April 1, 2026

There’s a jewellery shop I visited years ago in the Birmingham Jewellery Quarter. Family-run, three generations deep, extraordinary craftsmanship. And the stock was sitting in a display case that looked like it had been rescued from a closing-down sale in 1987. Scratched glass. A strip light so old it flickered. A lock held together with what I can only describe as optimism. The owner knew, too. “We keep meaning to sort it,” he said, in that particular tone that means it had been on the list for a decade. That story plays out — with different products, different cities, different shops — all over the UK. Brilliant retailers with genuine products let down by the thing that customers actually look […]