well, the great and the good of cupar's retail community were gathered together last night at a special seminar organised just for us. a chance to hear the views of the more established shops in town (some of them over 100 years, hope we can leave that sort of legacy!).

it's funny. anne and i are full of enthusiasm at the moment. let's face it, we wouldn't be opening the store if we didn't think it had great potential but to hear some of the tales of woe from those sat around us last night we could have been forgiven for chucking it all in. thankfully 10 years of "big corp" professional league moaning has toughened my skin. too much traffic, not enough traffic, tesco's upcoming expansion, business rates... and on and on. i'm sure in a few months we'll be able to moan with the rest of them but at the moment it's all positive.

one outcome that we're hoping for is that the retailers of cupar can band together and form a semi-official group to help both lobby for us with more effect but also work together to promote cupar and its retail delights! when you're somewhat in the shadow of st andrews 15 minutes away, i'm sure it can seem a bit of a pointless struggle at times but st andrews has its issues and we firmly believe that cupar is a great place to live and work and has bags of potential to continue to grow in stature.

for now, let's get this shop open! just over 24 hours to the official opening party and under 48 hours until the hordes come marauding through the door.