1st Picture.

For those of you that know me, this first picture won’t come as any surprise. It’s of my baby! My wife and I took over running this store in 2002. Although it’s been in our family since 1985, we only took over the reigns when it was on the verge of bankruptcy. (To be honest for a while it was touch and go as to whether we could save it.)

The problem we had at the time was that the shop was secured against our family home, and so if we lost the shop, it would have meant we would also lost our house as well. 

So in June 2002 we had a family meeting and decided that either my wife or I would have to give up our jobs to try to revive the fortunes of the shop. As my wife was earning a little less than I was she bit the bullet and resigned from her job and has worked in the shop ever since. I joined her a couple of years later and although we have had some very tough times I can say with complete honesty that I couldn’t think of anything else I’d rather be doing. I just love it.  

Don’t get me wrong its hard work; between us both we work almost 200 hours a week, but it doesn’t feel like work because a lot of our customers are also our friends so every time they visit it’s a great opportunity to catch up and have a bit of a laugh. 

In a couple of week’s time we will be celebrating our 500^th week in charge. Considering where we have come from it’s a milestone we are really looking forward to achieving. 

Ammo