Late night shopping events in Steyning
Steyning’s annual late-night Christmas shopping event traditionally attracts huge numbers of people from right across the area.
Sara Bowers, owner of The Steyning Bookshop, said: “We couldn’t put on the wonderful annual Steyning Business Chamber late-night shopping extravaganza, which brings thousands to the town, since thousands would be a problem. But we do want folk to do their Christmas shopping here. So, this week retailers in the town have got together to plan some extended-hours opening, to enable people to have more opportunity to shop safely in Steyning.”
The first of the coordinated evenings will be on Wednesday, December 9, with many of Steyning’s businesses staying open until 8pm.
Sara said everyone seemed excited about shops and businesses reopening.
“We’ve certainly had people saying that they can’t wait to come back and shop,” she added. “We really feel for all the businesses that have had to close in this important period for trading.
“At the bookshop we’ve been working behind the scenes throughout lockdown with phone and email orders, home delivering and posting, and we’ve had a busy collection box in our side porch – one of the advantages of living on the premises!
“Julia Donaldson has saved us once again by kindly signing and personally name dedicating her three most recent books – Counting Creatures, The Hospital Dog and Teeny Weeny Genie plus any other of her titles ordered at the same time, up until December 15, via our website.
“And this week we’ve actually got most of our other stock onto our website too – a Herculean task achieved by our daughter Gudrun, who runs the shop with us.
“So, 4,000 titles are there for people to find, and there’s a request form which pings to us if there’s something that isn’t there. A bit ironic to have completed this just as we’re opening again, but it will still be useful for those who aren’t able to get out easily or have too much on to come shopping.”