DOES WEATHER AFFECT OUR TRADE?

The trouble with retailers, when it comes to poor sales, is that it is never our fault. We blame everything for a poor month except ourselves. Naturally weather is a top thing to point the finger at.

Now, I appreciate that if you sell umbrellas and it doesn’t rain for 3 months that may affect your trade. On the other hand, if you sell umbrellas and it rains for 3 months and you still struggle, then you blame the government, the economy and, of course, it was the wrong type of rain. As I say, we never blame ourselves.

I know from our staff feedback over several years that a poor day can be attributed to the following weather conditions:

a) It was just too hot for people to shop
b) It was just too cold for people to shop
c) It rained all day, so no one bothered coming out
d) It didn’t rain all day, so everyone stayed at home in the garden
e) It was just grey and miserable, as were the customers
f) It snowed
g) There was a tornado
h) It rained poisonous frogs

I can honestly say, from my experience, that the best type of weather would be mild and slightly unsettled. The weather equivalent of magnolia, perhaps!

CEMENT AND JOSS STICKS

Warning – this blog may contain traces of rant.

I noticed that an interior design chain has gone into administration. Let’s call them ‘Cement and Joss sticks’. The senior designer at this chain used to write a monthly section in a local magazine. Let’s call this magazine ‘Helmet’. She introduced the interiors part of Helmet. Helmets interiors section is called Nest* - ah ha, now we get to the point!

I have to admit that someone writing a monthly report on the dynamic world of interiors for a long time and never quite clicking that there was a rather lovely shop of the same name, not very far away, was a constant niggle. Especially when at Christmas said designer recommended an internet company she had ‘discovered’ that sold old printers blocks. We are one of the biggest sellers of said items in the country and we’re local...plus a lot cheaper. I thought a local magazine promoting an internet company over a local retailer was more than a little bad-mannered, especially as they’re always after our advertising budget.

As for why Cements and Joss sticks went into administration. Well, as their senior designer very often mentioned, she was always jetting around Europe looking at the latest wallpaper. I can’t help feeling this might not have been helpful in keeping overheads down. This is, of course, utter jealousy speaking – I wish I could jet set around Europe looking at distressed furniture. Instead I tend to get distressed driving round Norfolk in an old van.

I do wonder, however, whether being constantly in touch, in vogue and always on the move alienates you from customers. I always got the feeling from Cement and Joss sticks that if I bought something from one of their ranges, and then wanted to add to that range a little later, they would have moved on and be selling something else, perhaps a little trendier or a little more ‘this minute’.

Still, it’s not a problem here at Nest. We range from trendy (for 1860) up to so trendy; you just don’t know it yet!

TO BUY OR NOT TO BUY?

That’s another buying week out of the way. We’ve eaten far too much fried food and drunk far too much coffee and spent way too much money. At the moment the last few days are a bit of a haze but I can remember a few highlights.

A pair of the most beautiful painted pine benches (with back and sides) we have ever had! There is little point trying to describe them because I won’t be able to do them justice. However (!)... one is a blue (ish) colour and the other pink. I’m desperately trying to work out if I can get one in my house!

We managed to find quite a bit of enamelware – teapots, jugs, coffee pots etc. which was encouraging because lately supplies seemed to have run dry – I’m sure it’s got something to do with the Jubilee – I blame the Queen!

Of course, a major highlight (for me, not so much Kathryn) was buying a whole menagerie of stuffed creatures. My absolute favourite being a massive seagull (the sort that would eat your cat and still have room for a small child). He has a comedy partner in the form of a goggle eyed cormorant! We also picked up another barn owl which was handy timing as we had just sold the owl bought at the start of the week. We were on the lookout for some new characters, so I also bagged a couple of new ducks (not Drakes) and some sort of seabird that may possibly be a razorbill. All will be in soon, after a bit of sprucing up. I was very tempted by a wild boar but I’m not sure our customer base is quite ready to be confronted by an angry looking pig...there should be some sort of joke here but I’m too tired and might end up insulting the staff...and, er..me.

I was also tempted by a Formula One racing car tyre in order to turn it into a coffee table. But, again, I’m not sure if our shop is ready to go down that road (ha ha!)!

I have, however, been building up a little stock of decorative ‘industrial’ pieces which will come in at some point when I work out the best way to display them...or rather stop them falling on someone’s foot. This is definitely a trendy growth area in the interiors scene at the moment which is slightly frustrating because it’s all so ****ing heavy!

So, all in all a successful week – now all I have to do is get everything ready for the shop – which means more coffee and lots of biscuits!

SHOP IMPROVEMENTS!

We’ve got a little bit of a buildings reclamation thing going at Nest, at the moment. Due to the very quick sale of a wardrobe which I thought may take a few weeks rather than days to sell, we had a large space to fill. We’ve got quite a few pine doors, lots of Victorian chapel windows, some metal framed windows, a wooden ladder and various other odd bits and bobs. I’m working on a rather lovely replacement wardrobe at the moment so this little salvage display will only last a couple of weeks!

Talking of new displays, I’ve been working on a new 7’ x 7’ dresser to hold all our glassware and enamel. It’s been made from workshop scrap and even incorporates the Nest sign that used to hang outside our old Cambridge shop.

I managed to get it installed just in time for us to go off on a buying week – so expect to see if full of wonderful new goodies soon! We’re also, following lots of customer feedback, extending our range of French bee glasses so I hope you agree it’s a really beautiful new display area.