Big Interview: Bristol's Independent Design Collective on the future of independent retailers

Independent businesses account for around 65% of approximately 290,000 retail outlets in the ��Ƶ. And with artisan craft stores, creative studios and foodie venues, Bristol is one of the most vibrant cities for independents.

A ��Ƶ initiative seeks to honour and showcase independent businesses at the beginning of July each year. This year the weekend July 1-2 will be dedicated to these businesses.

However, with the cost of living crisis ongoing and rents and mortgages running into turbulent times, how can independent retailers survive?

BusinessLive spoke with Chitra Tarling, the owner and founder of Independent Design Collective, located on North Street, Bedminster.

Ms Tarling moved to Bristol in 2013 from London, she opened her store in 2017 after showing her own artwork in markets.

She explained: “I am an artist and started straight away selling at markets - that’s how I made my living for four years, alongside massage and then this opportunity came up. After doing all of the markets out in all kinds of weather all weekend; you meet a lot of other similar artists and everyone is complaining about the same things - high winds and all your stock gets blown off, the rain and there isn’t enough protection.

“We lived just off West Street, so on North Street we were always here looking at all of the shops and none of this end had been developed at that point. So literally this end of the road has developed over the past five or six years, around the same time we’ve been here. This opportunity came up and I said to my husband ‘should I go for it?’ He said ‘yeah go for it what harm can it do, if it doesn’t work out you can close the shop and do something else'.”

Bristol's Independent Design Collective on the future of independent retailers — Independent Design Collective, North Street, Bedminster (Image: Independent Design Collective)

Independent Design Collective has gone from strength-to-strength and now stocks up to 40 artists with 20 people currently on the waiting list.

Ms Tarling continued: “I think the beauty of having a shop like this is, I know as an artist, a lot of people are shy. When they are standing behind their stall with their heart and soul on the table it is very difficult to be ‘this is my stuff, look at the colours, you’ve got a choice of this’. Whereas, for me, the whole shop, I could talk until kingdom come about the products, all the positive points, how it’s made and all that, and that helps sell the products quite easily for them.”

However, although customers want the art work and absorb the creative ideas, Ms Tarling said that they will buy something small or just one item, where it used to be two or three things.

She said: “So I try to send an email out when I send out reports telling them (the artists) what they’ve sold. If the month has been slow I’m honest and say ‘the month has been slow month’ then everyone who has sold something, even if they’ve had a good month others might not have done, so that they know in general the shop is going slow or it’s doing well.

'It is tough, it is emotionally tough but I couldn’t let it go'

“We get feedback from the artists, that they have been slow online or they are trying to change tact; you know not everyone has been going out to the markets. We had an artist come in the other day and she said, I think it was in Cardiff, that she sold one thing and she normally takes about £400. That is huge, if you’re paying out £40, £50, £60 for a market and you don’t cover your stall costs, travelling, getting your stock together, all of that costs money. It’s the same with us, we still have to open the door, turn the lights on, pay the rent, pay the electric. We had a snow day back in January or February and we took £7.50. That doesn’t cover the wages or anything else.”

Last year the lease came up on her store and Ms Tarling had to make a “huge” decision.

She said: “I had a six month old baby and a shop that had come to the end of its lease, this was before the financial crisis had hit and I was deciding can we stay, should I go, should I put my time into my child, but I don’t want to just be a mother. But I stuck it out, we signed the new lease and we are here. It is tough, it is emotionally tough but I couldn’t let it go.”

With so many big brands on every high street, from your Costas to McDonalds and Primarks, independent retailers bring something different and unique.

Ms Tarling said: “When you’re looking for something special or when a friend is coming to visit and you want to take them somewhere, you’re not going to go to Primark, that is on every single high street in every city, it is the independent shops, independent restaurants, the cafes, the green grocers that will source random products or have gorgeous dishes.

“It is the same with us, we have beautiful products and this is why we try and keep it local to Bristol.”

To attract and retain customers Independent Design Collective has launched a loyalty card and is currently in the process of launching a website.

Ms Tarling said: “I’m trying not to put all my eggs in one basket or put too much pressure on it because it will be a slow build. But even if it can cover my rent that would be great, if it can cover my wages that would be great.”

Ms Tarling currently employs three permanent staff members, four part time and one on zero hours. She is hoping that the website will ease things and make sales easier. However, she is adamant that they will not be leaving the North Street premises.

She said: “We’ve had regular customers from before covid come in and say ‘we are so glad you’re here, we need you on our high street’. Even when we’ve been telling them about the new website they’re going ‘but you’re not going from here, you’re staying?’ and I’m like ‘yeah, yeah definitely.’ Because people like to shop, I know it’s gone that way, online seems to be king, but people still like to come in, and touch and feel and look at the products, see the handmade quality.”

During Covid-19 Bedminster Bid set up a free website for the store, which helped to keep it afloat until Christmas 2020.

Ms Tarling said that this was a key time for the business as “everybody came out”.

She said: “It felt like the whole community came out to shop locally, there were queues outside so many of the shops, the cafes and things like that. We actually had our best Christmas that year.”

Since 2017 the store has tried many different ways of advertising itself, from magazines to leaflet drops. However, the main line of communication is social media and recommendations.

Ms Tarling said: “The other key thing, which I find is recommendations, if you’re good to the people in the shop, if you’re welcoming, if you’re friendly, if they leave happy, if they come back with something that they are upset with and you sort it out they will then recommend you. They will write a review, recommend you to their friends. So I think good customer service is just as important and it’s free, it doesn’t cost anything to be kind.”

'We have beautiful products and this is why we try and keep it local to Bristol'

Independent Design Collective has been working on the website since the beginning of February and has just started a soft launch of it, for family and friends, so they can figure out any problems. Ms Tarling hopes to launch the website on the store’s sixth birthday, at the end July, to the rest of the ��Ƶ.

Ms Tarling explained: “There are some things that we won’t put online or we won’t be able to sell due to the size of it. There’s an artist, By Alice Designs; every single pair of earrings is different, she can’t make them the same, that is the beauty of the product. So we can only list five at a time. We will keep them aside, then the rest of 30 or 40 more we will have in the shop.

“It’s getting that balance right, this is what we have and when we get comfortable with having a website we then might be able to upload more products, we might be able to get more storage space.”

Ms Tarling also added that the website will act as sustainably as possible when it comes to packaging. She explained that they will reuse bubble wrap and won’t buy any new plastics. She said that if they buy plastic it will be compostable or reused andthey will use paper and cardboard as much as possible.

“It is really important and I think the Independents Day needs to be shouted about a little bit more because again these sort of things, you only look at it as an independent business”, Ms Tarling added. “What would be wonderful is if the customer knew about this day and could learn about other independent shops. We will be shouting about it.”

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