Today we took a trip to the Irish design center and met with Tom and Maura who shared a little about their shop. The shop sells a wide range of bits of Irish culture such as clothing, scarves, jewelry, and even chocolate and snacks from Ireland. As they were introducing themselves, we learned that they took ownership of the shop just eight years ago. Tom is actually of Italian descent, but Maura is Irish. After Tom gave us a brief background of their shop and the different festivals currently going on, Maura went through many different items in the shop and passed them around to the group while sharing a bit of history about Ireland. She talked about a wide range of things including the potato famine, The book of Kells, the Irish cross and even about where certain wool garments were manufactured. Maura was a really great storyteller and talked about the captivating history of Ireland. Some things that stood out to me were how they are collaborating and welcoming new involvements in the community. For example, they’re hosting a knitting class at the end of the month as well as promoting The Irish festival in September. They are very welcoming people and have made an effort to stay relevant throughout the tough times of COVID. They also talked about their banner at the front of the store and the positioning of their front door. They talked about how you have to be mindful of little things like that in a small business and how it can affect how many customers you have. These are things that I will keep in mind in Carrigart when asking small business owners about their practice.
