Do We Get a Happy Ending?

For us it’s been a hell of a year - not all of it negative. Out of challenging times, you often find new directions from which to adapt. We spent our downtime during the enforced two-month closure of the shop to strategise the future for Rehab Squared; one of the main moves was to get the Rehab Squared shop online for the first time ever. 

Through lock down, we were able to sell our more Manx-centric ranges on local craft-selling site, Quirky, the response to which properly surprised us. We loved delivering items around the Island, meeting old and new customers and ironically it made shopping in 2020 a really personal experience. During the pandemic, Quirky has built up a lovely community of crafters, local producers and - most importantly – a landscape of new customers. Our patriotic (and naughty) “I F****** Love This Place” framed print did particularly well, capturing the general feeling of despite it all, we’re so f*****g lucky to live on this lovely rock.

Creating our own web shop has meant we’ve hopefully future proofed our business -should enforced closures happen again - and not being able to open physically gave us the opportunity we needed to take the leap to finally go online. It was always going to be a mammoth task, as many of the items we sell are one-offs, but it’s been worth the time and we’re determined to push it forward and add more and more items as we go on: a never-ending story of our shop if you will!

Even though 2020 has been a proper rollercoaster of a ride for retail, since reopening for the Summer, it hasn’t been the total write-off we believed it would be when we realised there would be zero tourism in the capital this year. Island residents have embraced the community spirit and shopped local which has allowed us to claw back the business lost for missing out on TT and the usual busier tourist season. 

While the rest of the World struggles, within the bubble that the Isle of Man has found itself in, its people are flourishing and small businesses are enjoying the benefits of a captive (and potentially re-enraptured) audience. 

The plan for us for this year was to move on from our current location at 9-11 Duke Street, the ground floor of the old Peter Luis building on the Island’s main high street. However, in true WTF form of 2020, it was not to be. The advantage of this of course, is that we now get to enjoy one of our favourite periods in the shop – Christmas! 

With new stock from European suppliers already on the way, we’re also enhancing our IOM-inspired products, including a new range of customised tin signs and a series of original artworks by Gemma to commemorate the awesome bands that played on the Island in decades gone by.

We’re also launching something new this year by offering discounted pre-orders to customers who are looking for feature pieces of furniture for the festive season.

Launched this week, items included in the special deal are free standing bars, bar tables and wine cabinets – you can see there’s a theme emerging! For the full list of pre-order furniture, please check out our web shop or Facebook page.

So it’s all go and we’re happily planning a Christmas that we never thought would come. Commercially and personally, let’s try to finish the year with the hope and optimism we started with in 2020!