The Jewellery Box in Sunderland's Jacky Whites Market

Maureen Priestman of The Jewellery Box Sunderland's Jacky Whites Market discusses the long-running independent business.

Transcript

00:00 There's not many people in the town who do the watch repair service.

00:04 But the other thing is that a lot of places out there charge a lot of money for replacing watch batteries, and we don't.

00:10 We don't charge by the make of the watch, we actually charge for the battery.

00:16 So it doesn't matter what make of watch it is, we have two prices.

00:22 One price is £6, the other price is £7.50. That's for putting batteries in.

00:27 If they need pressure testing, then that's a bit extra.

00:33 But it's very, very good value.

00:36 July is Independent Retailer Month, and we've been speaking to some of the business owners at Jackie White's Market in Sunderland.

00:42 We've been in Jackie White's Market for nearly 30 years.

00:46 We do fancy goods, so that includes christening gifts, wedding gifts, engagement.

00:55 One of our main things that we do is watch batteries, watch straps, and then we do all the types of repairs for watches.

01:03 Re-sealing, if you want to swim with your watch.

01:06 We do glasses, you can put new glasses in, new movements in, all that type of thing.

01:11 And it's all done in-house.

01:13 We do have a watchmaker as well, if there's anything we can't do.

01:17 And we have a jewellery repairer as well.

01:19 Debenhams used to have a company called In Time in Debenhams.

01:25 And when Debenhams closed down, all the girls that worked in In Time came to work here.

01:31 So that's how we've got so much experience, because they had the proper, they were taught properly how to do all that type of thing.

01:40 Because we do all these watch repairs, and we take links out of watches as well,

01:45 we do seem to find that a lot of the younger people are coming in.

01:50 This is Toffy, and she's a little fixture in Jackie White's market, in this shop especially.

01:57 She's been coming in here since she was eight weeks old, and she's six now.

02:03 Lola's a bit bigger, and again she's been coming in here since she was eight weeks old, and she's seven now.

02:10 And they come in every morning, and they get fed, watered, I walk them, and then they come in and they just go to bed and go to sleep.

02:17 And then we have customers who come in purposely just to see the dogs sometimes.

02:22 They bring them treats, don't they?

02:24 I know, yes, you're a lovely girl.

02:26 Because we're in a market, people might think, oh, cheap, cheap.

02:30 Well, I don't think like that. I think we're in a market.

02:33 People do expect things to be a little bit cheaper.

02:37 And I do like to keep my prices as good as possible, you know, so it brings people back.

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