Maureen Priestman of The Jewellery Box Sunderland's Jacky Whites Market discusses the long-running independent business.
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00:00 There's not many people in the town who do the watch repair service.
00:04 But the other thing is that a lot of places out there charge a lot of money for replacing watch batteries, and we don't.
00:10 We don't charge by the make of the watch, we actually charge for the battery.
00:16 So it doesn't matter what make of watch it is, we have two prices.
00:22 One price is £6, the other price is £7.50. That's for putting batteries in.
00:27 If they need pressure testing, then that's a bit extra.
00:33 But it's very, very good value.
00:36 July is Independent Retailer Month, and we've been speaking to some of the business owners at Jackie White's Market in Sunderland.
00:42 We've been in Jackie White's Market for nearly 30 years.
00:46 We do fancy goods, so that includes christening gifts, wedding gifts, engagement.
00:55 One of our main things that we do is watch batteries, watch straps, and then we do all the types of repairs for watches.
01:03 Re-sealing, if you want to swim with your watch.
01:06 We do glasses, you can put new glasses in, new movements in, all that type of thing.
01:11 And it's all done in-house.
01:13 We do have a watchmaker as well, if there's anything we can't do.
01:17 And we have a jewellery repairer as well.
01:19 Debenhams used to have a company called In Time in Debenhams.
01:25 And when Debenhams closed down, all the girls that worked in In Time came to work here.
01:31 So that's how we've got so much experience, because they had the proper, they were taught properly how to do all that type of thing.
01:40 Because we do all these watch repairs, and we take links out of watches as well,
01:45 we do seem to find that a lot of the younger people are coming in.
01:50 This is Toffy, and she's a little fixture in Jackie White's market, in this shop especially.
01:57 She's been coming in here since she was eight weeks old, and she's six now.
02:03 Lola's a bit bigger, and again she's been coming in here since she was eight weeks old, and she's seven now.
02:10 And they come in every morning, and they get fed, watered, I walk them, and then they come in and they just go to bed and go to sleep.
02:17 And then we have customers who come in purposely just to see the dogs sometimes.
02:22 They bring them treats, don't they?
02:24 I know, yes, you're a lovely girl.
02:26 Because we're in a market, people might think, oh, cheap, cheap.
02:30 Well, I don't think like that. I think we're in a market.
02:33 People do expect things to be a little bit cheaper.
02:37 And I do like to keep my prices as good as possible, you know, so it brings people back.
02:44 [BLANK_AUDIO]