RETAIL INTERVIEW Gulp Gulp – Style with Substance
observed two common groups of people when it came to the home and cooking -those who are time-starved and in a regimented recipe rut routine’ and those who seem to have all the ingredients and equipment under the sun plus a wealth of uninterrupted time – neither of which rang true to real life. She says: “I was somewhere in the middle. I love baking, cooking and providing any and every kind of hospitality but equally I live in the real world where the phone rings, kids do the most unexpected things and people are late. The media creates this ‘oh-so- simple’ scenario but people just don’t prepare food or entertain like that.”
The initial concept of Gulp was a website and Miriam Fogarty
Having recently celebrated its fi rst month of business with new premises -near Edinburgh, Gulp has come a long way in a very short space of time. Developed from a personal love for all things quirky, aesthetically pleasing and practical, owner Miriam Fogarty has built her brand into a unique retail experience with one aim – to take the ‘gulp factor’ out of cooking, dining and entertaining. Jo Cooper met with Miriam exactly one year one from her initial ‘recce’ of Autumn Fair to fi nd out more about this unique and interesting retail concept.
an enjoyable/relaxing experience and in short, sell the items to make this achievable. The idea itself came from owner Miriam Fogarty’s personal infatuation with such things in her own life, combined with an observation that life would be a lot easier if she could source and locate the right products to help others with these kitchen and dining experiences.
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After 20 years in the legal industry and the arrival of two children, Miriam embraced her ‘full time mum and homemaker’ status. She
46 TABLEWARE INTERNATIONAL
he philosophy of Gulp is simple, yet broad and clever. The idea is to take the apprehension out of cooking, dining and entertaining and make it
blog, providing adaptable recipes to take the ‘gulp’ out of cooking, baking and entertaining. “In my own life, I use tools which are essential to making baking, cooking and entertaining achievable with minimum ‘hands-on time’ but maximum ‘bang for my buck’. I wanted to fi nd out where to source these products many of which I had purchased abroad and wanted to share this information on my website, Instead of providing, say, a recipe I wanted to provide solid practical advice based on my personal experience with a view to making the recipe accessible and achievable.” And so followed a fi rst venture to Autumn Fair in 2009 with the goal of fi nding the suppliers of some basic items. She adds: “At this point I had no intention of buying and selling myself, it was just to share information. I had some interesting conversations at the show and realised I had some very detailed product knowledge, purely based on personal experience. I found myself correcting some suppliers on the practical uses and availability of their goods, having owned and used the products at home myself.” Miriam knew the type of products she liked and wanted, but felt hugely frustrated at the diffi culties in getting her hands on them. The task now was to work out if it was only she who felt these frustrations or if others shared them too.
She adds:
“I’m fussy about details, I like things to work, I like the
Serax vases and Roos Van De Velde ceramics
delight factor of witty and intelligent design. For me the best thing of this last year has been the feeling that I’m not alone. Knowing customers fi nd joy in the things I love -is the best vote of confi dence.”
But Miriam encountered a fair few challenges when speaking to suppliers initially.“ I came away from Birmingham frustrated. Just mentioning the Web made suppliers eyes glaze over. The other diffi culty I had was credibility – I was literally a housewife, with no retail experience, no big cheque book or cash pot behind me – the only thing in my armour was my own knowledge, and the determination to share products I could wholeheartedly and personally vouch for with a wider audience. ”
Miriam decided to bite the bullet and take the key time between Autumn Fair and Christmas to ‘scratch this itch’ and move into selling the types of product she so dearly loved.
“I had seen plenty of potential goodies, I had items I loved at home and I decided to take the plunge. I thought - I have this chance, It’s timely, I’m going to go for it and if it doesn’t work out at least I’ll have given it a go.” Where to sell? Having observed and
researched an increasing trend for ‘pop-up shops’ both in the UK and the USA, Miriam saw the concept as an ideal solution, giving the valuable retail space on a very short-term lease to dip her toes in the water. After repeated diffi culties fi nding a suitable venue and the increasing awareness of her bought stock itching to be sold, Miriam took the unusual step of setting up the pop-up shop in her own front room at home.
“My legal background meant that I had at an earlier stage ticked all those boxes like company and VAT registration, bank accounts and I had
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