73 RETAILER INTERVIEW Salt Art Supply 24 Killigrew Street, Falmouth, Cornwall TR11 3PN www.saltartsupply.co.uk opening online? Our online shop opened shortly after our physical shop. Falmouth is quite a small town, and although our customers here keep us pretty busy, it’s good to be able to reach a wider audience and share our love for art and stationery throughout the UK, and being online gives us more opportunity to grow. What’s special about your location? Aside from being a beautiful place to live, there’s a real sense of community in Falmouth and with the arts university nearby there’s always something creative going on. Our street in particular is really special as it’s almost completely made up of small, independently run businesses. How has business been over the past few years? We opened two years ago this October and we’ve been growing steadily since then. We think people really value being able to see and try art materials before they purchase, and get personalised advice or talk through a project with someone rather than buying anonymously online. Have you seen a boom in the craft industry recently or a new type of customer? We really enjoy journaling ourselves, and this is an area that we’ve really noticed a lot of interest in recently both online and in our physical shop. Stickers, writing pens and journaling and scrapbooking kits have been very popular here recently, and we’ve loved choosing stationery supplies and creative books that we think our fellow journalers will enjoy. Tell us a bit about what you stock? Our shelves are stocked with art supplies from well-known, creative brands such as Winsor & Newton, Faber-Castell, Daler Rowney, and more, as well as beautiful desk stationery, journaling supplies and greetings cards from independent makers. Sustainability is also very important to us, so where possible we’ve tried to offer options that are high quality, long lasting and plastic free! What stationery/art essentials do you currently stock? Are you looking for any new products or styles? We’ve curated a range that offers everything you might need for drawing, painting, printmaking and crafting, and we love choosing items that are fun and maybe a little bit unexpected, like colourful sketchbooks, erasable animal gel pens and quirky journaling stickers. Everything you find at Salt Art Supply has been chosen by the two of us, influenced by the tools and materials we love, as well as the brands and products that come highly recommended from our customers. Do you visit any trade shows? Currently we’re not visiting any trade shows, instead we look for new products online or by recommendation from our customers. Are you active on social media? How is this useful for the business? Social media is an essential tool for businesses. We use platforms like Instagram, Facebook and TikTok to share updates with our customers, show new products when they come in, and reach a wider audience. We also recently launched a monthly journaling club subscription on Patreon and the community that we’ve built on there has come almost exclusively from social media. Do you have any plans for the future of the store? Our main goal is to expand our range - there are always new products and art supplies that we’re discovering, and we have a long list of items that we’d love to introduce to our shop. We’ve already been able to introduce so many new creative goods over the last two years, we can’t wait to see what we’re able to stock going forward. Do you have any tips for people looking to start their own retail venture? Say yes to as many opportunities as you can, especially within your local community. You never know who will find you this way! What’s the one product you couldn’t live without? One of our bestselling (and personal favourite) products are the Royal Talens Art Creation square sketchbooks - they’re pocket-sized, perfect for carrying around and sketching on the go, and the mixed media paper is a great choice for scribbling down notes and ideas, junk journaling or scrapbooking too.
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