RETAILER PROFILE Celebrating Success Fromser ng celebrities t


om serviing celebrities to ce ebrat ng 35 years n business W llMcGil chats Will McGilli with Christine Lynn-Thomas, Owner, about the storied history of Kooks Unlimited and the challenges of life on the high street today.


celebrl ating 35 yi ars in business,i R


ichmond, home to the oldest surviving bridge over the River Thames, Richmond Bridge which was completed in 1777, and Kooks Unlimited, an independent cookshop packed with some


wonderful people and fantastic products. The retailer also was awarded highly-commended at the Housewares


Awards 2024. Setup in the 1980s by Christine Lynn–Thomas, after stepping away


from her life in the big smoke, she wanted to do something different. And that is how Kooks Unlimted’s story began.


  inspiration for me. I decided to use my redundancy money to open a shop. Fortunately,


around that time, Margaret Thatcher had introduced a “start-your-own-    legal matters. Through the scheme, I met some wonderful people, two of whom became my best friends. One of them went on to open a gift shop, which she ran for years. 


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Question: How did you set up the shop? Christine Lynn–Thomas: I set up the business in the 1980s after deciding that working in the city wasn’t for me. At the time, there were a lot of redundancies happening, and it became clear that city life was too  One thing I noticed, was that there wasn’t anywhere nearby where you   for cooking. There was a small hardware store in the area that did a bit


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tried to keep my shop fresh by constantly looking for new products. This ability to introduce unique products has 


 retail at the moment? And how’s business? CLT: Retail is a mix of challenges and the usual ups and downs at the moment. It’s a tricky time,  likely due to the lead-up to the


August/September 2024 housewareslive.net


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