The Best Shop is The Village Shop.

About 30 years ago we won a small business best customer service award with Pedlars. It was sponsored by that phone company Orange. Remember them?

I don’t mention this to wallow in past glories but because my entire entry was based on the idea that a good village shop was the best conceivable example of perfect customer service, providing exactly what people want, at a price they like, in a location that they like and offered by people who they know and like and who know and like them.

I’ll probably write more about this soon, because I only remembered it ten minutes ago and so I need to get my thoughts lined up. But I mention it here because we all crave human contact, whether we know it or not and so when someone takes the trouble to reply to my newsletter, and I write back to them, a human bond is formed -however small it might be- that’s significant and real.

I find it almost suffocatingly frustrating dealing with companies of all sizes when I have a problem. Some, of course, are brilliant (step forward the florists Wild at Heart), but my goodness most are awful. I will never forget trying to contact BUPA about something after my dad had died.

And now we have bots and most of them are not good enough to operate as the first line of customer service. They are a false economy because they dent our faith in that brand; maybe not in great big, game-changing ways, but in important ways, nonetheless.

Here is a bot convo I had last week.

I run the Glen Dye Cabins and Cottages Instagram account and over the course of a few years I have built up a rapport with a wellness/fitness guy who wants to run events with us. He seems like a nice guy and has a good following, and this is the conversation we had last week.

Him. Hello guys, (bad start but I’ll let that one go) sorry I haven’t been in touch recently, but it would be good to pick up on that conversation we had as I am super keen to bring a series of groups to you next year.

Me. Hello R****. Great to hear from you. This is interesting and we remain keen. If you call Lauren on the office number, she can talk you through options.

Him. Thank you Lauren. Would you first like to share your health and fitness goals for 2026 with me? This will be help me to understand how best to direct your enquiry.

Me. No, this isn’t Lauren, and I don’t actually have any of these goals to share with you. You asked me a question.

Him. Okay, Lauren, but before we start it is always good to understand your health and fitness goals.

Me. Forget it.

Him. No problem, let me know if we can help.

Enough.

Launching Today! Gladstone / Hellen.  The World’s Smallest Department Store.

In business -as in life, I suppose- there’s always an element of making things up as you go along. When we started out, we visualized having two ‘departments’: clothing and other things, the latter being mainly homewares.

As we evolve, we’ve decided to create five different departments.

The core three are Clothing, Homewares and Food, and all of this is stuff made exclusively for us. That was the original idea: just to sell stuff that is unique to us. But now we have added two other departments. Both are tiny at the moment, but they will grow.

One of these is called Books and Records. You can guess why. This section is as much a place of recommendation as anything else, because should you wish, you can get these things more cheaply elsewhere.

Then we’ve just launched a new section that we’re calling Other Goods. If the website had space, we’d call it something like Amazing Things Made in Britain That are Also Available Elsewhere. It’s a sort of cabinet of curiosities, offering almost anything that we come across and love, provided that it’s made in Great Britain.

In fact, some of these things are actually unique to us. Our farmhouse broom, made by Rosa Harradine, is in a colour that you can only get from us. You won’t find the exact same penknife elsewhere. Ditto our bowl by Adrift Pottery. But generally, these are things that exist elsewhere in very similar form but that we love and want to champion.

Today we’re adding some British-made pens to this collection. It’s amazing what is actually made in Britain when you look.

We’ve also got quite a few products in the pipeline, and our aim is to build up all of the departments in good time for Christmas, so that you can do your shopping with us safe in the knowledge that you’ll be buying things that are beautiful, really well made and unusual.

But Christmas is about 130 days away, so if you have a moment, have a look around today.