Positive press

Not that we want to brag...

But WOW - we got good press in the online broadsheet.

(And the shop looks great in the photos too).

http://www.broadsheet.com.au/melbourne/arts-and-entertainment/article/manufactory-opens-thornbury

Meanwhile - our customers are loving the range of goods, we are getting in new old stuff and some old new stuff (just to balance things) and Cliff is busy making more ray guns to meet our many clients specific world domination needs.

Now in stock

Our first four days of trading have been busy with over two hundred people through the doors and plenty of interest (and plenty of sales).

We have a good stock of assorted bobbins in now, very popular little decorative items (almost as popular as our selection of old souvenir tea spoons from all over the world).

And we have added some 'green' to the store to liven it up a bit (can't be all rusty metal and old wood).

And finally, we have set up a Face Book 'like' page - just trying to keep up with 21st Century marketing and webvertising!

Open for business

We are now open!

Tanya swung open the big rusty door at 10 this morning and soon after that, Marco from Umberto's (three doors up and fantastic coffee!) wandered in and became the shops first customer.

I need to get my self busy making more interesting steampunk devices as we have already had several people call in looking for such wares, so more goggles, ray guns, books on steampunk and general doo-dads will be in the steampunk section very soon.

It is a great feeling to finally be open after the time we have spent renovating, decorating, moving house, sourcing stock, displaying stock, etc...

Oh - and keep an eye out in The Age this weekend, there is an article on steampunk with some photos of our wares (on the models).

The signage is up

And the opening date has been set - we will begin trading at 10.00am on Thursday 16th June.

Another full day for Tanya and I getting the shop ready, Today Mitch came over with the signs so we put them up, I like the lettering on the window - very classy.

Tanya was busy all day stocking shelves and pricing items, I got the ugly air conditioner pipes covered over with a big plastic pipe, and I made some shelves out of old timber and put them up.

Just got a couple of pieces of display furniture to find (old bookcases are not all that common) and a couple more lights to put up and we are set.

So we are now less than a week away from opening!

Close to opening now...

We are back from our sunny break and busy in the store getting it ready for the opening.

Good news was waiting for us when we got back, we now have our second hand dealers licence so we can trade. The plan is to have a 'soft open' on Friday 17th June and trade for three days, then have an official opening the following week.

The signage goes up tomorrow!