Stuff Emporium celebrates first birthday following successful year

MANY new shops are quickly turning into Salisbury institutions and Stuff Emporium, which sells items made by local artisans, is a good example.

“We’ve just had our first birthday as our first day of trading in Salisbury was the 4th of July 2022,” explains owner and founder, Kellie Gently. “Prior to this I owned a shop in Wilton shopping village for three years with a similar setup. However, with Stuff Emporium I am focusing on supporting local artisans by promoting their hand-made products as I saw a gap in the market.”

So why did Kellie move from Wilton? “I needed to expand, especially my footfall as it was more limited in Wilton. I’ve done markets in Salisbury for a long time and I knew that it had the right audience for the shop. And since I moved to Salisbury, time has gone very quickly and I’m looking forward to the next few years here, continuing to grow our customer base and products.”

Kellie quickly noticed there is a growing community made up of the other shops in Winchester Street, such as Compleat Artist art supplies and JAMS hand-made furniture.

“To allow us to support each other, I held an Indies shopping trail with 11 other shops during December. It was free and encouraged customers to visit all the shops but also helped us network between us. We held little competitions with prize bags made up of items from each of our shops.”

But Kellie’s collaboration with other organisations doesn’t stop there.

“Since February, we’ve had a charity space within the shop supporting the local charity Cat Watch Rescue Shelter, where you can purchase a range of cat-related products with all money going to the charity.

“We held a bake sale and raffle which customers loved, so I would love to do another. I’ve got a collection pot for Stars

Appeal at the till and have a couple of local, self-published authors who also donate a percentage of their sales to Stars Appeal.

“I am always looking for new artisans to rent shelf space. I love the variety of different products, from crochet to crockery, jewellery to photography. So whatever you make, pop in for a chat and I’m sure your hand-made, locally produced items will look beautiful and attract shoppers on the shelves of Stuff Emporium.”

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