I have just marked my first week as an official retailer! Bailey Retail Design has a new home. The design business of 23 yrs plus has moved into the new location and we've added a retail arm to the business.
The old corner store has been a newsagent for longer than I've been around. It's located on one of the 2 main intersections of my local area and has fantastic exposure. Wynnum is undergoing a huge building boom with many new apartment complexes and lots of renovations of the gorgeous seaside Queenslander style houses. I've often admired the retailers that I design for and how they become an intrinsic part of their local area and wanted to capitalise on the exciting development happening and show my support and love of this picturesque bayside location.
When I started negotiations for the shop it still had all the left over newsagent fittings. It was packed to the rafters.
The land lord started clearing out the tenancy for handover.
Handover day arrived with a patchwork of walls and floor and old broken glass windows. The first thing I did was have the sparkie remove all the existing fluros and install super long cord bare bulb light fittings.
Then 3 full weekends and days in between started with painting and patching and repairs and the new work. With a lot of help from my wonderful builder and other friends (my support crew) we transformed the old newsagent.
One of the big features is the rope wall that separates the engine room (design side) from the shop but still allows full interaction with customers. Approx 220 lineal meters of jute rope was threaded thru every single hole top and bottom with stops to tighten each strand. It took a day and a half to thread.
On the cold Saturday morning starts our land lord spoilt us with coffee. During the fitout we were quietly working in our temp office on the fold out table, while we kept the windows covered with newspaper.
Finally it was time for stock and pricing for opening. A big thanks to the warm reception from our local community and the support and encouragement of family, friends and locals. We are trading Monday-Friday 9am-5pm and Saturday 9am-1pm. As the business grows the weekend times will increase. The fantastic response has meant that within a week I am already placing my first lot of new stock orders to fill spots from our sales.
