National radio slot wraps up successful NSW for ambassador Sarah Laker
Sarah Laker has wrapped up National Stationery Week by having a chat on national radio with presenter Sara Cox and picking a special song request.
And the BBC Radio 2 star not only remembered the Stationery Supplies indie retailer from a previous call-in to her All Request Friday show, but she dubbed Sarah’s reason for her choice of A Million Dreams by Pink as “the greatest reason for a song being chosen ever”!
Sarah, who runs her two shops in Marple and Wilmslow and can be seen in the video above talking about being the NSW ambassador, had explained: “It’s the chorus ‘brightest colours fill my head a million dreams are keeping me awake’ which is me all over just trying to fill the world with beautiful stationery and colours.”
The pair chatted on Friday, 17 May, as NSW was drawing to a close – it can be listened to here, around 17 minutes into the broadcast – and Sara had remembered Sarah’s name and talking stationery previously, this time asking if there’s “still a demand for stationery with everything being so electronic”.
“Oh absolutely!” was Sarah’s response, “and this week we’ve been celebrating stationery in all its forms, and encouraging people to write and bullet journal and be mindful about what they’re doing.”
She then explained bullet journalling – using notebooks with dotted pages instead of lines where people track their moves, what they’re doing, their life in this book, and it helps with mindfulness and their mental health – as well as what NSW entails.
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Above: Stationery talk made Sara Cox remember her love of smelly rubbers
Remembering her own childhood, Sara asked what’s selling well these days, if it’s still the “smelly rubbers”, and was interested to learn it’s now all about pastel highlighters and erasable pens for youngsters.
And having now completed National Stationery Week, which also incorporated London Stationery Show, for another year, following Ohh Deer’s big stationery takeaway event on Saturday, Sarah commented: “I’m pretty damn proud of how well it’s gone this year, it’s been immense.
“Incredibly hard work, a steep learning curve as I’m a retailer not an organiser of a national marketing campaign, however it’s been incredible! I’ve learned a lot, made some mistakes along the way and already my head is buzzing with ideas for next year.
“Big thanks to our very own Molly Laker – the organised one who has scheduled all the posts!”
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Above & top: Sarah (right) at last week’s London Stationery Show with (from left) Sally Stephenson of The Pencil Case in Cowbridge, David Worsfold from Farrants in Cobham, Sandra Jervis from Creative Cove in Lampeter and Ray Williams of JPS in Chesham, who joined her on the indie retailers’ panel
The stationery industry has also honoured Sarah by inviting her to become a member of The Society Of Old Friends, founded in 1909 to promote good fellowship in the UK stationery industry by organising networking events for members to meet and “sweeten business relations”, in its own description.
Laughing that she’s too young to join, Sarah added: “Joking apart, I’m really chuffed to have been invited to join. It’s a real honour especially as I think I’m the only independent retail member! I look forward to meeting up with old friends and making new ones.”
