On my way back from a meeting I called into Lightwater Homecare, of TV fame, and spoke to Tony, the owner.
Why, you might ask. Well, most surprising is the number of hits on this little blog exceeded 4000 yesterday, and is over 1600 so far today. This shows a huge interest in Mary Portas’ Mary Queen of Shops TV show. So I popped in to give Tony some positive feedback.
Makeover shows are obviously good TV, containing as they do the stresses and strains involved in making changes. Whatever your view on the show and the people in it, and they do vary from positive to negative, you can’t get away from the priceless publicity of 60 minutes on prime time TV.
Tony and his staff are to be commended to seeing the ordeal through. I talked to Tony and asked him about his reactions to the whole process. Tony said it was all ‘generally positive’, and commenting further said,
“Mary Portas didn’t quite get what we do in Lightwater Homecare. We do more than DIY, we’re an old-fashioned local store. Her skill is in high street fashion retailing, I think our sort of store challenged her. Changing our name back to Lightwater Homecare is what our customers wanted”
Oh, I knew a number of the people filmed during the store re-opening, and my wife’s yellow car, parked on the store car park, was in the film with Mary Portas walking by, up to the centre of Lightwater.
What I say is, good luck to Tony and Lightwater Homecare.
Old fashioned stores still need to be brought into the 21st century! Fix It Factory was a great name. Mary Portas develops store concepts – it doesn’t matter what her background is, she knows what customers want and what niches to tap into. After watching the tv show, Tony seems destined to live his working life with blinkers on rather than listening to the experts!
By: Katy on July 20, 2010
at 9:27 pm
I get the feeling that most people on the mary queen of shops programme just want a free shop re-fit and Tony seems no different to them.
The shopfront already looks as bad as it used to and I am sure it will just be a matter of time before the pets, cards, and balloons are back.
Having said that i thing that mary was incredibly brave to even take this project on. I for one would have walked in, walked around , and then run as fast and as far away from it as possible.
By: Alan on July 21, 2010
at 10:55 pm
tony your shop is going to be back to square 1 again, selling cheap crappy taky stuff, WAKE UP MAN!!!!!
By: marcus hookdale on July 29, 2010
at 3:16 am
I loved the shop how it was originally, it had real character and quirkiness unlike dull the high shops we have running through every city.
He just needed to have staff which where more passionate in what they were selling and have a clearer guide to where things were located in the shop.
Mary Queen of Shops came across as arrogant and completely ignorant to what it is to run a small business in a local community. The Fix It Factory signage looked cheap, tacky and inappropriate. I am glad they went back to the original name. Best of luck to them anyhow! Tony seems like a very decent chap.
By: Emily on August 18, 2010
at 7:03 pm
Emily, Mary Portas is a very, very succesful retailer, Lightwater Homecare isn’t – Who do you want to bet on still being in business 5 years from now?
By: Mr Loverman on August 19, 2010
at 11:03 am
I actually think that although Portas had some great ideas, the issue was that the owner of the store was not taken through a visioning process to understand what he wanted to create. Instead, all the ideas were proposed and fought for by Portas, including the name of the store (which we can see in the quote above is not, even now, how the true client, Tony, sees the store).
I’ve just written about this in my blog, looking at why the client is always right and the importance of engagement:
http://www.flywheel.org.uk/2010/08/the-client-is-always-right-the-importance-of-engagement/
By: Tom Weaver on August 27, 2010
at 11:21 am
I have been in lightwater homecare many times and everyone always knows what they are talking about, and can always help me in seconds. Being filmed is pressure having something asked of you with a camera in your face is hard and I think all the staff did well. I was there while they were filming Mary is cocky, snobby, arrogant and marched in the store with her entourage and demanded everyone to do what she wanted and deal with the customers after she was dealt with, and didnt like It when customers were dealt with before her!!! The filming was cut and edited to make Tony look bad, and it’s amazing what gets edited when u actually watch the final cut on tv. Lightwater home are has many regular customers it’s not tonys fault there’s bigger shops ( even though they’re more expensive!) that can advertise and set up in big places. I will always go to lightwater homecare as my needs are always met, and the odd times they are not I have still come away satisfied with the staff and customer service. Thank you lightwater homecare!
By: Gemma on August 12, 2011
at 1:40 pm
I totally agree with Gemma ! and thinkTony and staff do a great job – The signage she used for the shop was dreadful, more suitable for some down market mall – and has anyone else realised that there are shops that Mary Portas has helped have gone into liquidation within a short time after ?
By: Tricia on September 24, 2011
at 3:34 pm