Clapham is Closing and Christmas creeps closer
Green & Blue will be beating a hopefully graceful retreat from SW4 very shortly.
Some very sad news in amongst the Christmas cheer. I should probably say some more sad news as there seems to be absolutely no respite from the dire financial news.
We will be closing our Clapham branch on January 1st. We took the site on with the hope of extending into next door which has been empty for a decade now. This was to become the shop but despite our best efforts both with the council and various private investigators, we have failed to locate the landlord. After literally getting to the point where we were door stopping people who may or may not have been related him (it was never entirely clear. Some days they were and some days they weren’t. It did not inspire confidence), we finally had to admit defeat. I think it is safe to say that he really does not want to be found.
We are very clear on the future of Green & Blue and that is that we are primarily a retailer of wines from smaller producers made as naturally as possible with a bar attached. We are not really interested in doing either retail or a bar by itself and find that the business does not work nearly as well when we are merely one without the other. Given that we expect the climate next year to be especially tough, we felt it best to pull the plug on Clapham now, rather then risk the situation there becoming a threat both to our suppliers and our core business inLordship Lane
We are very sad because of all the energy that has gone into Clapham but we did learn some valuable lessons there and I suppose that generally, the lessons most worth knowing are those which are the hardest to learn. We also have acquired some of our very best customers through that site so it was not a total dead loss by a long shot.
Not much time to brood anyway as we are, on top of winding a site down, in the midst of the seasonal morass at Lane and the Slow Food Fair. I set up at the latter this morning with Jason and Ellie and there was a whiff of mutiny in the air as the stalls are considerably smaller than they usually are. It is a very good thing that those two get on with each other as they will be in very close proximately today, hemmed in by a fortress of wine boxes and soup kettles full of simmering mulled wine. At least it all smells lovely which will hopefully keep them happy and calm.
Lordship Lane
We will be closing our Clapham branch on January 1st. We took the site on with the hope of extending into next door which has been empty for a decade now. This was to become the shop but despite our best efforts both with the council and various private investigators, we have failed to locate the landlord. After literally getting to the point where we were door stopping people who may or may not have been related him (it was never entirely clear. Some days they were and some days they weren’t. It did not inspire confidence), we finally had to admit defeat. I think it is safe to say that he really does not want to be found.
We are very clear on the future of Green & Blue and that is that we are primarily a retailer of wines from smaller producers made as naturally as possible with a bar attached. We are not really interested in doing either retail or a bar by itself and find that the business does not work nearly as well when we are merely one without the other. Given that we expect the climate next year to be especially tough, we felt it best to pull the plug on Clapham now, rather then risk the situation there becoming a threat both to our suppliers and our core business in
We are very sad because of all the energy that has gone into Clapham but we did learn some valuable lessons there and I suppose that generally, the lessons most worth knowing are those which are the hardest to learn. We also have acquired some of our very best customers through that site so it was not a total dead loss by a long shot.
Not much time to brood anyway as we are, on top of winding a site down, in the midst of the seasonal morass at Lane and the Slow Food Fair. I set up at the latter this morning with Jason and Ellie and there was a whiff of mutiny in the air as the stalls are considerably smaller than they usually are. It is a very good thing that those two get on with each other as they will be in very close proximately today, hemmed in by a fortress of wine boxes and soup kettles full of simmering mulled wine. At least it all smells lovely which will hopefully keep them happy and calm.
Lordship Lane
