Hi all - I’ve just written an article about the changing face of retail and the challenges faced by sellers thanks to covid. With non-essential retail opening next week I wanted to just remind people about how staying true to small, independent online retailers is still important - and how adaptable and awesome we all are! If you’d like to leave a comment on the post with a link to your shop you’d be very welcome! Here’s a link to the post: PhotoFairytales Blog: from the award winning site specialising in unique British handmade gifts: The changing face of retail in a time of Covid...
I’ve just replied to your comment with a link to your shop for you (And hope the house move went well, you probably recognised the pic of Dereham’s old Woolies on the blog!) x
A very interesting blog post Sarah and yes, I think retail has changed over the last year. Even when stores reopen there will be a lot of people who won’t want to return to high street shopping as they don’t feel safe and, unfortunately, there will be a lot who don’t have the money for shopping. I have found that I’ve made a lot more sales during lockdowns and hope it will continue when stores reopen!
Thanks for the opportunity to leave a link on your blog too.
Great article, I wholeheartedly agree with everything you say. Unfortunately I couldn’t get my comment to post.
Is the photo Laura Ashley in Norwich? It looks familiar!
Another Norfolk seller here- Swallowtail Stitches.
So very true Sarah- it’s been a challenging year indeed and even the smallest purchase has acted as encouragement to keep going! I have commented but it came up with a message ‘your comment will be published after review’, hope that’s it.
Thank you for sharing- I for one will not be rushing out tomorrow as I have spent the last year protecting three vulnerable adults, so super anxious about returning to ‘normal’ whatever that is!
Ooh, that’s strange Katrina! If you go back to the article and scroll down you should be able to see the comments left by others - and at the end of those there should be a box saying ‘enter your comment’… I’ll paste in a screenshot for you in case that helps!
It is indeed the Norwich Laura Ashley @SwallowtailStitches, well spotted! Not the one I worked in back in the day (I worked in the Bath branch), and despite my gripe about the credit card thing, it feels so sad that they’re not part of the high street anymore. Although I think Next are stocking some of the wallpaper and fabric, so that’s something I suppose!
Not sure why you weren’t able to comment - although all comments have to be approved by me before they’re published so that may be why you couldn’t see it appearing. I’ve just published everyone’s comments, so if you can’t see yours have another go and I’ll make sure I publish it as quick as I can!
Hi Sarah, I only recently joined Folksy and I too was unable to comment. I found your blog really interesting.
Having grown up during the 50/60’s I miss many of the big names including C&A’s.
I look forward to reading more of Blogs.
Sandra Village Craft England
Thanks so much Sandra (and welcome to Folksy!) - sorry to hear you couldn’t leave a comment though, can you see the box underneath the other comments that people have left? You might have to click on the bit where it mentions other comments first, at the bottom of the article: click where it currently says ‘23 comments’ to open it up and then scroll down - here’s a screenshot for you:
