What’s been happening at Abrahams during November’s closure?
Sadly, due to the second lockdown, we were forced to close our doors once again on 5 November as Abrahams is classed as a “non-essential” shop (according to the Government!). This has been a heavy blow for us and all small independent shops particularly as November is our second busiest month of the year. Like other small retailers we have complied with the Government’s ruling but have been disappointed that many of the larger retailers appear to have ignored the rules and offered various “non-essential” products for sale in their stores.
Earlier this year, we joined ‘Boutiques In Business’ (BIB); a group of pioneering boutique owners who are taking huge strides to make the plight of ‘indie retailers’ heard. Support and advice is offered to members and it has been extremely useful to us during this difficult period. BIB made the BBC National news earlier in the month with our campaigns highlighting small shops battle with the retail giants and our ‘mannequin revolt’ against lockdown unfairness.
Throughout these troubling times, the ground swell of support that we have received from our loyal customers has been heartening. We are also thrilled that so many of you have placed orders on our new online shop. JAC created this new part of our website during the 3 month lockdown earlier in the year. If you haven’t had a look yet, please do, as JAC’s busy adding more personal and gift focussed products to our online shop every day.
Our door may be closed but we’ve certainly been busy. We’ve been proactive in other ways over the last few weeks, not only are we adding more & more gorgeous products to our online shop, but we’re upping our presence on our social media pages – Facebook and Instagram. We’ll use these pages to showcase new editions to the online store and highlight items that you can order directly by calling us – items like clothing for winter & the festive party season. With that in mind we also offer appointments by video – you book a time slot and we will show you an edited collection that we can mail out to you. Just tell us what you are interested in and we will prepare some gift or clothing ideas just for you. You can email us with your contact information at info@abrahams-store.co.uk to arrange an appointment.
Happily, our thoughts and plans are now focussing on re-opening on Wednesday 3 December which will be a huge relief to us all. We will be taking even more care than usual to make the shop is both beautiful and safe for everyone. We can guarantee that the store will be wonderfully FESTIVE in every way & we look forward to welcoming you back & to showing you our beautiful collections for Christmas!
Best wishes
Josie, JAC & the Abrahams team X
