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10/12/2020 0 Comments

Christmas is a time for messaging, isn’t it?

Mary received a message from Gabriel in her little village of Nazareth, way off the beaten track, and shared the Good News with her relative Elizabeth in Judah who, in turn, confirmed her own surprising and glorious news.

Three Wise Men saw messages in the alignment of the stars and were led by the brightest in the universe. The birth of Jesus Christ was heralded by choirs of angels and we continue that tradition today.

But, of course, the story wasn’t quite that straightforward for Joseph and Mary.

Thanks to local government paranoia over their unelected power, and access to an early bureaucratic machine, our two leading characters had to travel many miles in order to be counted as human beings. Mary was pregnant and had to endure what must have been unimaginable hardship, while Joseph – as all expectant fathers will relate to – must have been worried to the core of his soul about the forthcoming delivery, no matter that God had assured him that all would work out in the end.

Even the accommodation was problematic with no room and no sympathy for their plight aside from an innkeeper who showed decency and kindness in a challenging situation.

I was thinking about all of this today and how much we have really moved forward.

Messaging is big business now but I’m not sure that the message is considered as important, or thoughtful or relevant as the channel or device used to send it. Many people in our shop this week have been full of doom and gloom and cannot see any good news beyond the next downbeat TV bulletin reporting on the mixed messages coming out of government.

My glass is always half full, and I do try to be funny and positive with all our visitors – especially those who need cheering up a bit.

One elderly lady – who is a very regular customer - told me yesterday that her beloved cat had recently died. I was suitably concerned but she quickly brushed my sympathy aside by announcing that at least now she would have all the chocolate peanuts to herself …

A much older man had tears in his eyes when what little light was left in them landed on a jar of Chocolate Limes. He then spent over half-an-hour telling us how, as a little boy, his mother would feed him these in their Anderson shelter during the war to keep him quiet. He said that he later realized that they weren’t treats so much as little pieces of hope amid the terror: that when the deafening blasts from the bombs had subsided, their little house might still be there when they climbed back into their garden.

Even though we were really busy at the time, we listened until he had finished, whereupon he wished us a Happy Christmas and, with a cheery wave from the doorway, he disappeared into the night once more. A little beacon of light where too many others see only darkness.

A number of our suppliers have failed to heed the Christmas or any other kind of message since I wrote to you last. Sweets have failed to appear on time or at all and terse conversations have centred on the ‘small print’ or the buck passed to delivery drivers who have allegedly been ‘too lazy’ to deliver.

I wonder what would have happened in Bethlehem if the Health and Safety police had pointed out that, in the small print, sleeping in a stable was absolutely out of the question, while contact with animals forbidden unless you could show official papers proving that you were vegan?

What if Mary’s donkey had simply given up through exhaustion or the unreasonable number of miles expected to be covered being cited by Joseph as gross mismanagement worthy of redundancy with a large pension and a luxury yacht on the Sea of Galilee?

Many of the drivers who deliver to us have to take all the flack for others’ over promising on stock and timings. They are, almost without exception, exhausted, yet they must listen to customers’ complaints without being able to answer back.

We give them little bags of sweets as small recompense for trying their best on our behalf. It’s a little bit of kindness but, I hope, a much bigger message of reassurance: we are all in this together.

No matter how bad things are, I prefer to remember the words of the late and mighty Stephen Hawking, who was a scientist but also as sensitive to the strengths and weaknesses of humankind as any student of religion:

“Remember to look up at the stars and not down at your feet… however difficult life may seem, there is always something you can do, and succeed at. It matters that you don’t just give up.”

We won’t give up and we will always listen to your stories and receive your messages with open hearts – not just at Christmas but every day.

3/12/2020 0 Comments

It’s been a while hasn’t it?

For some reason which may be explained only by top neuro-psychologists with less hair than me, the second lockdown seemed much longer than the first, in spite of it forcing us to close for four weeks rather than eleven.

Maybe it was the timing? Just after we put the clocks back, we were forced into darkness whereas spring was only just beginning last time around. Could it be that – like most other independent retailers I expect – November was possibly the worst month for us to be closed as the run in to Christmas really begins with the October half-term, and so seemed to drag on and on and on?

Perhaps our anxiety was heightened this time because of the land grabs of other, larger retailers and garden centres who saw opportunities to make hay while the sun faded and sold many of the same items that we do because they somehow bent the rules on what was essential and what wasn’t? Maybe we just don’t know enough important people or had insufficient cash to grease the right palm trees?

Either way, let’s hope the vaccine approval really is the beginning of the end rather than yet another end of us beginning to get back on our feet again.

We were overwhelmed by the level of local support we received from Worcester City Council, Worcester BID and our lovely, loyal customers throughout Worcestershire who looked at the brochure pages on this website and ordered via email or telephoned us directly. As we did last time, we delivered throughout the city and sent packages much further afield via UPS and the Royal Mail.

A large number of you also clicked and collected which was great as it also gave us the opportunity to have the kinds of chats we have so missed, also checking up on each other’s health and well-being – which, in our humble opinions, is really what being part of a community hub should be all about, not naked greed.

We re-opened yesterday and many of you have already been in to say ‘hello.’ This means everything to us, and Michelle and I will be there every day now until Christmas Eve. We had to make three of our four permanent members of staff redundant after the first lockdown, so thermos flasks are charged and ready to go!

One young lad did ask us today if we would be open for 24 hours. I responded by asking him if he really expected people to come down to the High Street at 2.00 in the morning to buy bonbons. Worryingly, he said no but that Sour Patch Kids might be a different proposition altogether… I left it at that; besides, which Michelle often snores so that wouldn’t be great for business anyway.

We have rearranged our shop a little bit – not only to display our various Christmas offerings but also repurposed our Sweet Lorry range of themed hampers to make them more accessible. One consequence of this is that we can have slightly more people in the shop in terms of the social distancing/square footage equation.

However, if we have more than about eight people in the shop I’m afraid we will still have to ask you to form an orderly queue outside (or disorderly queue if you’ve previously partaken of our Guinness or Bailey’s chocolate range).

We still have a lot of Christmas stock available but it’s going very quickly, despite us also being two reindeer down after an unfortunate incident with Dasher and Prancer and the heat-sealing machine …

Obviously, because of all the uncertainty out there we bought less Christmas stock than usual - especially with the Christmas Fayre being cancelled this year - so it’s a case of grab it while you can!

For those of you still shielding or simply preferring not to shop when others are around, just contact us and we will happily arrange for a private shopping session at a time that works for us both.

We will of course be wearing our Christmas jumpers for the next 21 days so do come in for a chat and be part of our little festive bubble. I may even be singing Christmas songs so do not be put off if Michelle is wearing headphones shaped as elves’ ears.

We really missed all of you and it feels great to be back.

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I am a writer and historian with a passion for sweets and football (not necessarily in that order!). I write fiction and non-fiction and, after working in the media for over 30 years, now run a sweet shop with my wife, Michelle, trading as Mr Simms Worcester. I also write about the history of sweets in a series of blog posts: 'A Funny Thing Happened on the way to the Sweet Shop.'

Our shop is situated on the corner of Worcester's High Street and Fish Street - hence the title of this blog. I will be writing a weekly piece on thoughts and developments both in the world of sweets, the High Street and Worcestershire in general. All thoughts are my own.

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