Happy Bank Holiday weekend!
This month has been full on, and I mean REALLY full on. We had a stall and stage at the RHS Spring Festival, and although it was exciting and brilliant to be designing and making stages again (my previous creative hustle before I started the shop), it was a lot to manage. It was incredible to see our stage on BBC Gardeners’ World too - for a whole second 🙂 Next month is the BBC Gardeners’ World Show in Birmingham, and I’m really tempted to take PRIOR on tour again.
The topics I talk about include free shipping, Royal Mail, our new coffee shop, new exhibition spaces, and exciting news about Wimbledon, The Olympics and Christmas.
Free Shipping
I’m going to go straight in and let you know that we are offering FREE postage for the next 40 online customers. You guys get a free postage code with every newsletter anyway (always at the end of the email), but we are trying to push our online sales a little harder. So, if you have friends, family, and work colleagues who would like to make use of this special offer, please spread the word. The code is FREESHIPPING40 and will stop working once it reaches 40 orders.
The reason for this discount is because we have a business account with Royal Mail. They collect our parcels every day and charge us £3.68 per parcel. We then charge you £3.99 to cover some of the box and packing material costs. To qualify for this, we have to send 80+ parcels a month, and this month we’ve only posted 40. If our account is taken away, it means we will have to queue at the post office (the queue for the City Centre branch is huge) or use a different courier. Both of these options will drastically increase our postage costs to you, so we’d like to avoid that!
Coffee Shop
Our in-house coffee shop has developed a little bit more. The machines are with Wogan Coffee getting serviced, and as soon as we know they are good to use (they were donated), we will be installing the water line, 21-amp power supply, and a dishwasher upstairs. We have even created a dedicated seating area inside the shop, which can also be hired for co-working/hot desk space.
Exhibition Space Hire
We have really enjoyed having so many incredible shows back-to-back, but we have also realised how much pressure it puts on the shop and the team. Another realisation is that the extended shop we created in our gallery space at Christmas actually helps us meet our sales targets more than the exhibitions. We love the culture and community value that the exhibitions bring to the City Centre, but ultimately we need to cover our overheads. So from now on, we are only hosting a full space exhibition five times a year. The remaining time we will turn the space into an extended shop with a smaller 420cm x 270cm area for small exhibitions, pop-up hire, and seats for our café offering, as well as an 800cm wall for hire. You can read more about our new event spaces here.
Wimbledon and the Olympics
I’m not sure if I’m allowed to say this as I don’t know if it’s confidential, but sod it… there will be a big screen outside the shop in Cabot Circus this summer showing Wimbledon and the Olympics!! Right outside the shop! ☀️ Our in-house coffee shop will be running by then, so we hope to be busy! We will also be giving away free coffee to anyone who spends over £30.
Christmas
I’ve been accepted to have a stall at the Bristol Christmas Market in Broadmead. Usually, I head over to Bath, but this year I’ve decided that it’s best for my body, mind, and my team if I’m closer to the shop/home. It will be just Priormade work, but I’m hoping that with the thousands of people who walk past the stall, I'll be able to signpost people to the shop. The surprising thing we heard again and again at the RHS show was: ‘Oh, I’m in Bristol too and I've never heard of you/didn’t know you were there’, so more marketing is needed, I think!
The Future of Prior
As I mentioned in the last letter, I’m trying really hard to keep the shop in its current location, but I’m also in a position where, because we are still not covering our overheads, I have to start planning an exit strategy. We are taking risks and making big plans this year, but if it doesn’t pay off, then next year we will be moving to another location. Whether that is into a smaller shop somewhere in Bristol or a warehouse so we can continue to offer the exhibition and workshop facilities. You’ll be the first to know - well, after my friends and family who are SO sick of listening to me talk about the shop 🙂
Thanks, everyone, for being here.
P.S. Please help me get 40 online orders ready this week. Spread the word. FREESHIPPING40 is the code your friends and family need to use.
Love, Beck
