Prior – Retail with a serving soul!

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Anita Roddick believed that businesses should offer a form of moral leadership, being a powerful force in society. She has paved the way for the next cohort of trailblazing women at the forefront of responsible, better businesses.

The future of modern retail is radically local, community-driven, and genuinely innovative. And Prior shop is all three.

At Prior, we consider ourselves a pretty ‘good’ business. But what does it mean to be ‘good’ in a rapidly changing retail landscape? 

Since we won the Good Retail Award: Community Prize last year, we’ve been doing a whole bunch of reflecting, and thought you might like a little insider perspective on what we’ve been up to, too. 

We’ve found novel solutions to problems. We’ve adapted our game-plan against all the odds. But one sentence has rang out amongst all the noise:

Through community we teach each other. 

I’ve attached a short press release for your perusal, and have written a little extract in this email body, too. Please do let me know if I can help at all with high-res cut-outs, or any further information. We’d love to get on your radar if at all poss – our founder Beck is very adept at public speaking including on the radio or in person, and would be thrilled for an online/phone/social media interview. She would love to have a chat with you about the waves we’re making in the retail landscape right now. 

The objective of Beck Prior has always been to have an impact that goes beyond the four walls of the shop. The creative community deserves real, practical support. Building connections between studios and customers is a way to spread prosperity and create real change in the corporate landscape of shopping malls. Bringing the work of 150 independent creatives into a retail space normally reserved for big brand names is a project that not only the creative community of Bristol deserves, but also one that feeds back into the whole British economy, supporting local creatives and providing outlets for their work to be celebrated.

Beck Prior has always wanted more than just to bring the work of Prior’s fantastic makers into the retail space – Beck supports makers in real ways such as running small business mentoring workshops (some free of charge), in running monthly pop-up ‘meet the maker’ markets to solidify connections between makers and customers, and pitch to national, and regional press on behalf of artists. Beck hosts multiple work experience students a year and allows local schools, colleges and universities to display artwork in Prior’s gallery. 

Prior’s project is one that blends many different approaches. Underlining all of it however is Beck’s true investment into fantastic ‘behind-the-scenes’ groundwork, taking care over their makers’ work, and a deep desire to go above and beyond the greyscale world of retail. A fluid interaction between customers, makers and the shop is what their aim is: a cyclical system in which everyone wins.