The Hyde shop giving back to independent businesses

The Little Sweet Lady in Hyde recently opened and is helping a number of independent creators by giving them a physical platform for their items.

Clarendon Square in Hyde is home to many businesses and independent shops and has been a staple of the community for many years. Now a new shop has graced the indoor section, and it is a shop that hopes to be able to help out people who want to display their crafts.

The shop is owned by Becky and Luke, who together have opened up other businesses in the past. We talked with Becky to find out more about their latest venture. “We have opened up four companies all together now, and we have put together all those companies into one.” Becky said.

Previously, the duo have opened up shops of various roles, which offered daycare services to sweets and other goods. This spurred them on and gave them the idea to combine all the previous shops into one. The shop is primarily functioning as a sweet shop, but also plays a role in offering daycare and, equally as importantly, offering independent creators the chance to showcase the best of their crafts. “We are now enabling up to 30 small businesses to also sell their items from our shop,” Becky said, “which gives them a permanent home for their goods rather than them putting the items on Facebook. People can now come in, look at, and smell these items and actually get a sense of them instead of just seeing them online. Our ethos is to support small businesses, so on Fridays we are enabling small businesses to come in and to showcase their items. A local baker is able to showcase their items in our cake counter in the shop as well. Hyde has been missing something like this.”

The shop was opened a couple of Saturdays ago, and the day was marked by the cutting of the ribbon by a special guest. Becky told us more, saying: “we had a great day opening on Saturday and lots of people attended. We had the civic mayor come down and cut the ribbon on the door.”

The day of opening was not only good for Beckys’ store, but for the rest of the centre as well with shops benefitting from passing trade from the opening. The opening also meant that the message of helping independent businesses could be strengthened, as they were invited down as well to showcase their items on the day.

In total, The Little Sweet Lady is currently helping out 30 other independent businesses to get a physical platform, and Becky told us more about the criteria for getting their items on the shelves.

“You don’t have to be local,” Becky said, “we have a lady who makes custom ear defenders for children with special needs, and she is from up in Newcastle. So, you don’t have to be from Hyde - you just need to be a small business!”