Vintage clothes shop in Corby closes and says Brexit has 'destroyed online vintage businesses'

They'll be having a kilo sale
By Callum Faulds
Published 28th Feb 2023, 07:00 BST

This article contains affiliate links. We may earn a small commission on items purchased through this article, but that does not affect our editorial judgement.

Adam Chandler, co-owner of BLOC Vintage, inside the Corby store before it openedAdam Chandler, co-owner of BLOC Vintage, inside the Corby store before it opened
Adam Chandler, co-owner of BLOC Vintage, inside the Corby store before it opened

Corby’s BLOC Vintage store has closed as the business prepares to scale down its operation.

BLOC Vintage in Trevithick Road sold vintage clothes and accessories dating back to the 1980s, 1990s and early 2000s.

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They have decided to scale down their business in order to spend more time as a family, but say the decision is also because Brexit has made their business far more difficult to run.

Adam Chandler, co-owner of BLOC Vintage, outside the Corby store before it openedAdam Chandler, co-owner of BLOC Vintage, outside the Corby store before it opened
Adam Chandler, co-owner of BLOC Vintage, outside the Corby store before it opened

Co-founder Adam Chandler said: “Brexit caught up with us. Brexit has destroyed online vintage businesses.

“Since we had [our child] 16 months ago, I’ve wanted to scale it back and it just felt like the right time now.

“We’ve been fighting Brexit since it came in. We’ve been going since the end of 2013, in those six years we accumulated a big international following. Our orders were probably 70 per cent into Europe but come January 1 last year, it literally just turned off. It’s down to about 10 per cent of our orders now.

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“I know five lads who shut their businesses last year. One had 22 employees.”

Before Brexit, Ireland was BLOC Vintage’s largest market but now, with more expensive shipping as well as customs tax, it costs more for European customers to buy from the Corby-based sellers.

Adam said: “We had customers email us to say ‘I loved shopping with you but it’s just not viable anymore’.”

They’re now scaling back the business to about 1,000 items of stock as opposed to the current amount of 6,000 to 7,000.

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Due to their scaling down, BLOC Vintage currently have a 50 to 80 per cent off sale online and will also be having a kilo sale on March 11 and 12.

Kilo sales use the weight of the clothing materials to measure the cost of the purchase. Regardless of the brand the price stays the same.

At the BLOC Vintage kilo sale clothes will be £20 per kilo.

They closed the doors to their Corby store for the final time on Saturday (February 25). They had been there for 18 months.

As part of the scaling down, BLOC Vintage’s website will be down for two weeks starting March 11, but will be back after that.

Find out more about their scaling down sales here.

Related topics:BrexitCorbyIrelandEurope