Saturday 02 April 2010 A STORY ABOUT BROOMS

A TRADITION ASSOCIATED WITH BROOMS

As I have said before, when a client tells me an interesting story that I think might relate back to my store and its merchandise, I would share it with the blog followers. Well this is one such story.

As some of you may know, we sell these wonderful hand made grass yard brooms. The other day one of my clients bought one and told me this story. She said there is a Portuguese tradition or habit, that if the host of the house has had enough of their guests and they think it is time for them to go home. The host will then take the broom and go and place it at the door.

The girl who told me the story said that when she was a little girl her grandmother would forever be walking around with the broom, looking grumpy and waiting for her guests to leave. However if the guests did not know the meaning of putting the broom at the door they just thought granny was in a cleaning mood.

I have no idea if this tradition is still in practice but it makes a great story.

Please add your stories if you have them.

Appreciated.

Wayne

Thursday 11 March 2010 RIA

Hello Followers of this Blog.

Today I want to tell a story of thanks and loyalty.

About 5 years ago I met a woman who came to work for me as a char, Ria. Over the years she became a lot more than just the person who cleaned for me.. We got to know her as a friend and loyal employee. When we opened the store 3 years ago she also came and cleaned the store for us.

Ria weathered the stores ups and downs, never complaining when we hit hard times and we had to reduce her days. Always smiling and always understanding.

In December I had a bicycle accident. I broke my wrist in 7 places. It was a Friday. I could not get to the store to open up, Darryn was having his car serviced and couldn't get there either, so I turned to Ria ... she just took it in her stride. She opened up the store, put the furniture outside and sold almost all the furniture we had on the floor in the next 2 days, the Friday and the Saturday. She was amazing.

Needless to say I have made her my sales lady and have started teaching her about customer satisfaction, sales methods, collecting customer based information, etc. Ria is absorbing all of this with a passion that is incredible.

Then yesterday while I was out of the store, a woman came into and made a purchase. After the purchase she asked Ria if she could have a piece of paper and a pen, as she wanted to leave a note for the owner of the store. This is what she wrote:

"Hello Wayne
I am a shop owner in Kalk Bay and I want to say that I love your shop and that also your assistant is very enthusiastic and informative without being pushy or annoying. A very rare and good combination. She clearly loves the stock. Just wanted you to have the feedback! Good luck!
Nin"

I want to say a heartfelt thank you to Ria for loving my store as much as I do and letting our customers feel that love in how she treats them. She has proven herself as a loyal, caring and insightful friend and colleague.

And then I want to say thank you to Nin for leaving that insightful note. People are quick to tell you the negative things about your store and staff but you hardly ever hear the postive feedback Thank you for that. It was really appreciated.

Wayne

Wednesday 3 March 2010

Hello Followers.

Cape Town is boiling hot today and it feels like we are melting here in Observatory. This has been an amazing summer, it finally looks like the recession is a thing of the past, we have the Soccer ahead and it looks like a positive 2010. So with that a tale with a bit of humor, well maybe tongue in cheek.

In the picture you can see some white lamp shades and some white scatter cushions. Both are unique to Home Affairs Furniture.

A while back I was out shopping for fabric to do some upholstery and I cam across this fabric. It was white bed linen with black writing on it. The writing said "THIS IS THE PROPERTY OF THE ADMINISTRATION OF THE WESTERN CAPE, THE REMOVAL OF THIS IS A CRIMINAL OFFENSE".And in 3 official languages, English, Afrikaans and Xhosa.

I just had to have it.

I held onto it for a while and then landed up using some of it to upholster two Queen Anne wing back chairs and the rest I used to make cushions. Well they were a hit and I have tried very hard to always keep a stock of the cushions in the store. We added to the range by making lamp shades from the same fabric.

Last year I also used the fabric to upholster one single little arm chair. The chair was used in one of the first ELLE DECORATION shoots that artist and stylist Tracey Lee Lynch did for the magazine. Then when the magazine had its international Indaba in Milan with all the 27 countries that publish an ELLE DECORATION participating, they used that image of that chair as the cover of their internal magazine for all the participating delegates. WOW! I was happy and congratulations to Tracey.

