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talking shop Diary of a Cookshop


Our columnist Sarah Wood, joint managing director of Trevor Mottram cookshop in the Kent spa town of Tunbridge Wells, talks trade shows, storms - and the problem of planning for the unplanned


customers - and we’re inherently nosy.” I do love it if they ask me questions that I don't know the answer to. Fortunately, that doesn't happen that often.


Weather woes The weather has been truly shocking and at times of Biblical proportions, topped with the main road at the end of The Pantiles being closed whilst building work is being carried out [Trevor Mottram is at the heart of The Pantiles, which is in effect an 18th century shopping precinct: a raised paved walkway shaded by lime trees and fronted by a variety of shops behind a colonnade]. I won’t bore you with my rant to the council


about the lack of access (although promised), the appalling signage and so on. But for a change I didn't feel like I was on my own, as the whole area has had a shocking month. Thank god for Chilly’s reusable water bottles, which seem to sell come rain or shine.


cleaning the cellar if this coronavirus goes on much longer In February I


S


visited two trade shows: Spring Fair in Birmingham and Top Drawer in London. They seem a million years ago now but I did enjoy both. At the Spring


Fair, It was lovely to see Mary Berry looking so well, and whilst I don't think her new Mary Berry licensed range from Captivate Brands is very ‘us’ I did like a lot of the products that Captivate Brands are introducing - and, in fact, I had my first order from them this week. Top Drawer was fun and colourful, as always.


It was nice to see some more vibrant shades coming through - and it was just what we wanted to see after the rain. Didn't the Morso stand look amazing too? I do wish Dan Flower [owner of homeware agency AIM Brands UK] all the best with such a fabulous new product to distribute.


26 | housewareslive.net


o what have I been up to since my last column? Spring cleaning and more spring cleaning. I may be spring


“Our sales training is


hilarious at times”


Training tales Also back in February, we were all delighted in- store with our awards [Trevor Mottram won the Best Staff Training category of the Housewares Innovation Awards 2020 organised by Housewares Magazine and its sister website www.HousewaresLive.net, in partnership with Spring Fair, and Sarah won the Best Housewares Retail Buyer category]. I'm particularly pleased with the training award for my ladies. Our sales training is hilarious at times. It goes


along the lines of me saying “new stock is arriving” and the ladies complaining, and then me spending the next two hours explaining the features and benefits of the new items - and having to really defend my position for having bought them! But as one of my ladies once said to me: “We


only want to know so much about the products because we hate to look stupid in front of


• HousewaresLive.net


Sales sympathies Our EPoS system, which I mentioned in the last issue, is due to be installed straight after Easter and my training should (virus allowing) start this week. After many hours of research and several heated discussions at home, we have chosen Cybertill [the cloud-based retail management software solution that helps to centrally consolidate all your sales, stock and customer information]. I sympathise with anyone in any form of


sales, as planning in this environment is nigh on impossible. We were having yet another average day last


week when a young Italian chef popped in: he had come to the UK looking for work and had planned to nip back to Italy to collect his knives etc once a job was secured. I did feel sorry for him. He had never been to our shop before and


was sent here by word of mouth recommendation from other chefs. His English was minimal but, with some sketches and miming, we did find everything he needed - and a jolly nice sale it was too.


Social media success story Social media can be quite rewarding at times too. We recently found a teddy bear in the shop, uploaded a picture of it on Facebook and Twitter, and Mr Bear was reunited with his owner within a couple of hours. If only everything was that easy!


• twitter.com/Housewaresnews March/April 2020

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