A fancy dress retailer’s social media ‘rant’ about the rise of online shopping grabbed the attention of customers, resulting in a flood of positive feedback.
The facebook post by Kate Moore, owner of Jollyjesters in Swanwick, Derbyshire, spoke about the difficulties faced by retailers on the UK high street at the moment, particularly in light of the recent news about Toys R Us, Claire’s Accessories, Mothercare and Maplins.
In it, Kate acknowledges the lure of the online shop, saying; “We know people have a choice and we know it’s easy to shop online for… well, for just about everything these days. Online is the new rock ‘n’ roll. We know it. We even do it ourselves occasionally.”
The post – which has now been shared almost 70 times – closed with a plea to consumers to visit local shops if they want to keep them up and running.
Feedback from consumers was almost instantaneous, with dozens of customers chiming in to sing the praises of Jollyjesters, local independent retailers and small businesses in general.
“I’ve never had so many positive comments and shares to a post,” said Kate. “I am totally overwhelmed by people’s comments, and even though it’s resulted in such a love-fest for Jollyjesters, it really was about supporting all proper shops, especially the independents. We all buy online, but there’s a whole generation who think Amazon and eBay have to be the first port of call.”
However, Kate was soon able to update her followers on the situation, proving that social media really does make a difference.
“There are some days at Jollyjesters which are amazingly fulfilling because every customer that comes through the door is a joy to serve and goes out happy,” the latest post read.
“Today we even had a lovely family who’d travelled from Burton-On-Trent, purely because they’d searched online for fancy dress shops and seen our Facebook post from earlier in the week about shopping in proper shops, and decided that it was worth the extra mileage to high-five us!”
