Hey its what you wanted, or should I say what you were told you wanted. Every town homogenised, cloned convenience so nobody misses out on their favourite coffee or cheap clothing outlet.
We got sold the convenience is king & time is short sizzle along time ago – remember the row of local shops – local produce – butchers, grocers, bakers, delicatessens and the hardware shop. All independent local shops run by local families – low carbon footprint on your meat and two veg in those days. You could probably name the farm that they all came from. Milk delivered to your door – everybody making a living, then along came – the supermarkets, with their analytics, marketing think-tanks – shopping by stratagem – to put kind happy red tractors on their packaging and import their leeks from Brazil and then tell us all about fair trade….. Buy a chest freezer and stock it like a nuclear bunker – you may never have to shop again. And we flocked there like automated walking dead – if I’m quick, I can be out of here in 30mins, if I don’t bump into anybody – oh shit there’s *Greg the white walker from finance….. I better duck down the other aisle.….Shopping sure is for suckers – you don’t have time to shop – you’ve got TV & phones to watch…..Don’t get me started on real ale & automated self checkouts – its almost like they’re anti-people.
I doubt the local row of shops wanted all your data or spending patterns & habits or that they needed to appease a vicious performance based algorithm –
I think they were pretty much like we are here at L&F, we just like working and living in our community. Somewhere along the way we got sold a dummy – now it seems that some folk are wising up to the fact that we keep getting sold back what we already had.
& breathe – Oooohhh that feels better – its good to let it all out !!!
Here are some goodies and new finds ….
We had the privilege of going to see a marble frieze of the last supper – reclaimed from a Blackpool church in the 1990’s.
So casually we amble into a shed and behind a fallen panel door and an ancient blanket is a 6ft x 4ft 3/4 of a ton of Carrera marble – hand sculpted. It was jaw dropping – not what I had expected at all. It was immaculate – perfectly white, not a chip or a dimple. We listened to the story of how it was lowered from behind the alter ( the church was closing its doors ) and brought down. Then left in this shed for over twenty years. Detailed Photographs have been sent for appraisal.
Then we had an Italian film crew from clothing brand CP company, Bologna in to shoot the shop and have a chat about ideas, heritage, quality and customer service. Really nice to share ideas and to see their enthusiasm for what we are doing. It was especially nice to meet the son of Massimo Osti, Lorenzo – & to hear about his fathers & mothers creative process. It was lovely to have the shop and our ethos complemented by him.
Loads of stock in the shop at the moment – I will try and upload add more photos but Im struggling to find time.
Ciao for now
James & Anne Marie Gilbraith
*there is no Greg from finance – honest
Leave a Reply