Hugely popular Lancaster gift shop to close its doors

The Meet the Makers gift shop in Marketgate has been bringing all things locally handmade to the city centre for nearly two years, but those who run it have now made the difficult decision to close for good.

The group - which was launched 10 years ago when they began holding craft fayres in St Nicholas Arcades - has been working together to keep the shop sustainable while providing quality and affordable handmade gifts.

However, Jan Beal, who co-ordinates the group, said the time has now come to close the shop.

"We are almost victims of our own success," she said. "We all run our own independent small businesses and none of us has the time to keep the shop as a full-time thing any more.

"Our USP has always been that customers can 'meet the makers' - we have never employed anybody else.

"It's our choice to close and it has been a really hard decision but it's just a case that none of us can run the shop. It's just got too big for us. We have been trading seven days a week, it's been bonkers.

"We are absolutely gutted we can't find a way to run it."

Jan emphasised that the decision to close has solely been made by the 'makers' themselves.

"The landlord and Marketgate shopping centre have been nothing but supportive over the last 20 months and have played no part in us closing our doors," she said.

Jan thanked all their customers over the past 20 months.

"Our loyal customer support has been incredible and we have become a real destination for quality locally handmade gifts,” she said.

"The outpouring of love for what we do or have done has been so overwhelming. The people of Lancaster and the surrounding areas have loved our concept of all our gifts and products being "locally handmade and getting to meet the makers" and we are beyond grateful for all they have done to make our dreams possible."

Among the achievements Jan is particularly proud of is creating a great safe selling space for more than 24 local small businesses and creatives.

When they celebrated their first birthday in July 2023 they also donated 10% of their total shop sales for that week to St John's Hospice.

And they have also made it into the top three 'independent retailers' category at the Lancaster BID Business Awards in 2022 and 2023.

"It's been an amazing journey for us all and one we have loved," Jan said.

"We are very proud of what we have done. We have offered something very unique to Lancaster. It will be a sad day when we close."

Jan said the group planned to continue their Makers Markets events in St Nicholas Arcades, starting in September.

"We will be staying with our roots," she said. "We will hopefully do another pop-up shop later in the year for a shorter time period with makers from around the local area who design and handmake their designs.”

Anyone who wants to get involved can find out more online at www.meetthemakers.info

Meet the Makers will close on Friday March 1.