Also because the store is quiet near Groote Schuur Government Hospital, we get a lot of international and local students doing their internship there, coming into the store. They have loved the humor of the cushions and shades and have taken plenty back with them as mementos of their time in the hospital and because the hospital actually uses this linen on their homes.

Well that is all for today.

Please feel free to leave your comments and suggestions. Always appreciated.

Wayne

Wednesday 24 February 2010

Hello Again, this is the 4th installment to the store blog.

Today I want to tell you about a the carpenter who made the screen in the picture. Kate Giljam. I met Kate last year when she had started to do a carpentry course and roped her into working Saturday's in the store. I was soon to discover that she had ambitions to make furniture.

Then I got a client in who wanted us to make her a coffee table out of an existing set of legs and and existing farm door. So I approached Kate with the idea, asking her if she would be prepared to make the table. She jumped at the opportunity and consequently made the coffee table. Needless to say, the client was happy, Kate was happy and I was thrilled.

Then in the beginning of this year we approached her with some designs for screens and some other simple furniture items. We gave her a brief saying that we wanted her to use reclaimed timber and the dimensions and let her come back to us with a product.

The screen is what she came back to us with.

Not bad for a girl of 23.

We plan on doing more work with her if she wants to work with us.

Monday 22 February 2010

Hello and welcome to my 3rd post on the stores blog.

Today I want to tell a little story about one of the stores clients. Last week I had a woman who popped in with 2 friends of hers. They had never been into the store before and they were both enchanted by what we had to offer. They were especially fascinated by the little porcelain birds that I have in stock. The birds are designed by a woman here in Cape Town and she send them off to China where they are slip caste and sent back here and sold locally. The company is called LUNA C.

The woman and her fiernds, all in turn bought a few birds and we wrapped them for her and her friends and they left the store.

The next day the woman was back. She said she was so happy with the little birds that she wanted to buy some more. She said that she had gone out for dinner and had given one of the birds as a thank you gift. She said the gift was so well received that she wanted to have more to use as thank you gifts. She also told me that her friend had called her bird FRED and now she back to buy more FRED'S. So the birds have now been christened FREDS.

Today she popped back in with a whole new bunch of friends. This time her friends were visiting from Durban and they once again bought some more FREDS, plus a whole lot of other porcelain pieces that we have in stock.

So this is just a thank you to that customer for loving our store and bring her friends back to buy FREDS.

WEDNESDAY 17 FEBRUARY 2010

Good morning and welcome to day 2 of this blog.

In our store we have a newly upholstered chair, a Starck wingback chair. When we first purchased the chair we were under the impression that maybe it was a Florence Knoll chair. Then we turned it over and discovered it had a stamp "MADE BY G.H.STARCK LTB".

I asked around and no one seemed to know anything about the maker of the chair. Then we came across 5 dinning room chairs also with the same stamp underneath. Then I googled it. Naturally I got millions of sites mentioning Phillip Starch chairs, but that wasn't the Starch I was looking for.

Eventually I came up with some info. There was a G. H. Starch that left his estate to a trust that would look after the aged. His original home in Durbanville, Cape Town. His name was George Henry Starck and his wife's name was Annie Starck and the old age home is called after his wife. In the text about the home there is a one liner that mentions that George Starck came to South Africa after World War 2 and made his money making furniture.

With a little more investigation I discovered that there was a Starck furniture factory in the Johannesburg area that now makes airoplane parts.

And that seems all I have found out about the man. If any one has any more information please feel free to share it with me.

TUESDAY 16 FEBRUARY 2010

Today is my first day at this. I have never done a blog before but this is about a fun interaction between all of you out there and me here in my store. I want us to talk about the furniture I have manufactured and the pieces I buy in. I want us to say what you like and what you don't like and why. So I the owner of the store can learn about what works and what does not. I of course will get carried away and talk constantly about what makes me excited and that could be both good and bad. So if you get bored just say, "hey Wayne, please talk about something else!" and I will do my best.

But for now it is about the store, what we have in stock and what we are planning to do.

Please feel free to comment all sorts of the stuff. I will try and upload new pictures as often as possible.

love

wayne