ON THE CARDS

Thankfully The Grinch didn’t steal Christmas, but it was a close call for many in our industry. The Royal Mail strikes hit hard, resulting in many people deciding to significantly cull the number of Christmas cards they sent, and therefore the number of Christmas boxes they bought. While encouragingly the sales of single Christmas cards were up for many, even the most seasoned greeting card retailers were left with a mass of boxes. This was not a welcome situation for them in their December till takings, though their increased counter card sales went some way to mitigate this, but it also pushes the problem onto publishers supplying those boxes as to what to do for this year. Moreover, looking holistically, the whole sector has a challenge on its handsto not rely on Christmas 2022 just being a blip and to set about reigniting the more widespread sending of festive greetings. The danger is, that once people get used to something different, it is mighty difficult to reverse that trend as it is invariably superceded by a new habit, and in the words of 19th Century psychologist and philosopher William James: “Habit is the enormous flywheel of society, its most precious conservative agent.”

Like most fabulous independent greeting card retailers, Kaye Thurgood, owner of Sincerely Yours in Shenfield and Hornchurch is a very busy person, not just with her own shops, but ensuring that her whole retailing community is nurtured, promoted and protected. Yet, unprepared to let new habits take hold and Christmas card sending slide without a fight, she was easily persuaded by me to lead the charge of a new ‘SWAT team’, that will be set up under the auspices of the GCA/PG, with a mission of leaving the UK population in no doubts as to the merits of sending lots and lots of Christmas cards this year. Anyone wanting to join this ‘army’ please do get in touch!

This edition of PG, perhaps more than any other, touches all aspects of our wondrous industry, a veritable ‘selection box’ full of tasty treats.

It includes tons of feedback from retailers, from multiples such as John Lewis (pages 35-37), Card Factory (page 9), Sainsbury’s (page 27) and Oliver Bonas (pages 71-73) through to leading indies (pages 21-23, 27-33 and pages 121-123), not least the findings of the PG Retail Barometer (pages 43-53), which lifts the lid on the health and wealth of the independent greeting card retailer.

With this being the Year of the Rabbit, I hopped around independent sales agents to learn what their ‘Watership Downs’ as well as ‘hare raising’ aspects of the last year have been in their respective patches (pages 79-83), while international distributors and publishers made time to let me know about how trade has been in their specific quarters of the globe (pages 55-61). There are masses of new products from publishers, much of which is being showcased at Spring Fair (pages 85-89) while as to the trends, turn to Art Source (pages 117-119) or tap into the 70s vibe (pages 63-65).

Life right now may not be groovy baby, but we are together in this. Come and say hello at Spring Fair (we are co-habiting on our friends, N Smith’s stand on 3H41).

Cheers me dears

Over 60 New Welsh Cards For 2023

One of the leading UK Publishers offering Welsh Language for Everyday, Valentine’s, Mother’s Day, Easter, Father’s Day, Christmas & Christmas Charity Packs.