -that’s all part of what we do.”

While his shop is well loved by locals – Steven says he’s even had shoppers from as far away as the USA pay a visit.

“People travel from Barnsley and further to visit The 20p Shop.

“They come to the shop, spend 60 pence, delighted and then go back home.

“And I think, ‘Well you’ve done 25 quid in diesel to come and see us’ – but people like the shop.

‘A BIG COMMUNITY’

“My furthest customer who keeps in touch with us and watches what we have in on Facebook is from America.

“She came over from the States and visits some family in Otley and loved the shop and she’s constantly talking to us on our Facebook page, asking ‘What have you got in now?’ and she sends her mum round to buy it and things like that. So it’s a big community.”

Steven says Covid hit the business hard and they often struggle to break even – but says he’s still not tempted to put his prices up.

“We had a very successful business when Covid hit us – and hit everybody,” he said.

“It’s taken some recovering from then till now for all kinds of reasons. But, it’s not the same as before Covid.

‘NO PRICE RISES’

“So a lot of the times we struggle to still keep it open, if I’m honest… we are hoping that things will get better.

“So to, to put it another way, if you sold 500 items in a day, you’ve only taken a hundred pounds, and in this day and age, £100 in a shop is no money. It costs a lot more than that each day to keep open.

“You know, you can’t get ripped off at 20 pence.”

Steven Nelson, owner The 20p Shop, Otley

“So it’s a conundrum. People keep saying to me, put the price up and make it a 50p shop but I think it’ll spoil it.

“I think people are used to what we do, happy what we do and I don’t want to change that. So we either close and forget it or we keep it at 20p. That’s what we decided on.”

“You know, you can’t get ripped off at 20 pence – you can’t hurt anyone at 20 pence,” he added.

Customers told how they absolutely loved the shop.

Sheila Hollins said she went in to buy cards, saying; “You go into a chop buy cards costing two or three pounds, give them to people and then what do people do with them afterwards? Throw them away, don’t they.

“But 20p I don’t mind paying that.”

Bob McLaughlin added: “Everybody is very friendly, [it’s good] for the community, cost of living nowadays is horrible but this is the sort of place you can come in and pick up those little bits. It’s fantastic.

“It’s the sort of place you walk past and you think I’ll just have a little check.

“And I’ve often bought many birthday cards, Christmas cards, which are superb value when you think how much you pay for cards in stationers and all that sort of thing – it’s absolutely fantastic.

“I’ve bought bits of crockery, I have a look at the books, I have to stop myself coming in too often sometimes!”

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