S7: Reimagining retail space with Alice Mayor, founder of We Built This City
Conversations of Inspiration
Holly Tucker MBE
5.0 • 1.3K Ratings
🗓️ 3 February 2020
⏱️ 62 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
In this episode, Alice shares her philosophy and approach to one of the biggest issues facing the UK retail sector - the high street. This week Holly hears sage advice, that will hopefully spur on a new generation of shopkeepers or even those small businesses who’ve been thinking about (but are maybe now going!) to take that leap. Alice is arguably ‘the pioneer of the souvenir’, successfully reviving an industry that hasn’t been moved on in 50 years!
In this conversation, you’ll hear an incredible insight into the reality of balancing temporary bricks and mortar, pop-up spaces and an online store, plus how to separate yourself from your business to help it succeed.
Enjoying listening to these unfiltered chats? It's worth following Holly Tucker MBE and Holly & Co on Instagram, and subscribing to our weekly newsletter on our website, where Holly downloads her thoughts, and exclusively shares small business finds and topical, 'ungoogleable' business advice.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | As a woman obsessed by trinkets and souvenirs and birds, well pigeons to be more precise, |
| 0:07.0 | I am very excited to be standing in the bustling Carnaby Street about to head into we built the city's pop-up store. |
| 0:16.0 | I cannot wait to meet the lady who I think is the pioneer of the modern day souvenir, Alice Mayer. My coffee's in hand, there's a promise of pastries and |
| 0:26.0 | over 250 London-based artists, designers and makers are calling my name. |
| 0:32.0 | Excited is an understatement. |
| 0:34.0 | I'm Holly Tucker and welcome to conversations of inspiration. |
| 0:41.0 | I'm the founder of Not on the High Street and Holly and co and I'm the UK Ambassador of Creative small businesses. |
| 0:48.0 | I believe that having a business doing what you love is the key to a happy fulfilled life and my dream is to help |
| 0:56.0 | everybody start theirs. So I've reached out to all my favourite small businesses, |
| 1:00.8 | acclaimed entrepreneurs and those who just simply inspire me and ask them to share |
| 1:06.3 | theirs. |
| 1:07.3 | With thanks to our sponsor NetWest, who have helped bring this free podcast to life. Here are my conversations of inspiration. |
| 1:17.0 | Bow your eyelids close on down where we're going you won't need to bring your frown. |
| 1:24.0 | Hi Alice, it's so wonderful to finally meet you in your incredible shop in Carnaby Street. |
| 1:30.0 | I actually came here for the first time a few years ago at Christmas and |
| 1:34.5 | slightly became obsessed. I remember going home on the train with a bag full of your |
| 1:39.9 | flocked pigeons getting some funny looks but these pigeons are still |
| 1:44.1 | pride of place in my house so it's so wonderful for you to allow me to come in you've |
| 1:49.4 | shown me around it is breathtaking because I haven't been to this spot which is your new premises. |
| 1:55.9 | When did you move in? |
| 1:56.9 | Well first of all thank you so much for being here and yeah welcome to our latest |
| 2:01.1 | edition of We Built the City at number 57. We moved in I think I keep saying it's our new shop but actually it's about nearly six months ago now so we moved in the middle of summer. So yeah so here we are and across three floors and it feels like we finally kind of come |
... |
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