labour shortage in the Lakes and we were unable to consistently staff the shop, so in 2022 we reluctantly made the decision to close that store. Even now we still have people asking why we no longer have a shop in the Lakes! During this time we managed to buy our shop building in Hebden Bridge, so we now own our premises and we rent out two flats above it, and run the shop and the website. The shop is staffed by three part-time people, with Vicky and I doing the buying and the general running of the business. We all enjoy the flexibility this offers! We are in a beautiful rural setting, with good
train links to surrounding towns and cities. We benefit from being near other interesting, independent businesses in the town that attract people in. And we have amazing loyalty for our brand, with a reputation for the ‘different’ shoes and accessories we offer and personal customer service both in store and online. Our customers are often looking for something unusual, colourful, good quality, comfortable and very wearable, so we choose to stock brands and styles with this in mind.
Q: Do you have any famous customers? A: As we are based in Hebden Bridge, the location for the TV series Happy Valley and currently Riot Women on the BBC, we do often find well-known actors popping in, as well as writers and poets when Happy Valley Pride takes place every July, and musicians playing gigs at the famous Trades Club! We always remain very discreet and serve them like anyone else coming in to our beautiful little shop.
Q: Do you have an online shop or website, and do you use social networking for business? A: We use social media to highlight arriving stock and what is selling well, but Facebook and Instagram are currently the only platforms that we use. When it comes to our most ‘liked’ content, the most effective content is personal stories from us and our customers, plus sharing local things of interest. People seem to really like that.
Q: How important is shoe fitting to your business? A: We do get questioned on shoe fitting; people trust our experience and knowledge. However, we don’t offer shoe fitting as a service because our brands vary too much. We sell adult styles only, 95 per cent to
women as we have contracted our men’s offer over recent years.
Q: What’s selling well right now? What are your best-selling footwear brands and why? A: Our best-selling brands at the moment include Jungla, a wonderful Spanish brand with simple styling, classic looks and colourful, soft leathers; Waldlaufer, the German brand with colourful comfortable urban walking shoe styles; El Naturalista Barefoot – Spanish styling, classic and simple, and the Barefoot trend is very strong right now, and El Naturalista offers an amazing quality product at a good price point in this market.
Q: What are your views on the footwear/ fashion sector overall at the moment? A: I think the footwear sector, particularly for independent retailers, feels overall pretty challenging and I think that Brexit was an
extremely negative outcome for the British retail sector. Not only that, but additional costs started impacting cashflow, and we started losing some brands that simply didn’t want to deal with the new logistics and regulations. We built our business on offering small, niche European brands of footwear so we felt particularly affected when the market started to turn. Having said that, we’ve also built up some
really good relationships across the industry and the support of our great suppliers and agents has been tremendous, so I think we have managed to work things out along the way. We know there is an appetite for consumers to
experience real shops with real customer service and an individual collection of goods to buy. The challenges come from the likes of Amazon and the other huge online players constantly discounting their products and then customers’ expectations for everything to be available all of the time. In spite of this we continue to thrive as an antidote to that experience! When it comes to Government policies
it would be very helpful if moving goods through customs could be more consistent and straightforward! And VAT at 20 per cent continues to be challenging for small businesses, and I know I’m not alone with that view, so if this could be instead linked to business turnover I think it could ease cashflow for independent retailers.
Q: Do you have any plans for the future? A: Unfortunately we do, yes! We are marketing our business for sale after 20 years of selling shoes! Both Vicky and I have plans to move on to pastures new, but we would absolutely love to see this incredible little business continue on beyond us!
Contact
Rubyshoesday 37 Market Street, Hebden Bridge, West Yorkshire, HX7 6EU. Tel: 01422 847999
www.rubyshoesdayhebdenbridge.co.uk
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