Watchya doing?

It’s Thursday and day 5 of the great British heatwave. Whilst my thoughts might be mentally conjuring up a waft of coconut sun cream, beach lounger, cocktail + paper umbrella, in reality I’m bashing away at a computer with a cappuccino and kit kat for company.

Yes, that’s what I do the days I’m not at the shop. Bashing away at a computer that is, not relaxing by the pool. As owner of Hometown, my current CV is wide ranging, covering everything from product selection and ordering (or in wafty speak, “curating the range”) to after hours cleaning (aka Henry the Hoover Operative). Speaking of the former, I always find it incredible (literally incroyable), when I read that a retailer only sells the products that they use, have in their home, wear themselves etc. If I was to only sell the fabrics that I’d use in a quilt, well folks, we’d have far fewer than the 1800 options that we do sell. Retailing is certainly challenging right now, but it’s even more important that we have a broad range of both products and prices, all presented with a Hometown flourish, to encourage you to sew.

With designs covering traditional to modern, plus quirky one offs, kids and coordinates, we hope to offer many quilting and dressmaking possibilities. My role is to sort wheat from chaff and offer you all a good selection of fantastic, good quality wheat, not just the wheat that I’d eat, if you get my drift. So when I’m not on the shopfloor, I can forage away for good fabrics. Think of me like a fabric truffle hound or the Miss Marple of materials if you prefer.

What else is on the to-do list? Well, I’ve also been Chief Accountant, paying invoices and nibbling away at inputting data for my quarterly VAT return (my office life is SUCH FUN in capital letters - now you know why I need a Kit Kat for sustenance)!

The other ongoing job, which never ends, is the website. I set up our online store in May 2020 (can you remember Lockdown 1.0 - seems like several lifetimes ago?).

As new products are ordered and arrive, many need adding online. So, there’s checking product references, writing copy and picture research. Or photos needs taking, once products have arrived instore and we’ve created all our lovely precuts. Finally proof reading and adjustments once I’ve made the page live. Plus updating the inventory is a daily task. Since we reopened the physical shop last April, the website sales may have taken a nose dive, but site searches increase month-on-month, so I know many of you use it for research. Fingers crossed that’s before you make a trip to see us in Rochester, or before pressing the shiny add-to-basket button. So today, I’ve been jumping between Christmas, autumn, Halloween and summer fabrics. I know you have liked being able to now book workshops online, so I’m pleased about that.

Back in 2020, Jason Marshall from the University of Kent helped me with creating the online addition to our website. It was done via a series of zoom calls. I was a guinea pig client, as he wanted to develop an online teaching programme. First I had to learn how to use zoom! I kid you not, but the computer I use at home isn’t in its first flush of youth (much like its operator) so it doesn’t have a camera. I could see Jason’s screen, but he couldn’t see me. Probably just as well as my desk doesn’t read the clear-desk-memo that I send it. Since we don’t have a IT department (oh how, I miss all the computer geeks at my last company), any site updates are up to me as webmistress. Is that a job title? I must check and add to my CV. To quote Liam Neeson, this haberdasher has a particular set of skills!

As I learn a new trick, I get to work tweaking, to make the site easier for you to use. Currently, I’m doing a check of links and URLs (yes, even more fun than my VAT return). I could say that’s as boring AF, but of course I don’t swear and I appreciate that all these corrections make it easier for you to use the site. So if you haven’t checked it out recently, here are 7 good reasons to have a gander.

1. we have a seriously good range.

2. we can post to you in the UK, or you can collect from our lovely shop and make a day of it in Rochester

3. we offer you loyalty stamps on all online product purchases, which you can redeem for free stuff.

4. we offer free postage on orders over £45 withe code FREE45.

5. if you’re a Quilters’ Guild member you also can nab a guild discount.

6. you can now also find all workshops dates and details online and book with a click.

7. I’ve spent all day tapping at the keyboard, so please make me think that it was worthwhile!

And now I’m off to put the kettle on again. Tara for now…

Love letter to habitat

On Saturday night, I was tidying up the shop, my shop, after a busy day. The news announced the death of Sir Terence Conran, founder of habitat.

habitat was where my career began. Long before I started working there, I was in love with habitat. Each Christmas, we’d make a family shopping trip to the Whitgift Centre in Croydon. Oh yes, heady days… We’d have lunch in British Home Stores, plus visit the other shops (probably for me to buy some Christmas tat for my family with my pocket money). But the highlight for me, was always habitat. I simply loved that shop. Mum and Dad could have left me there all day, and I’d have been delighted.

