Jul 21, 2011

Everything but the kitchen sinkBy WhitbyGazette.co.uk

If you can’t buy it in Terry and Ann Lawson’s shop then you probably don’t need it –and that goes for your Whitby Gazette too.

It is the only newspaper they have sold in their Staithes shop for years.

The shop might be called The Gift Shop but there is so much more than that – jigsaws, postcards (with images taken by Terry himself), sweets, biscuits, teabags, groceries, shampoo, toilet brushes, coal buckets and clothes pegs.

Terry and Ann have been in this business for a long time and know what they’re on with.

Ann said: “People are always fascinated by this shop.

“We don’t sell sinks but everything else.

“We even have stuff on the ceiling – but if people are staying in a cottage and there isn’t a carving knife they will come here for one and will pick up something else.”

They started at the shop in 1968 and in the 43 years that have followed they, like almost every other local business, have had to branch out as demand and social lifestyles change.

They used to sell eggs, margarine and milk for the local workmen and all the daily papers but when Terry had a heart attack in the shop one day, they had to take stock.

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