Shop Newsletter 12/03/06

A lot of stuff is happening and about to happen, it must be spring!

1. We have some new products in the shop
2. Daffodil Weekend is upon us
3. The Wine Club round about to close
4. February’s 150 Club winner and the next draw
5. Our upcoming jewellery sales days
6. A change to the newspaper ordering system and our new honesty box
7. Last but not least, our fabulous start to the year!
8. We have a few new items in the shop.
   1. We now have a sweeties rack between the milk fridge and the oven. You can get these weighed and priced and have a selection of olde-tyme treats.
   2. We have a weekly delivery of lovely home made cakes in a few different flavours, you can buy these by the half-cake or by the slice – a full cake would be too much for anyone, now there’s a challenge!
   3. Get hold of your Thriplow biscuits before the hordes of Daffodil Weekend descend and strip the shelves bare!
9. Remember that on the 17th and 18th, we will be open all day but that we will be extremely busy from 11am on both days until about 4pm. Make sure you call and get your needs outside those times because the queues can be horrendous, and also vehicle traffic into the village will be impossible.

We have bought a picnic table and bench for Daffodil Weekend and for the summer, it is located opposite the shop to catch the sun. Please feel free to take advantage of this when you are eating your ice cream or drinking your coffee!

3. If anyone wants to order from Noel Young, the deadline is next Monday, 13th March. Please let Kevin know if you want anything on ck.clarke@PROTECTED

4. The winner of the 150 Club draw in February was TJ, good luck to him and the other prize winners. The next draw will be on Wednesday 14th March in the Green Man.

5. We have two jewellery sale days coming shortly – just prior to Mother’s Day, which as you know comes a week early in Thriplow this year! The first of these sales days is tomorrow, March 7th between 10am and 4pm, the second one (for last orders) is Saturday March 10th between 10am and noon. Come down and have a look at what we have on display.

6. The newspaper ordering system is about to change slightly. If you want to order a newspaper, that will be great, and we don’t charge for that service. But if you don’t collect by 11.30am, we may sell it unless you have called to say keep it (in which case we will charge you for it). This makes it easier for us to serve papers to those people who haven’t made a reservation. It’s all due to our supplier not wanting to send us more newspapers – crazy but true!

We appreciate that these days you might have to queue on Saturdays for your newspaper collection, and so we are introducing an honesty box for people with vouchers or the right money, who just want a newspaper. If you have ordered a paper, please ask for it from behind the counter, do not take one from the floor of the shop. Just pop your voucher or money into the box and we’ll take care of it later.

7. Financial performance - we set ourselves a higher budget for this year, having seen our sales grow in 2011-12 by 12%. And January and February have smashed our higher targets, being up by a whopping 39% on these usually quiet months last year. March should of course be very good because of Daffodil Weekend and we will have the money from the wine club so we have started really well. Thank you to all our customers for this support, it is truly gratifying to staff and the committee.

TVSA