A history of the Shop by Rosemary Wiffen…
Winnie and Albert Wiffen (my in-laws) were originally market people from London and set up a stall in many of the local market places, with Colchester being their main location. It was in 1968 that my father-in-law Albert said that he was thinking of opening a shop in Tiptree and I would later I run it for him. Â It was in what is now the Oasis christian book shop and was a great success, so after a year we also took on the shop next door. Later on, Mum and Dad (Winnie and Albert) ran the shop on Fridays and Saturdays while I joined my husband Eddie and his sister Mollie with her Husband Eddy in the markets. We didn't sell craft supplies like we do now but instead sold cut-price toiletries and patent medicines as well as what we called 'fancy goods'. We did Halstead on Tuesdays, Romford on Wednesdays, Rochester on Fridays, Colchester on Saturdays, and Thursdays were our much-needed day off. On our days off we quite often went off to London in a lorry to buy more stock.
After 2 years my father-In-law Albert decided to sell his bungalow on the Tiptree Heath to buy Goodman's Bakery at 108 Church Road as our new permanent home for The Cheap Shop Tiptree. It was his insight to buy it, and I know he would be so proud if he were alive today. Sadly, he never managed to live above the shop with his wife Winnie as he passed away before they moved in, but Winnie lived there for many years.
New Shop
When we bought the new shop we had to buy all the stock from the Bakery as well. This included a lot of grocery products, a loft full of flour, two vans and the delivery rounds too! We took all the groceries over to our other shop and sold them all at reduced prices. It was at that time that my sister-in-law Mollie, her husband Eddy Carter, my husband Eddie and I officially became partners in the business.
As soon as we fully moved into the new shop at 108 Church Road we knocked out the two back walls as we decided we needed much more room. In all, we had five separate extensions over time.
Eddy and Mollie ran the front of the shop and my husband and I ran the back end of the shop; My Eddie also did all of the book work. As the shop became busier we slowly cut some of our market days down and towards the end only did Colchester.
As we added another room to The Cheap Shop Tiptree, we decided to introduce new products such as fabrics and yarn. In the beginning, our friends in the market helped and guided us to introduce these new products. We started off with £500 worth of Crimplene fabric, which at the time was very popular as it was a new cloth and easy to handle. You hardly hear of it these days, although I'm told that the machines went out to India to be used.
Expansion
At this time, we took on a Post Office in our shop with 11 post men. The sorting office was in the back room where the fabric counter is now and the Post Office itself was in the front of the shop where the greetings cards are now. By this point we had started regularly selling fabric and when we gave up the Post Office after about 18 months it allowed us to concentrate more on the shop and use the space for yet more fabric and to increase the choice of dressmaking patterns.
Would you believe that one year we even put on a fashion show inside the shop to raise money for the local Scout group, which both of my sons were involved in. Our knitting wool suppliers and dress pattern companies supplied us with loads of garment samples and the local Scout and Cub leaders modelled for us with some of the senior Scouts too! It was great fun and we managed to get 200 people sitting down for each session. We did it on two consecutive Wednesday evenings. We had music and a commentary with each person receiving a cup of tea or coffee and a home-made cake. We managed to raise £400, it was hard work but brilliant!
My son Chris joined us in the business when he returned from a year of travelling in Australia. That was over 25 years ago now and he is now responsible for buying the curtain fabrics, haberdashery, art supplies and craft department items. He has always been very artistic so it made sense for him to be involved in these areas. He brings much enthusiasm for these crafts and loves talking to customers about their projects, the more unusual the better!
New Generations
My oldest son Barry joined us just over 10 years ago (2008) when Mollie and Eddie decided to retire. He had a lot of experience in the textiles industry after first of all working in the knitting wool trade and then later on working for Rose & Hubble in fabrics. He then became a Textiles Agent selling fabrics for 10 years on his own. He became well-known and very well thought of in the trade but also knew exactly what to buy and where to buy it, so this knowledge has become very useful in the shop. He has increased the patchwork fabric and dressmaking fabric selection substantially since joining us.
His wife Trudy joined us a few years later and now runs a very comprehensive and busy knitting wool department which she is very passionate about. She is also responsible for organising the window displays with her daughter (my granddaughter) Stephanie who is the 4th generation of our family to work at our shop.
The latest venture for The Cheap Shop Tiptree is internet sales and Stephanie runs this side of the business with Barry. We're very pleased with the results and it's become very popular particularly for patchwork, dress fabrics and knitting wool and we post parcels all over the world!
I think our secret is that we have always had time to listen to our customers to find out what people are looking for. We always try to go to major trade shows religiously and stay for several days to look for something new and interesting. Our shop is still very traditional and always, at its heart, a family business. We are very proud to have reached our 50th year trading in 2018 and we hope to continue working together for many more years to come.
