Our happy and vibrant shop space
It has been over six months since we moved into our new location at Preston Market and we cannot imagine a better place to work. The daily boost we get working in this incredible environment cannot be overestimated and that is why we are dedicating this newsletter to the talented team who breathed life into our happy and vibrant shop space.
Some of you may know that we celebrate 20 years in our family-owned business with Rhubarb Rhubarb this year and remember the small shop we had in the very beginning from 2000 until 2016 that was a small converted forklift bay. It was a simple but sweet little place we called home for 16 years but eventually we outgrew this tiny space and made the move to a more high profile location within the market. Which is when we first engaged the incredible retail design skills of Megan Norgate and her team at Brave New Eco. The new store was immediately a great success. However within two years we were bursting out of that space too and so jumped at an opportunity given to us by the Preston Market to help activate a previously quiet corner of the market by relocating our store from the central hub to a much larger site in Pam Lane. We now affectionately call our store RR V 3.0.
Despite being in a less central zone we recognised that the move would give us much more space for our operation and an opportunity to expand our range and add in a cafe to fuel our shopper’s experience. We once again partnered with Megan and the Brave New Eco team to help us with an ergonomic fit out and apply their incredible talent with design and colour.
The new location required a fresh brand identity that would grab shopper’s attention to pull them into this quieter corner of the market so Megan worked with Tim from Baker Studios and drew inspiration from the colours, fonts and images found on vintage fruit boxes. Local illustrator-artist Beci Orpin designed a mural for the shop exterior facing into the market then alongside Tim and Megan created a palette of paint colours that could be used across the interiors, branding and mural. Artist Abbey Rich used her incredible painting skills to breathe life into the mural over several days.
It's difficult to express how uplifting the sunny interior, well-organised shop layout and vibrant mural is and continues to be especially this winter when things have felt especially bleak at times. The simple act of throwing some tunes onto our sound system, pumping up the volume and soaking in the beautiful colours and environment has kept us all buoyed in these moments.
Thank you to the incredible team for bringing both our customers and staff this tangible gift of immense joy! What a privilege it has been to work with you all.
If you are looking for an uplifting shopping experience and want to treat your insides to some fresh organic goodness we are now open 7 days a week. This is partly due to customer demand and partly due to wanting to provide our shoppers with some quieter times to shop.
We also have an online "contact-free" home delivery service if you prefer to shop that way.
Thanks for your ongoing support. We appreciate all of the wonderful people who are supporting small businesses and independent retailers in these challenging times. Remember when you shop with us you are also supporting our staff, our suppliers, farmers and many other small businesses.
Hope to see you soon,
Sue, Haydn and the crew.
You can see more images and read a blog post about the fitout at Brave New Eco's website.
All photographs by Emma Byrnes.