It’s been a long time coming but is that Spring I see sneaking up on us?
The big freeze of January seems like an age ago, who remembers slipping all the way to the shop on the treacherous pavements? Thankfully we had lots of loyal Chirpy customers who braved the weather and shopped with us. We didn’t have a Sale this year – did you miss it? The main reason was that following some work I’ve been doing with the brilliant Catherine from The Resilient Retail Club meant my stock control has been much better so not a lot of excess stock to sell off.
January was all about RENEWING, my word of the year. During a couple of enforced days of closure due to some essential (and very expensive!) electrical work being completed I took the opportunity to give the shop a big spring (or winter!) clean and a lick of paint here & there. Loving the new pops of teal on the pegboards which definitely show off the products better.
On a personal note I was over the moon to find out I’d got a place on the Coppafeel! Charity Isle of Skye 100km Trek in June. Fundraising got off to a great start and I was well on the way to reaching my £2500 target thanks to all my generous Chirpy customers.
February started with a trip to Spring Fair, a better prepared visit than last year so had more time to chat to existing and potential suppliers. As one of the Gift of the Year judges if was a great opportunity to see the products in the flesh and cast my final votes. Lovely to see quite a few of products we currently stock be in the running, including our Travel Journals & Paper Plants.
February also meant the return of Chirpy Workshops, welcoming back Mizz Knits with her giant ball of wool & my Jesmonite workshop.
The highlight of the month had to be being a Dragon at the GCA speed dating event where 72 cards publishers met with a host of retailers, including Chirpy, to pitch their wares. The organisers weren’t joking when they said to bring an empty suitcase with us to bring back all the freebies. With over 200 free cards and lots of other goodies too including a beautifully hand painted picture of Chirpy, I was blown away by the generosity and effort from the publishers. I made sure to contact every publisher to thank them and give them feedback as to whether their products were right for Chirpy – to me that’s the least I could do to support such a brilliant sector. Cards are the bread and butter of Chirpy, they actually pay our rent, so we take them very seriously! The event proved very successful for Chirpy having already placed orders with 4 new suppliers and more to come – watch this space!
March has felt quite different this year to last. With Mother’s Day being at the end of the month (unlike last year where it followed very close after Valentine’s Day) there hasn’t been that intense rush to get cards. If I’m being honest it’s been a really disappointing month and I’ve had to really hold me nerve when I’ve budgeted based on last year’s record breaking March. All I can do is keep making sure I got gorgeous stock and offering excellent customer service and hope that the new season and the open door brings customers back to Chirpy.
That’s not to say that March hasn’t been a busy month in other ways. Our Jesmonite taster workshop, in aid of Coppafeel!, was a huge success and raised over £250. Thinking of doing another one – shall we? We also ran a new Calligraphy workshop, another sold out Fused Glass workshop and one of my personal favourites, a Lampshade Workshop. Pop ups returned too, with a Sustainable Fashion pop up with Hearing Aid Babe and Katie & May returning to our high street with the first of her monthly pop ups.
We love surprising our customers and on International Women’s Day over 40 customers were treated to a free bunch of flowers – definitely think this will be an annual giveaway
Fundraising (& training) for Coppafeel! Continues and this month we hit our £2500 target so of course we’ve increased it to £4000. My days off are spent getting practice walks in as only 11 weeks until the big trek.
We ended the month on a high finding out we were a finalist for the Muddy Stilettos Awards, for Best Lifestyle Store in Yorkshire! We’ve got some tough competition so no apologies for asking all our wonderful Chirpy customers to vote for us. You’ve got until 15th April to cast your vote – we really can’t do this without you! Please vote HERE!
So what’s coming up next at Chirpy?
We’ve got a jam packed programme of workshops, an Easter Egg colouring competition, a pop up with Westmorland Sheepskins, an art exhibition with Tessa Houghton and lots of gorgeous new Spring products arriving. Think that’ll keep us busy, so why not pop in and say Hi!