Conheça a mais antiga chapelaria do mundo:1xbet6

Legenda do vídeo, Conheça a mais antiga chapelaria do mundo

The story…

The world's oldest hat shop

transformation

Need-to-know language…

survived – continued to exist in spite of danger

evolve – develop bit by bit over a period of time

adapt – become adjusted as conditions change

bounced back – returned to a good position after a difficult situation

take off – become more popular

Answer this…

Who has been dispatching parcels during the pandemic?

Watch the video online: https://bbc.in/3aybdE1

Transcript

Roger Stephenson, Deputy chairman, Lock & Co Hatters

Good afternoon and welcome to Lock and Co. Please come in.

This is the oldest hat shop in the world. We were established in 1676 and we've been on these premises since 1759. We have survived two World Wars, depressions, recessions and one pandemic.

Are you looking for a summer or winter hat? I think this time of year maybe a nice Panama would go very well.

Through the front door, which is still the same front door that we had in 1759 - Nelson, Duke of Wellington, Winston Churchill, Charlie Chaplin - have all stepped through that door.

You have to mould the hat to the shape of the head, not just the size, so these are everyone's head shapes.

The last eighteen months, throughout the pandemic, has naturally been very challenging for any business, especially one that is in the middle of London. But we've had to dig deep, and we have had to evolve and try and adapt to the changing circumstances which hasn't been easy.

We just thought, right OK, if the shop's closed we are not doing any business in the shop, then we have just got to channel all our focus - so we were pulling people who’d normally work in the shop, who were then rota-ed in to dispatch parcels. The one thing we have noticed, which has been great for us, is how well the business bounced back as soon as we could reopen. The moment we opened up we saw sales just take off again.

Let me box it up for you.

Who knows what retail is going to look like in the next forty, fifty years? But here we are, we're still here, and I'd like to say that we will be here for a few more years to go.

Thank you very much. Enjoy your Lock hat and I hope it gives you many, many years of good service.

Did you get it?

Who has been dispatching parcels during the pandemic?

Employees who normally work in the shop.