UPDATE: Photos are slowly being added to the website, you may notice the occasional product with pictures - thanks for your patience!
As I'm writing this, the new website has been live for around a month now and the reception has been fantastic. Most of the feedback I'm receiving is positive, and that you're all enjoying the new layout and browsing through the plethora of stock I've amassed is really encouraging. I think that it's a huge leap forward on the small amount I had available to view before and I'm incredibly happy with it.
One suggested improvement that I am hearing loud and clear is the addition of photos for items and I'd like to take a moment to explain why they're missing right now and how I'm trying to improve.
Running the shop, serving the customers, maintaining the online store, answering the phone, doing repairs, filling out paperwork, stock ordering, answering emails, posting orders, and a million other things are all done solely by me. Just me. There are no staff here, with the exception of my (ever-suffering) partner Hattie who helps me when she can, between her actual job. The shop is open all day, six days a week including Saturday and Sunday. I get quite busy in here sometimes, as you may well know if you've had to wait in the queue to be served or I've had to call you back, or an email has taken a while to be replied to.
The overall busyness of the shop and online orders leaves very little time to take photos of stock. The best I can do at this present moment in time is to provide quick photos on request. I am fully aware this is not ideal so I am working on making a small space in our back room so that I can get a local photographer to pump out some high quality photos for the website. This should help greatly although the sheer amount of items coming in might mean that not every single item is photographed, but it's a start and can only get better!
Hopefully this post has not put you off from asking for photos if you want to see anything I have for sale, I welcome your enquiries and that is far from what this post is about - but please understand that photos for the 1500+ items in stock are something I can't manage right now. Many people have mentioned it, but a couple of what could be described as 'overly negative comments' really put a dent in my enthusiasm and I want to assure you all that I do my very best for every customer that comes along. I'm working towards expanding the team at some point in the future, but for the foreseeable, it's just me (and sometimes Hattie).
Thanks for reading,
Howard.