Wonderful Jobs: The store owners of Afflecks Palace

We went and spoke to Joseph and Vanessa, two store owners in Afflecks, about their businesses and what the Palace means to them.

Transcript

00:00Now here in Manchester more often than not we try to avoid doing the obvious

00:03but when I was told to try and find some of the people in Manchester with the

00:06weirdest wackiest jobs one place in particular came to mind and while

00:11working for a store inside an indoor market isn't necessarily a weird job

00:16role Affleck's Palace itself certainly is weird and wonderful and that means

00:20that it's absolutely perfect for what we're trying to do today as I say there's

00:24a massive range of really exciting stores in here people who come to

00:27Manchester often will not be surprised to hear that this is where we've ended up

00:30today there's one or two that we want to focus on in particular now American

00:34Graffiti is one of the oldest shops inside Affleck's Palace and owner Vanessa has

00:38been here 43 years now so I'm Vanessa Cawley from American Graffiti this is my

00:46business I've had it for 43 years started off a tiny unit and just progressed to

00:56what it is now it's just good for Manchester it brings people in tourists

01:02come they absolutely love it it's you know it's just always been here it's bit of an

01:08icon probably my most famous celebrity was Lady Gaga about 10 years ago but it's the

01:19people who aren't famous who is our bread and butter we have like students who've

01:25been here years ago in the 80s they've gone away they love to come back and reminisce they bring the

01:32family so it's like Affleck's is a must and from one of the oldest shops to one of the newest

01:37JH Kicks only opened in the Palace two months ago yet already to owner Joseph it feels like home

01:43yeah yeah yeah so first of all what it is it's not just a general fashion store it's a sustainable footwear

01:48store so what we do is we acquire used footwear and same with the jackets but obviously predominantly

01:53footwear and from all over the place or wherever we can we fully restore shoes that we get we get a

01:59lot of beach shoes restore them make them look brand new and we get them in our shop and we sell

02:03every pair under 65 pound I'm born and raised in Manchester went to school here primary school here

02:08and parents are from here still live here and so yeah as you see there made in Manchester it's a big

02:14part of it this is this is my home I got my first person in athletics when I was like 16 from school

02:19so when I've got a space in athletics it's like full circle moment man so I got athletics two months ago

02:25um just end of feb this kind of has everything for everyone so like there's so many wide variety

02:32shops and some of them are waiting and whack it and but they're so cool because it brings a variety

02:37of different people in I'm sat here yeah even on a quiet day where I'm not making sales the people

02:41like me it's like mad so it's it I'm always chatting to different types of people then in

02:45athletes it's just it's just it's just mad it's everyone can be who they want to be it's kind

02:49of a place that embraces everyone all types of you know whatever gender whatever um sexuality it's

02:55just everyone I feel like when they come in here they just know there's no judgment so I feel like it's