Take a look inside next new Sheffield city centre shop nearly ready to open in Orchard Square in May
Mum and daughter join best pal to open new store in Orchard Square
Sheffield’s newest shop to open in the city centre will start welcoming customers in Orchard Square during the height of the Snooker World Championships.
And these pictures give the first look at how the new In The Making shop at the popular Sheffield shopping area will look, ahead of its opening on May 2, just two days before the end of the snooker championships.
Mum and daughter Lindsay and Ellie Stephens, and close friend Anita Watkinson, gave The Star a sneak preview inside the store, and explained their plans for their gift shop.
Ellie said: “We’re going to be full of over 100 independent makers - they’re all coming in to supply stock to us. We’re going to have textiles, ceramics, homeware, jewellery, food, prints, cards - just everything really.
“It will be a big mixture of different things - we can’t wait”.
Ellie, along with mum Lindsay, and their close family friend, Anita, have been working to get the shop ready, and now have the shelving in place. They have started placing name tags on the shelves where their suppliers will be placing their products.
They are expected to start filling their shelves next week, ahead of the shop’s opening early next month.
They are opening at a time when Sheffield will be at the centre of the sporting world, with the World Snooker Championships still going on in the city. The shop opens on Saturday, May 2, with the snooker final due to end on May 4.
Specific types of products will be put in the same areas of the shop. But they are trying to avoid having things too similar next to each other, so that individual creators are not competing.
Ellie said: “It’s a mixture of Sheffield independents and pretty much of the UK. There a lot of well known names like Luke Horton, Jam Artworks, Yorkshire Candle and Yorkshire Preserves, and then a lot of smaller people who have never even stocked in shops before.”
She has worked hard to make sure there is plenty of variety and is not having more than one supplier producing exactly the same thing.
“We have made a waiting list, so that if anyone drops out for any reason, we can bring them in, but I didn’t want it to be like a competition,” she added.
“It will be a big gift shop - a bit Oliver Bonas, that kind of thing, but it will be more independent - that sort of vibe.
She expects there to be something for everyone. There will be a children’s section in one corner with toys and clothes. There will be woodwork, leather, ceramics and prints sections too.
Ellie added: “We’re also trying to get a ‘husband chair’ so that everyone’s welcome in here.”
They are pleased with their location, having looked at other sites before settling on Orchard Square.
“We originally were going to start in Fox Valley, but we’ve had lots of ups and downs,” Ellie said. “We tried there, we tried Leah’s Yard.
“Now we’ve started in Orchard Square and I think we’ve ended up in the best place. It’s got independents in it and it’s a really nice place to shop. There’s lots of footfall and it’s just a really nice place to be, to be honest.”