There’s always been something wrong about shopping in Birmingham City centre, something that scarily only “The Oasis” has ever come close to fulfilling. Birmingham lacks curiosity shops, ones that you can’t find in every other precinct in every other town. Shops that make you wonder “what’s in there?”.
Now I’m sure that buried in one of those forgotten Victorian arcades – that seem to act as little more than pedestrian short-cuts – there are a few independent gems. But, generally, it feels that you’re more likely to find persons up to no good in a Birmingham shopping side street, than a great little shop.
I’m not really one of those people who bemoan chain stores – a town has to have a Woolworths and a HMV to be worth visiting (yes, I know!) – because there’s clearly a demand for them. But, when Birmingham does “independent”, it’s some pop-up shop selling ex-catalogue nic-naks or a jumble sale fashion store with a huge loud speaker in the front doorway.
So, a big round of applause for the appearance of the Created In Birmingham store in the Bull Ring. It’s so curious, I won’t even risk describing what it is, for fear of offending the proprietor or the suppliers. I’ll stick to “it contains creative things, made by local creative people”, although it’s not quite a “local shop for local people”.
There’s an element of Sir Richard Branson’s “screw it, let’s do it” phrase about the whole venture, because whilst there must have been some number crunching so that nobody loses their trousers, it does seem a venture with a work in progress, see how it develops business plan. Which in this case is a good thing.
The onus seems to be on the creative types in the city to make use of this great coup – a prime store in a prime retail location with a massive footfall.
Unfortunately, I don’t think they are capitalising on it as much as they could. Okay, so, it’s a new thing and it might take a while to figure it out – but, it appears that there’s no time to dwell, as the shop is only going to be there for a short time.
So, we have a prime shop, prime location, lots of passing punters – and a big BIG opportunity to generate some cash during this period of economic rubbishness…….and not everybody seems to have grasped the market passing by the doors.
I will avoid the whole “how much is art worth?” debate and just urge folk to consider the passing market. There are formats and pricing that could work very well indeed in that store.
I dare a creative type to go a bit “mass market” – it’s not selling out……it’s just selling. And selling in these times can only be good. Art may not be “just about the money”, but, it helps with gas bills, etc.
Also local creative work on local bedroom walls has got to be better than a Sponge Bob poster from downstairs at Clintons 
