Sheffield’s last remaining department store Atkinsons sets sights on supporting small businesses with plans for ‘little Sheffield shop’

The retail sector has suffered massively during the pandemic, with stringent measures and lockdowns running trade into the ground for many independent shops across Sheffield

Retail giants at the heart of the city’s shopping district have also shut up shop, with the likes of John Lewis, Debenhams, and Gap leaving behind empty buildings.

Recognising the need to support small traders in the city, Atkinsons department has store has announced that it will be giving the city’s independent businesses the opportunity to sell their products in-store.

Atkinsons promotion manager, David Cartwright, said: “There's obviously lots of small, independent businesses out there at the moment that have either set up during the pandemic or are more established businesses like Sheffield Honey and Sheffield Gin, and we just felt that there was an opportunity to just build on that. Do they want to stock their product within a retail outlet, can they wholesale, because they could wholesale it to us and we could actually buy stock from them. They could come into the store themselves and try to man some of the space we have available.

“We've done it successfully with people like Matt from Goo Design, Neil Anderson media."

He added: "We've got a small selection of Sheffield products in-store now, but we just felt that it’s needed more than ever at the moment, and people are seemingly getting behind shopping local. There's an opportunity to work together with some of the businesses. We could create an area within the store and have almost like a little Sheffield shop.”

Family-owned Atkinsons, which is now the last remaining department store in Sheffield, opened in 1872 and has been supplying the city’s residents with quality made products for nearly 150 years.

If you own a small business and would like to get your products sold at the store, you can send information about yourself and your business to [email protected].

For more information about Atkinsons, visit atkinsonsofsheffield.co.uk/