Oooh look!!!

We all love wandering down a gorgeous street don't we ladies and gentlemen... browsing through inviting looking windows at the goodies stacked high inside a warm inviting shop.  Well I want to tell you about one such shop that is opening today!

My friend Sophie Jewett is opening a chocolate shop in York called York Cocoa House...but here's why I'm super excited...Sophie isn't new to the chocolate game...oh no!  She might be opening her first shop venture but don't let that fool you. Sophie has been successfully running Little Pretty Things for quite a while now, with chocolate tasting sessions and chocolate making being held at various places around the beautiful city of York.  So I'm really really excited about her opening this new shop of hers because I just know it's going to packed full of wonderful chocolatey stuff and it will give her a permanent base to run her chocolate classes from in the town too.  So if you know someone who loves chocolate, why not head over and put something special in their Christmas stocking this year?  Not only will they love you for it - but I'm sure you'll fall in love with this little corner of York that's simply a delicious drop of chocolate heaven!!

Good luck Sophie, you're a great chocolatier, a shrewd businesswoman, a good friend and one of my favourite chocolate allies! I wish you all the very best as you set sail on your new retail adventure...it's going to be fabulous sweetie, darling!

Preparing...

It's a dull and grey rainy windswept day today here in Bridgend, so what better way to cheer yourself up than to sit down and make some of the bunting for the new shop! 

So this is my lounge at the moment, covered in bits of material, ready for the lettering to be put on the bunting.  When it's all done it will read, "Ella Riley's Sweet Shop" Another seperate one will read "Welcome" with a third saying "Pick n Mix" so there's a fair few to do, but they look fabulous when they're done and the good thing is we can take them with us to decorate our stall when we do fayres etc.
So apart from this we're just waiting on the contracts to come through from the agents, once we've signed those it's full steam ahead on getting the shop fitted out and getting it up and running.  We're hoping to be in there and trading in the next fortnight, so it's getting a little squashed here at home (and at other friends and parents garages etc) as we start to stock up on things that are needed for the fit out like shelves, tills, weighing scales, cookers etc.  So I think we'll all be glad when we're in so we can all move again without bumping into these things.  Roll on 2 weeks time I say!

Welcome to my journey into retail...

I'm having a little change around on my blog again! It's been a while so I thought I would refresh it.  As you know I have been running a traditional sweet and toffee shop now for a couple of years, and I thought I would share a year in retail with you from the front line! We are opening a second shop in Wales and have started manufacturing our toffee and currently sell it to over 40 shops across the UK, with a waiting list of shops who also want to take but who we cannot currently supply.  So sit tight and join the ride that is the accidental retailer!