Friday 1 June 2018

Making necklaces and the Brexit effect

Necklaces by Jenny Stacy for Handmade Happiness
I painted these to include in necklaces
It's peony time in the garden. Love them!

This week I have been making necklaces and painting beads for them and making buttons and velvet beads to be made into necklaces.

Hearing recently that Marks and Spencer were closing 100 stores was a comfort to me... the down turn in spending is wide spread. 

With the uncertainty of what lies ahead for Britain and the lack of confidence in our politicians to negotiate a good deal for us, people are holding back from spending money unnecessarily. Who knows what the future holds? 

The question is, will there be any more money around in two years time and can retailers like me, who still need to pay the same rent and bills regardless of what money is spent in the store, be able to hold out until the time we are officially 'out' of the EU?

I'm seeing many shops going under at this time. 
But I am determined to ride this out. Handmade Happiness has been around for nearly 7 years and I'm not caving in yet!!

Interestingly I spoke to someone who had a shop for 14 years and recently retired. The first 7 were Heaven she said and the other 7 were much more difficult. It seems to me that we have been in a 'recession' for a long, long time.


4 comments:

Unknown said...

Courage Jenny, tu as encore beaucoup de choses à exprimer !

jenny said...

Merci Ghisaine, tu es vraiment gentil!

Judith said...

please don't blame it on Brexit. I am an expat, living in germany, and a dedicated small business lover. I live in a very affluent area near Frankfurt and can name at least 10 lovely little shops that have closed in the last couple of years. The larger shops are also empty, apart from people taking photos of goods they want to purchase, cheaper, at home, on the internet.
It is the way of the world at the moment, so just hang on in there and I'm sure all will be well.
Incidentally, many people I know here think the UK is doing the right thing and would love to be doing the same!

jenny said...

Thank you Judith for your interesting comment.
People often tell me I should have a selling website but I have held out so far.
I hope handmade things fall into their own unique category and that there will still be sufficient demand for them in the future to keep little shops like mine going but only time will tell.