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Roy of the Retailers
By Roy Beswick co-owner of The Card Collection, East Molesey
The Silver Lining As I write this, Jubilee is the word of the moment with the whole of the country looking forward to celebrating the amazing achievement of our Queen’s 70-year reign. It is also the word of the moment for us at The Card Collection as we enter our Silver Jubilee year of trading in our East Molesey store which is a cause for celebration as well as reflection. So, what has changed over the last 25 years, and what have we learned about this great industry that we are so lucky to have stumbled into all those years ago? Well one constant is the question that we are still being asked to this day: “What makes a good greeting card?”. We still give the same answer, from a retailer’s point of view, as we did in year one: “One that sells!” You learn quickly that you cannot just stock card ranges that you like although that is still a major factor in our card buying strategy. In actual fact if Julia [Roy’s wife and co-owner of the business] says she doesn’t like a range of cards then we go heavy on stock because invariably that range turns out to be the most popular in the shop! It still makes us both laugh that it still works even after all these years. But in all seriousness the ingenuity of the designs, the quality of board, the print finishes and embellishments etc. are all far superior today compared to when we started and so actually choosing which ranges to stock is far more difficult nowadays than it was when we first opened The Card Collection’s doors. While there are a few companies who continue to be the backbone of our stock control, such as GBCC, Wendy JonesBlackett, Woodmansterne, Five Dollar Shake and Emotional Rescue, the fun is discovering new companies and ranges to enhance our offering. A large help is the trust and understanding we have built up with the various reps and agents who have been regular Above: Roy and Julia Beswick, co-owners of The Card Collection with a new ‘employee’! Right: The Card Collection in East Molesey is this year celebrating its Silver Jubilee, having been trading since 1998.
visitors to our store over the years. They have come to understand how we work and what makes the shop special and so we always listen to their advice. They also all love the coffee we always have ready for them! Making the effort to visit trade shows, PG Live in particular, is also vital in keeping us up to date with current trends as well as to find new publishers that we would
probably not have discovered had we not gone to the show. The reaction of customers to new ranges is always exciting and the joy of ringing up the sale on the till of a card that you have only put out on the rack five minutes before is still as thrilling today as it was on day one in 1998. Some people never grow up…! We still cannot stop ourselves telling the customer what they have done and it makes them feel special that they are the first to purchase the “new cards”. It is very important to us that customers enjoy and get excited by the ranges of cards that we stock and most appreciate the effort we constantly put in to make our shop feel different. Over the years the shop has been brilliantly supported by the local community and we have played a part in lots of people’s lives by supplying cards and balloons for their milestone events, such as from their birth to their 18th and 21st birthdays, their engagement, wedding and births in their own family. Or their graduation and new job and eventually new home. In hindsight it would have been brilliant PR to have photographed the balloons on each occasion but 25 years ago who knew…? As far as we were concerned back then surviving the first year was a great achievement. Those of you who have been in this industry for a long while, might recall one of my highlight periods when I was writing my monthly ‘Roy of the Retailers’ articles for Progressive Greetings. Looking back, I felt so privileged to have been asked to do this but also very nervous because I had never done anything like that before. I must have done OK because people still ask me about it and most say they enjoyed reading them. Anyway, I am really pleased that I am being allowed to write this celebratory article and I now have much more experience and knowledge of this great industry to call upon and babble on about. I hope you all enjoy reading this and hope I do not have to wait for another Jubilee before I am allowed to write another one! PROGRESSIVE GREETINGS WORLDWIDE
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