Vintage shop co-owner ‘incredibly proud’ as business approaches half a decade in Northampton town centre

The co-owner of a vintage shop says she is “incredibly proud” of the business’ success and growth, as it approaches half a decade open in Northampton town centre.

Vintage Guru, in St Giles’ Street, is an eclectic emporium of vintage and new gifts, homeware, clothes, accessories and a huge collection of vinyl records.

It was co-founded by Julie Teckman and Matthew Lewis in August 2018, as they saw a gap in the town following the closure of the popular vintage emporium Most Marvellous.

As the university was in the process of moving closer to the town centre, the pair thought it would be a great opportunity to open somewhere new and interesting for young people to shop.

Julie said: “We wanted to be part of something positive in the town. We knew lots of places were closing and opened the same month M&S closed down.

“We could have opened in a more affordable location, but we took a chance on our beautiful building.”

Julie described the first time she and Matthew came across their building as a moment of “serendipity” – as while they were looking through the windows, the landlord happened to be outside and showed them around.

Within three months of that moment, they opened Vintage Guru and have not looked back over the past four-and-a-half years.

The duo first came into contact as Matthew worked at Most Marvellous before it shut down and Julie used to sell vintage clothes.

With a similar interest in the world of vintage and pre-loved, they remained in contact and toyed with the idea of setting up a shop – though neither of them thought it would happen, let alone so quickly.

“As soon as we opened, we had such a positive response from traders wanting to rent spaces,” said Julie. “It snowballed from the very start.”

The co-owners have a great working relationship – with Julie taking care of the admin and paperwork, which soon mounts up with more than 90 traders in the store.

Whereas, Julie described Matthew as the “guru and creative genius”. He deals with the visual merchandising, their creative and aesthetic window displays, and social media content.

Julie said: “The business is popular, but there are still lots of people who are only just finding out about us.

“The shop was recently referred to as iconic and I was really chuffed to hear that.

“One really important thing these days is it’s not good enough to just have a shop, you have to offer an experience.”

Vintage Guru often gets praised for the attention to detail in music choice, as well as their customer service and the fact the employees have fun.

“We try to run the shop like one we’d want to visit,” said the co-owner. “We get just as excited as customers when they find something special in the shop.”

Julie has measured the business’ success and custom by comparing week on week over the past four years.

“We’re still growing and going strong,” she said.

However, Vintage Guru’s latest gas and electricity bill was four times higher than this time last year – despite only keeping their lighting, till and security systems going.

Julie says it “takes a real chunk out of their monthly income” but they are trying to be creative to get around it, including using mostly LED lights.

The shop is open seven days a week and tries to be available for customers as much as possible – as well as getting involved with town centre activities.

“People appreciate what we have to offer,” says Julie. “And visitors are still surprised about how much is available on St Giles’ Street.”

The co-owner is “incredibly proud” of the business, as she never envisaged she would do something like this in her career.

Julie said: “The proudest time is Christmas, when you think about people opening presents that have been bought with such care from Vintage Guru.”

The shop’s ethos is built on promoting local traders and combatting throwaway consumerism, and the pair have been “amazed” at the shift in mindset since Vintage Guru first opened.

There has been a rise in the popularity of vintage, preloved and secondhand clothing, and Julie says people are now more open to the idea of this type of shopping.

Vintage Guru is all about “wearable vintage” and they are constantly finding new ways to encourage everyone to wear quirky and retro clothing in a stylish way.

Matthew’s latest way to promote the shop is through Vintage Guru’s TikTok page – and he often does styling videos with members of staff of all ages to show how vintage clothing is wearable for all.

One of the store’s exciting upcoming projects is that throughout May, one of their rooms will be dedicated completely to £5 and £10 vintage clothing items.

“This is the cheapest you’ll find unusual clothes like these,” said Julie.

The duo also looks forward to celebrating the shop’s fifth birthday in August, as it is an achievement to have survived such difficult circumstances.

During the summer, they would love to open up their garden room and continue to expand their bookshop that reopened in December last year – which has proved popular.

Julie said: “We’re always looking for new opportunities to collaborate with other businesses.”

She says it is great to see the independents on St Giles’ Street now working together more than ever before.