29/02/2024
It was almost three years ago I decided to open The Wise Penny in Newmarket Street, at that time it was a busy walk through and it started well, the gifts and crafts were popular and people kept coming back for more the first year saw a good summer and things were picking up, then for no aparent reason it started to go quiet. Lesley moved into the shop and took with her an idea for developing the Crafts and giving other crafters a platform to show and sell what they had made. She introduced a small coffee area and started developing craft classes, but with all her efforts the ammount of people around continued to dwindle and it felt at times as if they had just stopped.
I watched her day after day sitting for 8 hours and the ammount of sales would not have covered the electric, no help was coming from any direction, then the fire at the Station Hotel seemed to seal its fate. Sitting all day for £30 in sales was not any ones idea of fun.
The decision to close the shop was very difficult unless you have run one its hard to understand the emotions that you go through. I simply want to say thank you to Lesley for sticking with it day after day I love you, and admire how you have coped with this.
One good thing has come out of it the Craft Classes are very popular and will continue to run from the shop so if this is your thing give her a ring or send a text and have a chat with her.
Thanks for all your support over the past three years and heres to the next.
All the best John.