This week Jason and I went into Manchester and it was, to be perfectly frank, depressing, there were no shoppers, the stores looked empty, we parked easily and the restaurants didn't need us to book, so if Manchester city centre with all it's fabulous architecture, wonderful brands and glamour has no customers what are the chances of little old St Annes on Sea being a wash with eager shoppers, I'll tell you absolutely none!~
A little while back Jason & I decided we couldn't wait in our shops hoping for customers to come our way, or spend fortunes on advertising (quite simply because we don't have fortunes), so if Mohammed won't come to the mountain we have to go to it. We started a simple programme, doing little & large demonstrations in support of local charities this way we are hopefuly making friendships and lasting relationships and like any good relationship it's based on give and take, we give our time for free and often as in this case even our flowers in the hope that some of these lovely ladies will want and indeed crave buying our flowers in the future.
Now the thing is Rome wasn't built in a day, I didn't have them beating a path to my door the following day but over the years the layers become embedded and these ladies eventually wouldn't dream of buying flowers elsewhere, only a few weeks ago I did a wedding for the daughter of a lady who'd first seen me do a demonstration for The Lifeboat many years ago.
So this event was on a Tuesday lunch time, Jason & I were away from the shop for a couple of hours, we were able to chat with the owners of the Hotel Number One South Beach, we compared notes on Valentines Day and generally socialised person to person not PC to Lap top.
Even the chef showed an interest
And just how glamarous are these ladies, I very much want them to be my clients, but we needed an introduction and this for me is the very best way of doing just that
Jason with Margaret Gough (Organiser) and Chef Mark
The lady on the right was the very lucky winner of the Martini Glass design which we delivered to her home after work
And even if none of these lovely ladies choose to buy flowers from Flower Design at least we've done our bit for a local charity which makes us feel good too! so it's a win, win situation!