The Comically Absurd Tales of a Country Gift Shop at Christmas Time
Lucinda Cater has an eye for putting a room together. She just knows what people want to buy. Her store is thoughtfully planned with the most lovely selection of gifts, homewares and trinkets. It's this talent for gift selection which means that Christmas retail season is comically busy for Lucinda. She's bracing herself for the weeks ahead. Many of you would have ordered from Botanica Home in the last few years so we thought we would introduce you to the woman in charge!
In early 2017 Lucinda was ready to return to work after the early years of raising three beautiful children (now 11 years old and 9 year old twins). Lucinda had been fond of a particular homewares shop in Moree and learned it was for sale. With experience in retail, she was excited by the prospect of taking on a new project that would be her own. With the help of her sister, she purchased Botanica Home.
The next three years didn't exactly go to plan 'but there have been many laughs through the tears' says Lucinda. Like a lot of rural businesses, Botanica Home slowed down when much of rural Australia was going through severe drought. When the drought finally broke, Moree was hit with floods, a mouse plague and COVID lockdowns.
"To say it was tough is an understatement, but I focused on building a great online presence and thankfully Buy From The Bush came along during this time. I also had some very loyal customers here in Moree that kept me going."
Owing to her beautiful curation, retail expertise and seasonal planning, Botanica Home has triumphed over these challenges. She keeps overheads low by managing as a (mostly) one-woman-operation. During the Christmas season, she gathers wonderful friends around her to help out and they laugh through the pain of tired feet and weary eyes.
But, this one time…
In October 2021, Lucinda processed over 700 orders from Buy From The Bush customers - nearly ten times more than she would forecast for trading in the winter months. Excitement quickly turned to fear as she realised the challenge facing her in fulfilling the huge volume of orders.
"There is no way I could have done it without my friends - we would sit in the shop with music playing, chatting away, laughing and packing orders. Sometimes fatigue would hit and we would forget if we packed an echidna or a platypus so would have to reopen the tissue paper to double check. Jeff Bezos would have rolled his eyes at our set-up!"
Moree has been home for Lucinda for much of her adult life. She is surrounded by a community of very friendly and welcoming people as well as a network of local small business owners. Apart from shopping in each others' stores, the community attend each others' events, whether that is a new shop opening, an evening of art, or a celebration lunch.
No matter what La Niña has in store, Lucinda is optimistic that her community will once again pull through if the rain returns this summer.
"We had a devastating flood through Moree in 2021 and everyone came together in the clean up - it was really amazing. Groups of friends, work colleagues and organised crews would drive around and help clean up anything that needed to be done."
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