Name: Pete Jones and Naomi Buttery

Business name: Retro Roots

Opening hours: Wednesday, Friday and Saturday from 9am until 3pm

When did you open your business and why?

WE OPENED up in February this year, and the reason was mainly to take what we did as a bit of a hobby and turn it into a business.

It’s been a hobby of mine for 20 years or so, and I remember as a kid going to car boot sales with my parents, and it’s a similar thing for my partner as well.

I wanted to turn it into my job so I thought about where I could find a unit or a market, and I ended up here in the market.

Why in this location?

I WAS living in Oswestry at the time – I’m originally from Llansantffraid. Working in Oswestry and the market in particular is really good. Some of the different food stalls and other stalls that have started up recently are doing well and there’s a nice mix here.

New stalls have helped to give it more variety and make the market interesting for everyone.

There’s a lot of good people in the market, both working there and customers.

Tell us about your business

WE SELL almost anything that appeals to others, but it’s also stuff that we love fro our generation, whether that’s retro or seventies and eighties stuff.

Last night I was looking for some Pacman Snes Nintendo games and other games like that, as well as pin badges.

We have a huge variety of things in the shop from Japanese artwork to a boar’s head and vintage tools.

We did a couple of bargain boxes last and people seem to take to them quite well.

There are vinyl records including records from the Rolling Stones and so on.

Naomi also paints in the stall at the market, and has done large portraits of famous artists including Prince.

People are more and more interested in vintage stuff all the time,

Just as we started we had to close, so we’ve been using Facebook and Instagram and that has been picking up well during lockdown up to now.

The council have been very good throughout the pandemic – they’ve reduced the rates etc, and David Clough who runs the market has been fantastic in helping us.

The auctions are starting up for us again online and some we can attend in person as well, so we can get more new stuff in now.

It’s good to work here and meet people in the market too, there’s the social side to it.

What is your proudest moment?

IT WAS great to be able to turn a hobby into a business – it’s still fun to do but great to be able to do it as a business as well.

It gives you a proud feeling to be able to help somebody else find something they want.

Any strange requests?

I CAN’T say there have been many requests that are too strange. We have a good laugh and some banter with customers, but as far as requests are concerned, I can’t say there have been too many.