OPINION: The festive season is well and truly under way

Christmas is coming and business is booming at the moment. At this time of year, it’s all the heavy stuff, such as coal and wood for heating.

We’re doing really well with Christmas trees and wreaths. We’re doing more this year. We’re looking to sell about 80 trees. It’s all about the price with these.

I buy them from a wholesaler who also sells them on the market, and I actually sell them cheaper than he does.

We knock them out quite cheap. We have a small mark-up but it’s not that minute, so it still makes it worthwhile for us.

We’ve always done well with them and we have quite a few orders. It has been a learning curve but now we know what people want. We have three or four different sizes, for houses with big ceilings and smaller ones for cottages. We have some potted ones for growing, too.

Once the trees have gone, we’ll have turkeys and meat in. We’ve started taking orders for these now and have had a lot come in already. It’s not just turkeys either – people are ordering beef and things such as pigs in blankets.

Our coffee and snack bar is going well but not quite as well as I’d expected. Now it’s builders, brickies and ground-workers. Once the plasterers, carpenters and tradesmen come in, we’ll do a lot more.

We are selling bacon rolls and sausages from about 7am. We cook them first and then have them ready to microwave. We are still learning what the customers want and need, but it’s going well.