Inspirational Cheese Retailers 2025: Must Be Crackers

Must Be Crackers founder, Aileen Wright, fizzes with excitement as she talks about her absolute adoration of cheese, retail, and her “wonderful customers”.

In only two years, the cheesemonger has amassed leagues of adoring fans, drawn to the shop for its constantly changing, interesting selection, and for the truly, truly, genuinely warm welcome and ‘unstuffy’ environment Aileen and her team have created.

Coming from a large Irish family (spending a lot of time buying lovely things with her dad in a nearby old-fashioned deli) Aileen understands what it means to nourish and nurture people – to make them feel at home in her presence. And it’s this that is central to the success of the business.

From a career in sales and retail, Aileen opened a haberdashery shop in Dunfermline 10 years ago. When it moved to bigger premises, a little spark ignited within her. Could she turn the smaller, original haberdashers into the ultimate food shop? The answer is yes.

“If you live here and you wanted nice cheese, you had to get in the car and drive 30 minutes to a farm shop or into Edinburgh,” she says. “I thought, if I want my own food life here to be better, surely the rest of Dunfermline wants it as well?”

A place for everyone

Aileen wanted Must Be Crackers to offer an elevated shopping experience, but at the heart of her plans was that the shop must be accessible to everybody. “It couldn’t be so fancy that it was intimidating,” she says. “Or put off people because they can’t pronounce the names of the cheeses. It can be a scary experience to visit a cheesemonger! Equally, Dunfermline has a wide range of mixed means people. Sometimes they’ll just want to come in and buy a slice of cheese because they live on their own. I didn’t want people to be afraid, if we’ve cut a piece of cheese that’s £10 and they’ve only got £3 in their pocket, to ask for a third of it instead.”

It’s Aileen’s ultimate goal, she says, to share the wonderful world of cheese with as many people as possible. “I do like to say I sell joy for a living.”

A tide of change

What sets Must Be Crackers apart, Aileen continues, is the sheer turnaround of cheeses, and the variety. “You won’t find stacks and stacks of Cheddars,” she explains. “We have around 40 to 50 cheeses at any time, and because there’s nothing like us around here and the choice beyond us is a supermarket, we have to offer variety.”

She starts by sourcing from Scotland, then the rest of Britain, Ireland and beyond. “The cheeses from Britain and Ireland never cease to amaze me,” Aileen says. “But I also have to keep things like Gruyére and Dutch Goudas, which are always popular.” 

Over the last two years the shop has rotated around 200 cheeses. “And for Dunfermline to have had access to that many types is amazing. People love the choice, and we always have customers coming in asking what’s new. They rely on us to not stand still and I’m constantly on the hunt for something different and interesting. I go down lots of rabbit holes to find new things.”

Cherishing customers

The vibrant, fun atmosphere at Must Be Crackers is as inspiring for the staff as it is customers, says Aileen. They take pride in being part of people’s buying decisions. “I love entertaining, and when a customer comes in and says to us, ‘I’ve got 10 people coming for dinner, help me out’, it’s fantastic to have those discussions about what they’re cooking, what they like, and what they don’t like, so we can help them get it right. It’s like shopping, but you’re not spending your own money,” she laughs.

To be a good cheesemonger, she thinks, “you have to bring the customer into your world and allow yourself to be a part of their world”.

She continues, “You have to have your door open in every sense of the word.” As well as chatting and being welcoming, that extends to your displays too. “We try to have really good information for people here. We colour code our labels. So, there’s a red dot on raw milk cheeses and a green dot on everything pasteurised. It means straight away, someone coming in who can only have pasteurised cheeses knows what they can buy. It’s a lot less intimidating and helpful.”

This thoughtful touch is just one of many ways Aileen and the rest of the team at Must Be Crackers put customers at ease. “It’s so simple, but it makes the world of difference,” she says.