These terms apply to every business that opens a shop on Not a Supermarket. By opening a shop you agree to them on behalf of your business.
1. The deal
- Selling on Not a Supermarket is free. No listing fees, no subscription, and no commission, ever. We will never take a cut of your sales.
- If we ever change our pricing, we will email you at least 30 days before anything changes. Nothing is ever charged without you agreeing to it, and you can close your shop at any time.
- Money from your customers goes straight to you, through your own Stripe, PayPal or bank account, or in cash when they collect. We never hold your takings.
- Think of Not a Supermarket as a shopping centre and your shop as a unit inside it. We provide and promote the centre. You run your shop, and you deal with your own customers.
2. Who can sell
You must be a genuine UK business that produces, grows, makes or sells the food or drink you list. Before you sell food you must:
- be registered as a food business with your local council (or approved, where your products need approval, such as some meat, dairy and fish processing),
- meet food hygiene, food safety, labelling and allergen law, including the Food Information Regulations and, where it applies, Natasha's Law,
- hold a premises or personal licence to sell alcohol, if you sell alcohol, and check buyers are 18 or over,
- follow weights and measures, trading standards and consumer law, including giving buyers the information required for distance selling,
- keep suitable insurance. We strongly recommend public and product liability insurance.
We may ask to see proof of any of these and may refuse or remove a shop at our discretion.
3. You are the seller
Every sale is a contract between you and your customer. You are responsible for your products, your listings, prices, VAT, packing, dispatch or collection, refunds, and your customers' legal rights. You must honour the prices and descriptions you publish and keep stock levels accurate.
Complaints are yours to handle. When a customer reports a problem, it comes straight to you in your admin and by email. You must reply promptly (we ask for within 2 working days), deal with it fairly and in line with consumer law, and make any refund or replacement yourself. We do not handle complaints, refunds or disputes for you, and we are not responsible for how they turn out. We can see how problems are handled, and a shop that repeatedly lets customers down may be suspended or removed.
4. Listings
- Describe your products honestly, with correct weights, prices, ingredients and allergens.
- Only upload photos you own or have permission to use.
- You keep ownership of your content. You give us a free licence to show it on the site, in emails and in promotion of the marketplace while your shop is open.
- You must not list anything illegal or unsafe, recalled products, live animals, medicines, tobacco or vapes, or anything that is not food, drink, plants or closely related farm goods unless we agree.
5. Delivery and couriers
- You choose your couriers and prices and must pack goods so they arrive safe, especially chilled and frozen food. Only offer postal delivery for items that will survive the journey.
- You must hand parcels to the courier within the dispatch time you show and add tracking where you have it.
- Courier delays and courier mistakes are rated separately by buyers and do not count towards your shop's rating. Loss or damage in transit is between you and your courier, while your customer keeps their rights against you.
6. Payments you set up
If you connect Stripe or PayPal, you do so under your own agreement with that provider and pay their fees. We store your keys encrypted and only use them to create payments for your orders. You can remove them at any time.
7. Reviews
Buyers who order from you can rate quality, value, accuracy of description, packaging, communication and dispatch or collection time. You can reply publicly. You can report a review you believe is fake or abusive, but we will not remove a review just because it is negative.
8. AI tools
Your admin includes optional AI writing and image tools. Each shop gets some free AI credits. You are responsible for checking anything the AI writes before you publish it, particularly facts, ingredients and allergens.
9. Customer data
You will receive your customers' names, contact details and addresses so you can complete their orders. You may only use them for that order, for customer service, and for marketing where the customer has agreed. You are responsible for handling that data under UK data protection law.
10. Our responsibility
We provide the platform as it is and will try to keep it running smoothly, but we cannot promise it will always be available or error free. We are not responsible for lost sales, lost profits or indirect losses. Our total liability to you in any 12 month period is limited to the fees you paid us in that period, or £100 if you paid nothing, except for liability that cannot be limited by law.
11. Your responsibility to us
You agree to cover us for any claims, fines or costs brought against us because of your products, your listings, the way you run your business, or your breach of these terms or the law.
12. Suspension and closing
You can close your shop at any time from your admin. We may suspend or close a shop that breaks these terms or the law, that lets buyers down repeatedly, or that puts people's safety at risk. We will usually tell you why and give you a chance to fix things first, unless it is urgent.
13. General
We may update these terms. We will tell you about important changes by email at least 30 days before they apply. These terms are governed by the law of England and Wales.