Building a Barker’s Christmas

Building a

Barkers’ Christmas

Barkers Department Store’s Christmas Buyer, Cara Allinson, turned her hand to running festive retail for the historic store for the first time in 2021, and loved the challenge – as she tells Sarah Welsh…

Barkers Department Store has been a North Yorkshire institution for well over a century, with customers travelling from miles around to shop there.

The Barker’s brand dates back to 1882. It was founded by William Barker, who was one of 14 children and grew up on a farm. He became an apprentice in a drapery shop that would eventually become Barkers and then bought out the business in 1918.

But this is a retail brand that has also successfully blended a proud history and heritage with innovation in recent years. Barkers Home – one of the largest home stores in the North of England – which now houses the brand’s famed Christmas shop, was originally built in 1994 and then then underwent a 20,000 square foot extension in 2016 as part of a wider £3.5m refurbishment programme. Barkers Home is now pivotal to the success of the Barkers brand, alongside the beautiful town-centre store.

Barkers’ Christmas Buyer, Cara Allinson, has worked for the company for 20 years and also

“I work closely with the visual merchandising team here, and we create festive feeling throughout the store as well as in the Christmas shop.”

buys for lighting and seasonal and home accessories. Based at Barkers Home, Cara is married with a 15-year-old daughter and was herself born and raised in Northallerton. In your job it’s literally Christmas all year round! How did you come to work within festive retail? I was very artistic from a young age and had a Saturday job working on a fruit and veg stall as a teenager. I studied textiles at university and went to work in visual merchandising for fabric brands in London. I’ve now worked for Barkers for two decades, starting off in lighting, but one of my favourite things is still helping people on the shop floor.

Our seasonal department used to be at our high street store, but following the extension of the home store, it moved here. I took over buying for Christmas in 2021 from our previous seasonal buyer, Julie Poynton, but I’ve long managed the Christmas department. How did you combine your expertise in home accessories with festive planning? Last year we dressed the downstairs of Barkers Home looking at Christmas through a home wares lens. I work closely with the visual merchandising team here, and we create festive feeling throughout the store as well as in the Christmas shop which is in the centre of the first floor. From our Tree View Café to the lighting department to cookshop to soft furnishings, Christmas flows through everything here and that’s key.

In recent years we’ve seen as a trend people dressing their whole homes for Christmas, and that’s reflected in the team input that

creates the festive themes here at Barkers. We want the themes to have huge impact, from walking through homewares in the ground floor, right the way up to the Christmas department. When do you start planning for Christmas? I start thinking about the next Christmas before the one previously has even finished! I took up this new role as Christmas Buyer right at the end of December 2020, so came up with Christmas 2021 during the national lockdown at the start of that year. It was strange having that time to plan without customers in the background, but the peace and quiet was helpful in some ways!

I take festive inspiration from all sorts of places – other shops and garden centres, travelling, galleries and museums, visiting other British cities, television, and I also take a lot from nature. What themes did you have for Christmas 2021? Every year our themes are different, and we come up with them at the start of the year, working in conjunction with our visual merchandising experts. For 2021 we had: our luxe ‘Time to Sparkle’ range which featured silver and grey hues, hints of blue and frosted glass, and was the best seller for us. We also had ‘Tis the Season’ – our traditional colour palette – which evolves slightly each year. In addition, there was ‘Night before Christmas’ which contained some retro styling and novelty characters, aimed at children and families, and ‘A Nostalgic Christmas’ a 1920s-inspired opulence range with jewel tones. When does your Christmas Shop usually open? We normally open in midSeptember and have a preview event. In any year it’s quite hard to get the timing right because you have some customers for who it can’t come early enough, while others only start to think about shopping at the end of November.

What about your own personal ‘Christmas timing’? I’m pretty organised and had already finished wrapping presents by mid-November! But I think that’s necessary when you work in festive retail. I’m a bit of a stickler about the Christmas tree which doesn’t go up until after 12 December, and it’s also very traditional with reds and greens, which is interesting considering my job! What product sold well for Barkers in the run-up to last Christmas? Greys and silver-themed products are still quite fashionable and sold well for Christmas 2021, alongside the traditional colour palette of red and green. We saw this activity throughout the Christmas Shop and our home section. Simple cookshop linens always sell well as does white dining and cut glass in tableware, alongside the Emma Bridgewater range. What suppliers and brands have been important to you for Christmas? Stone the Crows are brilliant for store décor and candle holders – they sold really well last year. We work closely with Floralsilk and Festive Productions, and accessories pieces from Straits sold well. As last year was officially my first buying for Christmas, we did focus on suppliers that we know well, and these include Robin Reed Crackers, Gisela Graham and Heaven Sends. And looking to Harrogate Christmas & Gift, Spring Fair and other shows this year – what are you hoping to find? At any of the shows the Barkers team attends, we don’t just want to deal with our warm portfolio of suppliers. We’re very open minded and also will be looking for new eye-catching brands. At Barkers we love brands with innovative visual merchandising ideas, as this enables us to tie in their collection as we’re decorating the store. I think home décor and Christmas brands will become even closer in 2022. Finally, what would you say is the best thing about your job? You do get stress levels coming out of your ears, but I also always have a smile on my face. I work as part of a small, integral team, who are brilliant and when we see Christmas come together it’s all worth it. When I get to say thanks to a member of my team for putting that smile on my face, that’s definitely the best part of the job.

“I came up with Christmas 2021 during the national lockdown at the start of that year. The peace and quiet was helpful in some ways!”