Conversations with a shopkeeper: pencil me in
Design led stationery galore in Elgin
shop small, support big dreams
Part one of a conversation with a shopkeeper series: I am shining a light on a small handful of my lovely independent stockists, the shops that keep our high streets alive and interesting. First up, is home of the custom printed pencil, Pencil Me In, a stationery addicts dream shop, up near the beautiful Moray Coast in Scotland, where you can find owner, Sarah, and her wonderful team selling boutique stationery, cards, gift wrap and paper products. Plus you can choose your own pencils from the pencil bar and have them personalised in store - last year alone they printed an impressive 1000 a week for retail and wholesale! Pencil Me In is one of my newer Faire stockists, and I am honoured to have my cards in such good company on the card wall that has it all. I chatted with Sarah about all things stationERY, celebrity customers and got some amazing insights into life at the shop.
Firstly, congratulations on 10 years of Pencil Me In! What first inspired you to open up your own stationery shop all those years ago?
A few things collided at the same time, childhood dream of opening a shop, toxic corporate job, then a friend opened a small shop and I was so envious that I knew that it was what I needed to do. I LOVE stationery & finding the perfect greeting card and that’s where PMI was born. Our shop in Manchester, where we first opened was the worst location – steep learning curve, we didn’t make much money but it was a stepping stone to where PMI is now and also the start of all the wonderful relationships you get to experience as a shopkeeper.
You are a shopkeeper to not one, but two glorious independent bricks and mortar shops. (See beautiful sister store, seasgair store) as well as running your custom printed pencil wholesale business. Do you find the juggle and wearing all the hats a struggle? And if not, please pass on some of your superhuman tips?
I actually really enjoy the juggle, it suits my personality and how I work. Sure at super busy times it can be a LOT but I have been incredibly fortunate about the team I have built here, Claire has been with me 8 years in October starting as my Saturday girl. Louise joined us in 2021 as maternity cover and didn’t get to leave, Eleanor has been a great addition when we opened Seasgair and long time customer Debbie also joined us. They make it all possible. I know well what they all like doing task wise and what their strengths are so I try to lean into that when delegating to keep things moving and enjoyable for everyone.
To any other product business/shopkeepers when you are looking to take on staff, you can show them how something is done but everyone has their own way, and the more flexible you can be here the more you can delegate and free yourself up. I recently shared on Instagram that one of best bits of advice when self employed is to have a hobby, something to help you switch off from work but also create the gap to have new ideas, think through conversations or situations.
What has been your biggest high and low of shopkeeper life?
Definitely a high for all of us here is when someone famous comes in, Tilda Swinton is one of our customers but we’ve also had Joanna Lumley pop in and tell me the shop was *fabulous*. I think another big high was our custom notebooks and pencils were featured on Stephs Packed Lunch tv show on Black Friday in 2020, the sales were incredible!
In the beginning low moments would be slow sales, something being damaged in the post to a customer, a customer being a bit rude… but ten years in my skin is thick, I know sales will be ok and if they aren’t I use it as motivation to go wild in the marketing & sales. 2020-2021 were difficult but our community really rallied around us, our sales were good and we also scored more TV & press coverage. I know this won’t be the same for everyone.
How much does it wind you up on a scale of 1-10 when ‘stationary’ is used instead of ‘stationery’?
MASSIVE TEN! I think it is most disappointing when a customer creates some really nice content of something they have bought from you but have used the wrong spelling!
What has been your favourite recent custom pencil order to work on?
We have been honoured to work with the Shakespeare Globe Theatre this year, not only have they kept us super busy, but they are very nice to work with, they pay promptly, and when I visited the shop the way they were selling them was great to see. Doing pencils for the Turner Prize Exhibition last Autumn was cool. Naturally we love all our customers equally.
I am so thrilled to have Wildwood Paper cards stocked on such an incredible card wall at Pencil Me In, they are in such good company! What do you usually look for when buying in new stock?
I am really fussy with my card choices, and like to have a mix on the card wall, typography, funny and rude, foiled or letterpress, illustrated, Scottish & adventure. So depending where the gap is depending on what I am searching for. The quality of the card stock is important as well as the design. Our customers often feedback that we have really great cards for the awkward life moments. I love having ranges not everyone else has, and particular enjoy collections that aren’t stock north of Edinburgh/Glasgow.
I have recently started offering my cards with no sleeves as a packaging option, as despite them being slightly more eco-friendly, the sad reality of compostable sleeves is that they’re not much better for the environment. I absolutely love that all your cards in the shop come ‘naked’ as standard with no sleeves in sight, just like the good old days! Are there any drawbacks that you’ve experienced to this?
We went naked in 2018 and have experienced very few drawbacks, we had excellent feedback from our customers when we made the change, the way we display the cards does lend itself to less damage as you don’t need to touch them to see the whole design. It has been wonderful to see so many publishers offer this as an option and also the change in how deliveries come too. Also the compostable ones feel horrible!
Wildwood Paper will be heading to Top Drawer for the first time in January 2025, which I’m very excited about! Do you prefer buying or exhibiting at trade shows?
I ruddy LOVE trade shows! I go to Top Drawer twice a year, the stationery show and PG live, and sometimes spring fair (which I don’t like so much). Definitely buying is the sweeter deal, its great to chat to all our suppliers and meet new ones, relationships with our suppliers is really important to me.
Exhibiting is super fun, we have done the Stationery Show in 2022 and Top Drawer Autumn Winter 2023. But they are exhausting! The work on the lead up is massive, the show is tiring but buzzing and the after work is a LOT to ensure you follow up every lead. We may find our way back to another trade show in 2025.
I can’t wait to see what happens with Pencil Me In next - can you share any upcoming exciting plans you have?
We are developing more of our own product range, I think it felt quite vain at first to have things with PENCIL ME IN on them but we are going for it. I am doing a lot of work behind the scenes on cash & stock management after reading Profit First by Mike Michalowicz and Tame your Tiger by Catherine Erdly. Would really recommend both to product owners.
On the wholesale side we are slowly investing by changing our Pencil Supply chain to a UK manufacturer, it means ordering in much bigger quantities, but it has also meant we can create our own colour to add to our range so in August a new colour will be launching! Hopefully folk will love it cause we got 3000 coming.