The shop was the second business targeted along Nancy Ave last week after the neighbouring fish and chip shop had its door smashed and till stolen.
Pay it Forward has been in the building for six years, and co-ordinator Lee Arthur said the dairy two shops along has been broken into multiple times, but this was the first time Pay it Forward had been targeted
Luckily for the shop, nothing was stolen, which Mr Arthur thinks is due to the alarm system and the fact there was no cash on the premises.
“They didn’t take anything, I think they were just looking for money,” she said.
A wheelie bin was used to break the store window, the till was opened and draws were sifted through.
The shop is run by The Neighbourhood Trust and is a social enterprise where 60 of the city’s creative entrepreneurs can sell their products.
Entrepreneurs who sell their products through the shop make their own profits, and a commission goes to The Neighbourhood Trust, which puts the money back into the community.
Mrs Arthur said she didn’t know what would lead someone to break into the shop.
“We definitely won’t be brought down by it,” Mrs Arthur said.
The shop has received a lot of community feedback and online support following the break-in.
A Facebook post from Pay it Forward said: “Unfortunately, the word hasn’t got out to everyone that our profits go back into the community. So the people that broke into our shop this morning didn’t realise that they weren’t just hurting us, but they were also hurting the local community.”
Mrs Arthur said the attempted burglary has done the opposite of what the offenders probably wanted. The shop has sincere opened and the window has been repaired.
“It’s made us feel loved, we will prevail,” she said.
