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Posted on Friday Apr 16 9:00:00 BST 2010 Posted on Monday Apr 12 1:30:00 BST 2010 Well I start this blog with an apology for leaving it so long between entries, something that I am going to rectify - I will maintain regular blog messages from now on...
Lots has been happening with regards Serendipity since I last wrote...
We had a successful Christmas season, we stocked lots of beautiful quality cards and gifts - and the amount of stock left was minimal.
I have already placed my orders for Christmas Cards for this coming Christmas - in fact my first order was placed on 5th Jan!
We are now stocking some very pretty Rachael Hale products including the recently "back in stock" 5 year baby record books
 The gift's website goes from strength to strength and to complement this a few months ago I introduced a cards website - www.cardsfromserendipity.com
On this website we already have over 1000 designs of cards across numerous titles from a vast array of manufacturers including Tracey Russell, Claire Giles, Splimple, Wishing Well, Medici and Milkwood to name just a few
Well that's enough for now I will keep you up to date on new stock and whats happening within the shop and of cause not forgetting cheeky Willow, who is currently staring at me - willing me to type faster so we can go for a walk!
Until next time....
Claire x
Posted on Monday Sep 7 0:00:00 BST 2009 Scary though it is there are just over 100 days until Christmas… Which, to most people is a long way off, but to a Gift and Card Shop it means the busiest time of the year is just around the corner! Having said that Christmas feels like an all year round event as I had to place orders for Christmas Cards in Feb of this year and all stocks will start being delivered into me within the next week or so Once here they all need sorting, pricing up, adding to the website and then at some reasonable time, when I won’t offend customers by putting them out too early, they need displaying in the shop. I’m really looking forward to this Christmas, now I am more established in the community and have a lot more suppliers it should be lots of fun! (ho ho ho) Claire x Posted on Thursday Aug 13 0:00:00 BST 2009 It's been a funny couple of weeks in the world of Serendipity
Last week we found out about the proposed plans to build a very large Tesco's superstore in Padiham where we are based. So far talking to my customers I haven't heard anyone praise or say anything good about Tesco, I think a lot of people are getting fed up with their dominance of the retail world.
Whilst I am concerned for my business as they will sell cards and little gifty items im not overly concerned as I believe I off a far greater selection that is more specialist with a good selection of price points etc topped off with good customer service and the added bonuses of a complimentary gift wrapping service.
I am though very concerned for the likes of the local florists, butchers, greengrocers etc who could easily see the demise of their business if this store gets the go ahead.
It is still early days yet with regards the plans, and we are not just going to sit back and let this happen without a fight - I will keep you posted!
On Monday night I attended a meeting at Burnley Town Hall, this was in a bid to try and persuade the "powers that be" to not remove the daytime parking from outside my block of shops. One of the key features for me choosing the location of Serendipity was the fact there was short stay parking right outside the front door, which is a big selling point for customers who need/want convenience.
The proposed removal of the parking came about from one resident who lives on a side street complaining that she struggles to see out of the junction to pull out onto the main road because of the cars parked outside the shops restricting her line of sight...Believe me if you could see the vast size of the junction you would laugh at the person who complained!
We had a petition with nearly 600 signatures supporting us to keep the parking versus the one complaint...but sadly we lost and we are waiting now for the parking restrictions to be implemented.
It was deemed by a slight majority of the committee that as a matter of Health and Safety that there was a risk of an accident and therefore they had to act on it - surely that could be said of any junction?
Anyway enough of the rantings, with regards the parking and Tesco - what ever will be will be..We will overcome it!!
Considering that it is the middle of the School Holidays, which looking back on sales at this time last year tjhey were very poor, it has actually been a good end of July and start of August, the website sales are increasing nicely and I still get new customers into the shop everyday - I love meeting new people!
I am in the process of getting stock ready to list on the website for Christmas - eek, can you believe it has got to that time of year already.
Whilst the stock is going onto the website over the next few weeks I won't be putting it out in the shop just yet, maybe another month or so before that!
Right, it's getting late in the day, time to start getting ready to shut up for today...
speak soon
take care
Claire x |
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