This was the late 70s. Most homes had orange and brown vinyl wallpaper in the kitchen, sensible sideboards, blankets and bedspreads. But oh, habitat was another world - bright, primary colours and simple designs, which might be Scandinavian, French, Indian or classically English, but definitely not a style you’d see in 1970s suburban England. Modular sofas, roller blinds and tableware or cutlery that you could buy as individual pieces (no 30-piece stuffy china sets here). Duvets (other shops still sniffily called them ‘continental’ quilts) had 100% cotton covers, plus there were stripey durries, huge piles of wicker log and linen baskets and super cool lighting.

This was a lifestyle shop even before the word ‘lifestyle’ was used. And let’s not forget the stacks of pillar box red teapots and mugs. To me, this was heaven. habitat’s stock was all loose on the shelves or stacked high on wooden delivery pallets on the floor, which you could touch, (as long as you were careful). The pine shelves had plastic shelf edge strip where prices were clearly displayed. So unlike the rather stuffy and middle-aged departments stores of the time.

And, even if I wasn’t their target customer, I could buy a copy of their annual catalogue. At home, this was pored over, names of products learnt - Old Colonial, Cherry Berry Bim, Hubbard and Woodstock and I distinctly remember planning houses and furnishings, working out what to buy and how much it would cost. I was a mini-me homemaker!

So after A-levels, there really was only one company to apply to. I wrote applications to 3 stores and started work at the Bromley branch. Although the shop was small in size, it was a pocket power house with the second largest turnover per square metre in the company. Our uniform was a green sweat shirt and denim. Denim for work?! After the old-lady-nylon-overall uniform of my Saturday job at Woollies, this felt sooo modern.

I started in the Kitchenware department - preparing manual orders every week, unpacking deliveries and stacking shelves. I learned how to wrap the china in tissue before packing in the lovely green paper carrier bags. I loved being efficient on a busy till (although I wasn’t so fond of the cumbersome clickety clack card machine. I signed up people for the cool red and green habitat credit card and also advised customers how to shop without an assistant hovering behind them, “Yes, you can just pick the products off the shelf and put them in your basket"… * *even after 35 years, I said the exact same phrase to a first-time customer yesterday, who was eyeing up all the fabrics in Hometown!

The next 2 years I worked in all the departments at the Bromley shop - loved the fabrics in the Walls and Windows department, hated flooring (oh, those dusty deliveries of seagrass matting in hessian bales). I also worked on stock-takes, learnt the admin side of the daily banking and how to send the sales to head office by a kind of ticker tape machine (analogue days, folks!). I planned the toy and Christmas departments and loved the energy and time pressure of the stock arriving and getting it all out on sale. My family Christmas presents suddenly went up a notch - Hyacinth bulb growing kits for Mum, became a favourite each year.

I was tasked with planning the product layouts for a new store as my Area Manager said I’d got a logical brain… Working in Norwich followed as part of the store opening team. This was such fun as a small team of us stayed in a hotel for a month and ate out every evening - living the high life! After Norwich, came moves onto Wythenshawe, Kingston, Glasgow, Bath and finally Wallingford. This was where the magic happened as far as the shop staff were concerned, as the company was divided into stores and the Wallingford head office.

I’ve always kept the old catalogues and looking through them today, I see familiar products and it reminds me of the terrifying merchandise meetings where all new items were approved. At two earlier meetings the buyers would present product samples to the UK buying team first (elimination round 1!), next the rest of the UK management team (elimination round 2!), before the final meeting with Terence, habitat France and conrans USA.

For a young buyer, this was like a meeting with God. Depending on his mood, he could be genial, puffing away on cigars, or crabby (also puffing away on cigars). He loved functional and functioning products. He hated frippery. So, never ever present a tea pot without testing it first to check it poured well. You’d know that Terence would test it and would erupt if it didn’t function and dribbled over the conference table. Being in these meetings was both terrifying and exhilarating. Even though he was no longer in charge of the minutiae of every product on the shelves, he did have the final approval. He always said that even though we were a large buying team, our range should look like it was chosen with one eye, for clarity and consistency.

Of course with rose tinted glasses, it’s easy just to remember the fun and good bits from any past job. But on any given day, in my own emporium, I’m putting into practice my 8-year ‘apprenticeship’ at habitat. Whether I’m selecting products to sell at Hometown - does it fit? - does it work? - does it say Hometown? Maybe I’m tidying and replenishing the shelves, or planning new displays to make the shop a welcoming and inspirational space for customers. There’s daily cashing up and doing my accounts; even if I’m my own head office and my accounts are done digitally, the books have to balance. Finally it’s a mix of ancient and modern, as I manually stock check for orders and update the website inventory.

And now it’s time for another cup of tea and a toast to Terence. And before you ask, of course it’s from a teapot that pours properly, made at Pristine Pottery in Stoke-on-Trent. Appropriately enough it’s in a blue I think the man himself would have approved of. Thank you Terence, for giving me a lifetime love of design and retailing.

