We’re happy to report all is back to normal with our online service and shop now. Thanks for your understanding during the bad weather last week and especially thanks to the many customers – both existing and new – who sent in their photos and emails for our How Deep Is Your Snow? promotion which really helped keep our spirits up and, from your kind emails, many of yours too!
Archive for the ‘General’ Category
Back to normal
Monday, January 11th, 2010Open again…
Friday, January 8th, 2010We re-opened for business yesterday (Thursday) and all pending orders have now been despatched. Apologies for having to shut on Tuesday and Wednesday but it was simply too dangerous for staff to get into work and the bad weather meant deliveries were unlikely to reach customers anyway, even if we had despatched them.
Understandably, couriers are still having problems delivering to lots of areas and we are still expecting delays in orders reaching customers but they are on their way. If you haven’t had your order by early next week, please do contact us.
Our Manchester shop will be closing early today though, at about 4pm, to allow staff to get home safely before it gets too dark. Thanks for your understanding.
How deep is your snow? Take a snap and claim a discount on your next order.
Wednesday, January 6th, 2010
Our Manchester shop in the snow
We’ve been snowed in since yesterday in Manchester where we’ve had at least 8″. We haven’t been able to ship online orders and we’ve had to shut our Manchester shop too.
Conditions have worsened overnight and the roads are treacherous.
There’s nothing worse for a shop than not being able to sell, so we thought we’d have a bit of fun and hopefully encourage you to do a bit of shopping.
We want you to get outside with a rule or tape measure and take a picture of yourself showing us just how deep your snow is. Then we’ll give you a discount on the cost of an order you place this week based on the depth of the snow in your area.
How to make non-alcoholic beer…
Sunday, December 13th, 2009An interesting podcast by “The Chemical Reporter” on the BASF website – How To Make Non-Alcoholic Beer.
Put in my place
Thursday, October 8th, 2009I was at a party on Saturday night to celebrate the 60th birthday of a long-time friend of ours. A good time was had by all, including those of us who didn’t drink alcohol.
It certainly made a change to go to a party and be able to enjoy a glass of de-alcoholised wine and a cold beer. The host had stocked up on some of our drinks and many guests took advantage of them. It also made a change to not have drunken people say “Why are you not drinking? What’s wrong with you?” which is common if you are seen with a soft drink in your hand.
With a glass of de-alcoholised wine or beer in your hand, no one is any the wiser and they just get on with having a good time.
Ever better was seeing a couple of people pouring out some of the Weinkonig Merlot I had brought along, taking a sip, and then walking away happy – completely unaware they were drinking de-alcoholised wine.
To get to the title of this blog “Put in my place” I was told off by a friend of the host, who is also a customer of ours, because I hadn’t updated the blog much recently. I did apologise to her, and do also to you. We have had a lot to do recently with the shop and warehouse move, getting the new shop ready, etc.
I’ve also personally been busy on our new web site which is due to go live very soon. It’s based on the same site we have now, with an improved design and the odd enhancement to make your shopping experience better (for instance, you will be able to add items to your basket from the category listing without having to click on to the individual item).
When the site goes live, please don’t panic! Yes, it looks quite different from the current site on first glance, but it does basically work the same as the current site and you shouldn’t have any problems shopping as normal. If you do though, please let us know. We have worked hard to get the site ready and bug-free, but it’s always possible something may still be wrong when it goes live and we’d appreciate it very much if you would tell us of any problems you find so we can fix them.
Alcohol, alcohol everywhere…
Friday, September 4th, 2009Guest contributor Dom Conlon, from advertising and design agency Head First, shares his thoughts on the public image of alcohol.
Find us on Facebook
Friday, July 3rd, 2009We’ve just created a new page on Facebook for The Alcohol-Free Shop. Please do visit, “become a fan” and get involved. Let us know how we can use the page to improve our service and chat with us on the discussion forum! You can visit our page at http://www.facebook.com/pages/Manchester/The-Alcohol-Free-Shop/212147610293
Women in Business Award
Saturday, June 27th, 2009Tonight I am exhausted. It’s been a busy week.
