CUSTOMERS have been flocking to help a Brampton eco store after it started an online crowdfunding campaign for electronic scales.

Maria Stundon who runs Ria-Plenish, Refill and Eco Shop, on High Cross Street, has kickstarted the £4,000 appeal to help the business buy a state-of-the-art weighing scales to make the shopping experience at the store easier and quicker.

And already wellwishers, at the time of printing, have got her £1,360 towards the target after the campaign's first week on Crowdfunder.co.uk.

However the appeal is time limited and she's looking to raise the money by May 17 when the campaign is scheduled to end.

The system she wants to introduce is able to print barcoded labels that has information on price, allergens, recipe ideas, cooking directions and/or product instructions.

This means each customer can weigh and fill their own containers from the food on offer, which includes items like dried muesli, and refill without having to wait for their containers to be weighed at the till.

Maria said: "The main idea for them is to make the shopping experience a lot more quicker.

"The customers can weigh the items themselves, so they can have as much or a little as they like."

She added that there has been a definite upswing of residents in the town looking for more eco-friendly ways of shopping.

Maria added: "There has been more interest since before Christmas with a lot more people getting into thing refilling."

In February the business celebrated its first year of trading after expanding from a market stall in just six months.

Maria started the business in January 2020 on the town's farmer's market, after relocating from London.

She moved to a Front Street shop in June, then to larger premises in High Cross Street in November.

The shop's been open during the lockdowns to provide people in the town with essential supplies.

At the time Maria said: "I moved up in January last year and wanted to start a business on the markets and then lockdown happened and this pushed me into getting a shop.

"It has not been the best time to start a business and it took a while for people to get interested but now things seem to have taken off.

"A couple of years ago I became more conscious of the packaging side of things in terms of what people were buying.

"I think there is way to much going into landfill and while we can make the effort to recycle it's better to reuse because we don't actually know where all our recycling ends up."

To donate to the Crowdfunder campaign go online to: www.Crowdfunder.co.uk/ria-plenish-1