Shrewsbury independent traders celebrated

Shropshire Star

Shrewsbury Mayor visited independent traders along Wyle Cop, celebrating the best of Shrewsbury.

Transcript

00:00Come and spot our local independent shops.

00:04Independent Shrewsbury!

00:07So Alex...

00:09Holding stuff.

00:10Alex Shrewsbury Mayor, hello sir.

00:12Hello, how are you doing?

00:13I'm good, thank you.

00:14So we're having a little tour around some of the independent traders today.

00:17That's the idea.

00:18And with you, we've got...

00:19Madam, introduce yourself.

00:20Gaynor Jones.

00:21And what's your shop, Gaynor?

00:23Vinteria Gift Shop.

00:25So, describe your shop then.

00:26What have you got for sale?

00:28What goods?

00:29I've started doing the Shrewsbury Skyline.

00:31Yeah.

00:32So anything from a pin badge, postcards, cards, prints, or you name it we can do it.

00:41Yeah, yeah.

00:42Also started doing my own greeting cards as well.

00:45Oh wow, okay.

00:46And how long have you been trading in the town?

00:48The shop's been here 11 years in November.

00:51Yeah.

00:52And I've had the shop for 6 years.

00:54Great stuff.

00:55Enjoying being here in Shrewsbury.

00:56I love it.

00:57Absolutely love it.

00:58It's been on Walcott.

00:59Yeah, yeah.

01:00The longest run of independent traders in the country, which is absolutely brilliant.

01:03Yeah.

01:04That's fantastic.

01:05It's a lovely shop, isn't it, Alex?

01:06It is lovely.

01:07Yeah.

01:08And as she says, it is the longest run of unbroken independents in the whole country.

01:11I didn't realise that.

01:12That's something new.

01:13Yeah, yeah.

01:14It's on us to keep it that way.

01:15Yeah.

01:16Yeah.

01:17Yeah.

01:18Yeah.

01:19Yeah.

01:20It's making it difficult and different.

01:21Places are adapting at different rates.

01:23If we want to keep Shrewsbury special and like this, we've got to keep going in places like

01:27this and making sure that we share.

01:30And I do have a vested interest because I live nearly at the bottom of the cop so I want

01:32to keep it lovely.

01:33Yeah.

01:34Yeah.

01:35I think it's great for the whole town, you know.

01:36So, Jill, tell me about cooking needs.

01:38How long have you been here?

01:39I've been here 11 years, nearly 11 years.

01:42It's been a cook shop for over 30.

01:44I've got great staff.

01:46Hiding behind the side.

01:47Between them, they've probably been here nearly 50 years combined.

01:52We sell a mixture of all cooking items, the kitchen, so anything that you need, we

02:00supply for the kitchen, cooking, knives, saucepans, coffee, tea, everything.

02:07Anything that makes the...

02:08And gifty, quirky, gifty things as well.

02:10The kitchen, they're kind of hot.

02:11Yes.

02:12Yeah.

02:13And we've got some lovely, very loyal customers and also have a lot of visitors to the town.

02:18It's a great street.

02:20We open Sundays.

02:21I really think it's one of the best days to open.

02:24Yeah.

02:25It's a great, great town.

02:26And it's just great to see it so busy in here as well.

02:28You know, we're struggling to get in the door, which is kind of exactly what we...

02:31Yeah.

02:32Touchwood.

02:33It's a long way it continues.

02:35Yeah.

02:36So, Jonathan, it's great to be here.

02:38It's a really unique business for Shredebury.

02:40And tell me about it.

02:41Yeah.

02:42So we're a contemporary art gallery, dealing fine art, sculpture, paintings, ceramics.

02:49And we work with some of the leading contemporary artists in the UK.

02:53It's amazing to have it right here in the town centre.

02:56You know, as we've been saying to everyone, it's the longest road I've broken independence.

02:59Yeah.

03:00People have got to use it to keep it that way, right?

03:02Yeah.

03:03Oh, definitely.

03:04Yeah.

03:05We've got a really good core of people that do support us, but we do need continued support.

03:11So, Dylan, we're here at Dill, which is one of the newest places on the Wild Cop.

03:16Tell me about it.

03:17How have you come to be here?

03:18What's going on?

03:19So, we essentially opened five weeks ago.

03:22Yeah.

03:23Well, we have five weeks ago now.

03:24Where it's like a small wine bar, Mediterranean tapas.

03:27Just trying to create like a local, sort of friendly, somewhere that you want to come and

03:31just spend time, really.

03:32We've obviously got a lovely garden up here.

03:34We've got a courtyard down the bottom.

03:36Yeah.

03:37And it's, I don't know, just trying to create something.

03:39Somewhere I'd like to spend time, so hopefully other people enjoy it too.

03:42I think they are.

03:43It's busy today.

03:44It is.

03:45And it's busy whenever I walk past.

03:46Exactly.

03:47That's obviously a good thing.

03:48Then when hopefully we get to the point where people giving us a try become sort of generic

03:52actual like customer base that enjoy sort of spending their time here and hopefully

03:57yourselves as well.

03:58Quite right.

03:59Good.

04:00Hopefully.

04:01Fingers crossed.

04:02Here we go.

04:04Hi.

04:05I'm Stacey from Oberon and Wild Cop.

04:08There's three Oberons on Wild Cop and I am at the moment in Oberon Essentials.

04:14Over the road we have Oberon European and right opposite that we have Oberon Jewelry.

04:22I've been trading here for 40 years, believe it or not, and know quite a lot about shopkeeping,

04:31which is my true, one true love.

04:34So there we go.

04:38So we're here with It's Feet First and we've got Trader Sam.

04:43Hello Sam.

04:44Hello.

04:45How long have you been here then?

04:46We've been as a business in shoes for seven years now.

04:50So I mean, you know, It's Feet First, it's all about feet and shoes isn't it?

04:53Yeah, it's all about kids shoes, yes.

04:55Cool.

04:56So what's the fashion at the minute?

04:57Pick us a couple of nice items.

04:58Come and show us something that's nice on your shelf.

05:00These sandals have been really good for little kids.

05:03They're waterproof and everything, so they've been one of our best selling sandals.

05:06They protect their little feet and yeah, they're waterproof.

05:10They're really flexible as well.

05:11Yeah.

05:12They're really good for walking in.

05:13And then we'll be sort of heading into back to school in the next month or so.

05:18So lots of different school shoes are starting to come in.

05:23These are always popular for the young girls.

05:25They've got like a little bit of gems on and things.

05:27Yeah, yeah.

05:28They're all good quality.

05:30So enjoying trading here in Shrewsbury?

05:33Yeah, a lovely area.

05:35We've got very lucky to have such a nice town and yeah, lots of nice people.

05:40Yeah, it's just such a lovely area.

05:47So we've just seen a little glimpse of what Shrewsbury's independents have to offer.

05:51We're an unusual town.

05:52We've got the longest row of unbroken indie shops.

05:54We're at 70% independent here.

05:56Nationally, it's usually well under 50.

05:58We've got to keep it that way by going in them, by spending our money locally

06:02and making sure that it stays local.

06:04And by keeping the World Cup one of the most special streets in the country

06:07and the whole town centre for that matter.

06:09Because I think we are pretty special here in Shrewsbury.

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