Lilakshop: our physical store debut

I can barely believe that we opened our physical Lilakshop store in Shrewsbury a month ago. Since then, we have been overwhelmed by the love and support that every single one of you have given us and we cannot wait for our future events!

But no good story starts at the end, so let’s go back to the beginning.

July 9^th: Miri arrives at Lilakshop

At the start of July, I arrived at Lilakshop HQ where the shop renovations were already in full swing. The new floor had been laid, shelves had been made and installed, everything had been painted, yet so much still had to be done. Cerys did not mess about and put me to work straight away.

While we were still packaging online orders and maintaining our presence on our socials – Instagram, Facebook, X & Tiktok (follow us if you don’t already!) – we were also spending evenings in the cellar sorting stock, being excellent drink and snack butlers to all our lovely renovation workers, and filming behind-the-scenes content.

After a brief intermission visiting London for Stray Kids who were headlining BST Hyde Park (which was an unreal experience, let us know if you want a blog on that too), we were back in the thick of it, physically and mentally preparing for July 26^th. D-Day.

July 20^th: Katie arrives at Lilakshop

Soon after we got back from London, Katie joined us at Lilakshop HQ for possibly the hardest week of work we’ll ever experience in our lives. This shop opening had become our baby and was truly keeping us up at ALL hours.

While the neon signs and mirrors were installed, we, as a team, created our K-Pop idol collage wall using old, damaged albums to minimise waste (okayyy eco-friendly queens!), made 100 goodie bags, and carted 15 heavy boxes of album stock down into our cellar. Who needs to go to the gym anyway?

With the checkout desk made and painted, everything slowly came together – physical proof of the team’s late nights working on it, sometimes even til 2am! I cannot put into words how exhausted and excited we were at this point, mere days away from the opening of our own store. Like, that’s crazy… we have a physical store?! A true testament to how your custom and support can help a dream come true.

July 25^th: Lilakshop Debut EVE

Like any good celebration - *cough* Christmas *cough* - the night before is often as exciting as the day of. The night before our physical shop debut will remain one of my favourite days until I die, albeit I was awake for about 20 hours that day.

With all the foundations down, Cerys, Katie, Tara, and I spent the entire day organising stock, pricing each one of them, filling up our spare stock room, playing around with decoration and imagining how crazy it would feel to have people in the space we were standing in at this moment. It truly felt surreal, and I have Red Bull to thank for keeping me awake enough to process this (not an ad)!

After placing the last SKZOO in its new cubby hole and “practising” with the POS system (aka buying the stock we didn’t have the restraint to say no to), the clock read 2am and the team, squealing with excitement, got just enough sleep for the day ahead.

July 26^th: Debut day

Bright and early, we brushed our teeth and put on our uniforms ready for a momentous day – the physical store debut. We met and got interviewed by the lovely Katy from Hallyu Doing, which you can check out on their socials, and took a second to soak in the moment.

While we were hopeful to meet lots of our customers, we were aware that with it being a Friday that people could have been working and were preparing ourselves for Saturday to be busier – almost like a Friday soft launch before the big wave.

And oh, how we were wrong.

About an hour before the opening a queue had begun to form. A queue of lots of you lovely people who had travelled far and wide to come to the store and support us on this momentous day. From Shrewsbury locals to customers from Edinburgh, London & Wales, we were overwhelmed by the effort shown to attend our opening and cannot thank you all enough for the turnout (we may or may not have cried that evening as we felt so loved).

Stray Kids “ATE” albums were flying off the shelves, goodie bags were being handed out and selfies were being taken as I ran about the place filming content for Tiktok (so sorry if all you saw of me was a blur of a woman running like Lightning McQueen).

While the shop itself was buzzing the entire day, our neighbours and partners for the weekend, Dipp’d, were also bustling with you. With free Lilak cookies available all weekend, the café soon became the hot spot for album unboxings, meeting new friends and exchanging socials – I even managed to get a photocard trade for a beautiful Lee Know pc! Lovely person, you know who you are… thank you so much!

Overall, the first day was a complete and utter success with over 200 people in-store celebrating this moment with us and so many of you online cheering us from afar.

July 27^th & 28^th: The rest of the weekend

While we then expected the buzz to die after the first day, we were greeted with a full weekend of meeting customers, welcoming you all to the shop, and getting you stocked with K-Pop goodies!

Like the beginning, both days started with queues – I almost felt famous, of course I’ll sign your pc xoxo – and so many heartwarming conversations were had. We came away every single day so grateful for the community that had formed around us, supporting our small business, and each day of the weekend made us even more proud of how far we had come.

We also got featured in the Shropshire Star, written by yours truly!

And by the time we closed the curtains and shut the door on the Sunday our hearts were welling with pride and love.

While this has been a whistlestop reminder of the craziest Lilakshop month, I want to take a moment personally to thank each of you for taking the time to support just some 23-year-old girls making their dreams a reality. Through your support you have nurtured this community and helped us to become all that we are at Lilakshop… even allowing me to rethink my “after uni” plan and realise that some dreams *cough* freelancing *cough* can become a reality with hardwork, love and support.

Each and every one of the 400+ people who took the time to visit us and shop with us on our opening weekend, as well as all of our online customers who keep us going, we are truly grateful for you.

THANK. YOU. SO. MUCH.

Love,

Miri & the rest of the Lilakshop Team!

So… Hallowe’en specials next?