Scott Balcony, the Uxbridge garment printer and embroiderer’s managing director, announced the decision by posting a video explaining the choice to Twitter.
In it, Balcony explained that footfall from unplanned visits had “just never come back” since the pandemic.
A message about the shop. X pic.twitter.com/8M2UNuHCPe
— Balcony Shirts (@balconyshirts) August 26, 2022
Speaking to Printweek, Balcony explained that the vast majority of the shop’s custom comes from people emailing or telephoning before they pick up their purchase in person.
He said: “It was just getting silly.
“We were, all three of us, going to be in the shop, with all the lights and machines on, and sometimes you’d just wait, and wouldn’t see a customer until two in the afternoon.”
Despite the move, the physical shop isn’t going anywhere, Balcony said - but under the arrangement, he and his staff can work much more flexibly.
“It frees us up really, to work when we need to.
“You know about printing - you can have a week with nothing on and then a week that’s absolutely crazy.
“And during the crazy times, we would work all through the night and on the weekends, but then still have to come in and open at nine [AM] when it’s dead. It’s a more relaxed way of doing it really, it’s more flexible.”
One thing that will not change, however, is Balcony’s now-traditional Christmas window display of a model train traversing an Uxbridge-themed diorama.
“Basically I’m just using this as an excuse because I can spend more time doing the train now,” Balcony joked.
“The train has become a bit of an Uxbridge thing now, we’ve done it three or four years in a row, and every year we add to it - so we’ll be adding to it again this year.”
Yes! pic.twitter.com/r603DGzg7M
— Balcony Shirts (@balconyshirts) November 26, 2021