On Thursday, I was delighted to win an award for Women in Business presented by Manchester’s Lord Mayor Cllr Alison Firth at Manchester Town Hall.
The award recognises women who succeed in businesses based on ethical or cooperative principles. It was one of several made that night to women of achievement in fields such as voluntary service, health promotion, race equality, and the advancement of women in political life.
It was a great great honour (not to mention a complete shock) to share a stage with these women, many of whom have made great strides in spite of disadvantage, discrimination, disability or personal suffering. To meet them and hear their stories was an inspiration.
On Friday morning my feet were firmly back on the ground, well, up a ladder actually, as we continued painting our new shop. Even ‘award winning’ business women have to do their share.
Although we’re still working hard to get the shop ship shape, we’ve been determined to keep up business as usual.
This is harder sometimes than others. Visitors are always welcome at the shop. Unfortunately, we still don’t have any signage so, even though we are on a major route into Manchester, we can be tricky to find.
Today our customers were gracious enough to turn a blind eye to the paint in my hair, scruffy t-shirt, and holes in my old decorating jeans when they called in to sample our wines and beers.
Thankfully, they were very patient even though not all our systems are fully up and running which means processing payments can be slow.
We expect to be up to speed by this time next week when we hope more customers will come and see our new premises, and I can show off my award!
For now, I’m going to finish my glass of Weinkonig Merlot, and call it a night.
Busy week at the new shop
Sunday, June 21st, 2009This time last week we finally moved to our new premises. Customers to our shop over the last few months know we have been planning on moving for a long time, due to various problems with our old location (which I won’t go into here).
We’ve been looking for a suitable building for what seems like a lifetime. Every time we saw a For Sale or To Let sign we took a look. At the moment I think I probably know the details of most properties available in Greater Manchester!
We put in an offer on a building a few weeks ago, only to find it had just gone. In a fit of anger – at myself for not putting the offer in sooner – I went off for another drive around Manchester looking for properties. On the way back from Oldham, driving down Oldham Road, I spotted a To Let sign I’d not seen before.
The building looked perfect. The right size and a great location (Oldham Road is one of the busiest roads in Manchester) and owned by Oldham Council (so, hopefully, no problems with the landlords). I went back to work and looked it up. It had been on the market for some time and was a good price. We booked to see it that week and made an offer the same day.
Then we waited, and waited, and waited. It turns out someone had been booked in to view the property for a few weeks, so the landlords let them view it and then they gave them time to put an offer in. So we waited some more…
Eventually, last Thursday, we got the go ahead – it was ours! We signed a temporary agreement the following day (the lease will take a while to sort out) and collected the keys! To say we were relieved is an understatement.
The next 72 hours was like a military operation (well, our driver is ex-Army…). We started moving on the Friday and had it finished on the Sunday. A huge thanks to everyone who helped out. It was an amazing task and to get it done so quickly was fantastic.
This last week in the new shop has been like a different world compared with our old buidling. Just seeing daylight is wonderful! (Our last building was in the ground floor of an old Mill and the windows were all blocked up). The new building has a warehouse with natural lighting, and a shop area with large glass windows.
It’s been a challenge though. Our landlines aren’t installed until tomorrow, so we’ve been on mobiles all week, and we’ve been using 3G USB dongles for internet access. We’ve dealt with signwriters, printers, alarm installers, fire security installers, carpet fitters etc etc. Tomorrow we have blind installers, BT, a builder and another signwriter (hopefully more reliable than the last one).
The shop front area is still literally empty. We’ve hired some floor cleaning equipment and David, our “Saturday Lad” started cleaning it yesterday. He’s finished college now, so we’ve got him for a few weeks during the Summer. Hopefully he’ll get the floor looking perfect tomorrow in time for Andy, our regular builder, who is coming in to measure up for the new shop counter (which will incorporate the tasting area and sink) and also to knock a door through to one of the staff toilets to convert it into a customer toilet.
It’s been a hectic week, and this week is going to be just as hectic, but it will be worth it. We’ll post some photos soon!
In the meantime, although the shop is empty, we are still serving customers so if you want to come in you are welcome to, but please do bear in mind the shop isn’t ready yet.
