Sometimes it seems as if there really is no alternative to the big four supermarkets. Now expanding at record-breaking rate, they reportedly win planning permission for a new store every working day of the year. Surely there must be a different way of doing things?

The People's Supermarket is giving it a go. Set up by Arthur Potts Dawson, who was behind London's environmentally sound, award-winning Acornhouse restaurant, the mission statement is "for the people, by the people" which in practice means a not-for-profit co-op. Pay a £25 membership fee and sign up for a four-hour shift once a month and you become a part owner, have a say in how it's run and receive a 10% discount on your shopping.

The store itself, on London's Lamb's Conduit Street, opened on 1 June last year and photographers Liz and Max Haarala Hamilton, whose portraits of the volunteers you see here, have been following the project, as has C4.

Potts Dawson insists he's not taking on big business but just wants a wider audience for his sustainable ideal. "It's not political," he says. "It's about the people involved."

Arthur and the People's Supermarket is on C4 from April