30/06/2023
So as I sit here surrounded by the family and relaxing after a mammoth 3 days breaking up the whole shop into an empty shell, I guess Leeds Refills should reflect on the time over the past 3 years.
We started out at fabrication, after the end of The Jartree. They were wonderful there, but it just wasn't the right spot for what we all wanted. We were there for 8 months and they were fun, but we needed our own space. We found this lovely shop on Hyde park corner and the rest is history!
We had a good set up, learning how to plaster and put up plaster board, how to dismantle and unplumb a sink and how to set up a whole shop in 2 weeks with plenty of set backs. The response while setting up was massive! Hundreds promised to visit as soon as we opened.
Once we were open about half of these people disappeared and never set foot in the shop (a common gripe of mine for those that chat to me). But we made loads of friends and people were soooo positive.
Then we learnt about hyde park summers and how 70% of the population moves on. It's crazy and never experienced that before! And outley runs! Each week we wonder how so many drunk people can confuse a tattoo shop with a refill shop!
The new uni year brought back the good months and we were starting to really establish ourselves on the corner. But once January came about everything seemed to happen at once... Ukraine war, petrol prices, cost of living crisis, energy price rises. income levels definitely dropped and we had a massive drop in sales for 8 months
September gave us 1 crazy moment where we did a lose us post and it was seen by over 100,000 people! Got to pay us a small wage again and things looked up and we extended the break clause by 3 months. But then numbers dropped even further than before.
Handed in the notice and numbers did start to rise again. Nowhere near the first year and not close enough to keep fighting or pay a wage, but it was lovely to have met so many of you and to be able to offer refills to you all! Hopefully we have brought memories to you all and that we have left some sort of legacy (other than fixing the shop's overflow pipe that was flooding the tattoo shop downstairs regular).
