During the summer, one of our colleagues was putting her own distinct spin on the business of international import-export.
A great French manufacturing name, Duralex—makers of the classic toughened glasses, bowls, and plates that defined 20th-century bistro life—found itself on the brink of bankruptcy and was clearing unique stock at distress prices. She grabbed everything she could lay her hands on to bring back to the Lido. To save time, the first batch arrived not via a commercial shipping broker, but packed tightly into hand luggage on a Ryanair flight out of Lyon. Under the intense pressure to save every available cubic centimeter, she very nearly boarded the plane without the small personal bag containing her passport…
Happily, all ended well. The passport was retrieved, security was navigated, and this unique tableware is now on sale at the Parliament Hill Lido Café (with further stock arriving as more conventional shipping routes are sorted out).
At a time when British high streets feel increasingly homogenized, we take a quiet pride in offering a somewhat more unpredictable retail experience. Where else, for instance, could you find authentic personalized Breton pottery bowls painted not with Michael, Andrew, or Katie, but with delightfully left-field names? (They were, in truth, hand-inscribed for exceptionally generous supporters of our legal campaign who vanished into the night before picking up their prizes—leaving us with a magnificent collection of uncollected homages).
Alongside the Duralex and the bowls, you will find pure essential oil of lavender at a very fair price, alongside heavy, fragrant blocks of traditional handmade Marseille soap.
It sounds like a completely random selection, but the retail corner of our cafés has proven surprisingly popular—stuff simply flies off the shelves. Inspired by our customers’ enthusiasm, we are doubling down. Our lodestar in this venture is one of Europe’s great retail shrines: France’s oldest and quirkiest hardware store, Maison Empéreur in Marseille. While standard retail chain models struggle, Maison Empéreur’s crammed aisles remain bustling, and they have recently taken their vast catalog online to cope with global demand.
With autumn moving in and Christmas on the horizon, we are doing exactly the same.
