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Vive La Recession!
Listed under: Interviews
Published: Wednesday, January 28, 2009
Not everyone's feeling the pinch; after her busiest day of trading for 15 years, retailer Karen Deutsch is delighting in the downturn
“We are seeing people tightening up their finances and look for better value for money. People see that by making clothes for special occasions they can save money. We’ve noticed an increase in the number of brides buying fabric to have their dresses made. When you consider that a bridesmaid’s dress costs upwards of £200 to buy, and that you can buy the fabric for as little as £20, it's easy to see why people are making the switch. It's not just special occasions that have got consumers dressmaking. People are getting fed up of cheap, disposable clothing that doesn’t last and they're starting to make skirts and dresses for work.
“The haberdashery department is also reporting increased sales, with customers returning to the ‘make do and mend’ mentality. We’ve had to order in darning wool so that people can fix jumpers, bra extenders to save people buying new ones when they go up a size, and we’ve even witnessed an increase in sales of dyes, as people are dying their clothes to give them a new lease of life. And when they get a stain on a dress, this new customer will come to buy something from the haberdashery department to disguise it with instead of buying a new one.
As house sales fall and everyone is going out less they are spending more time at home. We’ve seen sales of curtain fabric shoot up as people make small home improvements. They feel they need a change of scenery but on a budget and, for a small price, they can change the whole look of their room. The same goes for wallpaper; again, a small investment can change the look of a room.
All of these factors combined have seen our sales shooting up. Last Saturday was our busiest day for 15 years. Whilst other stores are reporting that year-on-year sales are contracting, Mandors’ sales have been rising steadily, and our December figures were actually up eight percent on the previous year. The only problem we have is our shop is so busy, we don’t have time to make any new clothes for ourselves!”
Karen Deutsch owns Mandors The Fabric Store which has branches in Glasgow and Edinburgh
“The haberdashery department is also reporting increased sales, with customers returning to the ‘make do and mend’ mentality. We’ve had to order in darning wool so that people can fix jumpers, bra extenders to save people buying new ones when they go up a size, and we’ve even witnessed an increase in sales of dyes, as people are dying their clothes to give them a new lease of life. And when they get a stain on a dress, this new customer will come to buy something from the haberdashery department to disguise it with instead of buying a new one.
As house sales fall and everyone is going out less they are spending more time at home. We’ve seen sales of curtain fabric shoot up as people make small home improvements. They feel they need a change of scenery but on a budget and, for a small price, they can change the whole look of their room. The same goes for wallpaper; again, a small investment can change the look of a room.
All of these factors combined have seen our sales shooting up. Last Saturday was our busiest day for 15 years. Whilst other stores are reporting that year-on-year sales are contracting, Mandors’ sales have been rising steadily, and our December figures were actually up eight percent on the previous year. The only problem we have is our shop is so busy, we don’t have time to make any new clothes for ourselves!”
Karen Deutsch owns Mandors The Fabric Store which has branches in Glasgow and Edinburgh