Working from Home

It’s Thursday and I’m working from home. In this post COVID-lockdown world, there’s nothing strange about that. Except that I have a shop, so shouldn’t the doors be open, the shop floor buzzing with people and hopefully the till drawer pinging?

Well no. In this brave new world, it’s all different and Hometown is different too. Starting to write this, I realise my last blog post was exactly a year ago. Rewind 12 months and Hometown was a bricks-and-mortar shop, established for 11 years. Working in the business with me were 3 part-time staff and numerous visiting tutors. We opened the door five days a week. Nothing made me happier, than looking up from the cutting table, to count how many customers of assorted ages were idly pottering around the shop. More than 10 customers … and the shop would feel nicely full, yet not over crowded. With customers in all corners, pulling bolts off the shelves, taking their time, standing at the counter and often comparing notes on quilts half-sewn or projects-in-planning. Our new workshop programme had launched in July, so no doubt the phone was also busy with students booking Mel’s new dressmaking workshops and Sam’s ever popular bookbinding courses.

Wow. Fast forward to a different age. The ‘new normal’ of Hometown’s post-lockdown reopening was on 30 June and my business is very different. I closed with a physical shop and I’ve reopened with a physical shop and an online store, having set one up during lockdown. Proof indeed that you can teach an old dog (or in my case a fifty-something haberdasher) new tricks! We’re currently open 4 days a week and right now that’s 10-3.

Most days it’s just myself running the shop, so it feels like 2008 when again, it was just me. Yet, there are baby steps of progress as Jackie came back from furlough last week (yes, this strange new language that’s now second nature to us all) and Marina will return soon. Louise’s position remains vacant as she and her family have left for a new adventure in Yorkshire (luckily they squeezed in their house move before the whole world was put on hold). This spring, I was anxious to recruit a new 3rd musketeer, but right now that recruitment is on hold. Protecting cash flow is the number 1 priority as turnover for the last quarter is down by 75%. Despite this massive dip I’m so grateful that my business is still here. Hometown may be a small business, but it’s my small business and that means I’m in complete control of the finances, not some private equity firm or expensive board of directors. It’s just me and luckily I don’t lead an expensive rock’n’roll lifestyle!

So, back to the 10-3 opening times, the new fangled morning appointment system and the ‘maximum 4 customers in the store’ each afternoon. Why the 10-3 you ask? Well, in a nut shell, it’s knackering. Each day has the intensity of a busy Saturday or Sale day. While the door is open, getting customers in-and-out of the shop quickly and safely is our priority. It’s not that I don’t want to chat, but in July 2020 it’s not the time for a leisurely browse, as customers are probably queuing outside. Thank god we’re British and know how to queue… Believe me, when I say that holding up my hand, stopping customers from coming into the shop, is completely alien to any retailer.

Another unforeseen side effect to add to the mix. When you’re not trained at RADA, having to speak all day in raised voices is really tiring. This is because of the sound proofing effect of the protective acrylic screen around the counter and the face masks we’re all wearing. Who knew? And I soon realised that wearing a full face protective shield, makes it impossible to drink a cup of tea without a straw. So by 3 o/clock, as I haven’t drunk enough, I’m usually dehydrated and desperate for a sit down a proper hot cuppa and a snackeral.

After 20 minutes, I’ve bounced back and it’s time to start on tidying up and putting bolts back on shelves (no time to do this whilst customers are in). I’ll then update the website inventory with the shop stock sold (uhoh, without EPOS, this daily type of stocktaking update is still manual!). Next up I’ll start on any website orders to beat the final collection at the post box. And finally it’s time to unpack the day’s deliveries. At the moment it’s a lot of essentials, such as wadding, plain fabrics and elastic. Also now flooding in is a backlog of new fabric designs, whose shipments have been delayed by factory shutdowns. So the opening hours may be 10-3, but in reality ‘shop’ days are at least 10-8. So thank god for Thursdays!

Going back to today and it’s great to be able to work from home. It means I can drink copious cups of tea, have time to spend several hours updating the website with new products, adding photos, writing copy and adding yet more stock figures. I’ll endeavour to place more orders for elastic (the new gold dust in the haberdashery world). And later on I’ll have a video call with my Mum (another new development for my family this lockdown). And hopefully too, a moment to breathe and quite frankly, do nothing before it all repeats tomorrow!

Also on the list are hoovering (OK, maybe that’s for another day) and if I’m lucky, I’ll think about the would-be quilt project that’s waiting to be started.

Onwards and upwards with this Brave New World. We can do it!

PS. The appointment system will continue until the ‘new normal’ isn’t necessary, so just give me a call on 01634 838880 to book your slot. All I ask is a minimum £20 spend and for 30 minutes you can feel like an A-lister with the shop to yourself…