When we heard about the merger between MyExpatShop and Bite Sized British Shop, we immediately contacted the owner Xanthe Visram from Bite Sized British Shop. She explains that she is passionate about books and child literacy, previously selling books to families in the Vevey/Montreux area. We caught up with her and she explained how she started selling the best of British foodstuffs as well. She is also offering a delicious tin of shortbread biscuits to one lucky knowitall reader... see the competition below.
How did the idea get started?
A friend asked me if I happened to know anyone who was looking for commercial space as some had opened up next to her English school and when I walked in inspiration struck! I just knew that I could make it into a warm and welcoming British shop.
Although the original space didn’t work out, I soon found a better location and in 2019 I opened Bite Sized, my British shop, in St-Légier, VD.
The shop is now full of British food products, gifts, games, art from local artists, greeting cards and over 1,500 new books in English.
Have you been working on this idea forever?
During the pandemic it became essential to move my business online. At that time I was able to offer Click & Collect services while shops couldn’t open their doors.
Since then it has developed so that I am now able to sell and deliver all of my products across Switzerland, including crumpets and sausages via the website.
Arun Pabari is passionate about writing and has written many short stories. We recently found out that during covid, Arun published his book, Who will SAVE the World, and is even offering one lucky reader a chance to win a copy! Read down to bottom of the article.
Tell us about your book and what has been the inspiration.
This book is fiction intertwined with a lot of truth. It is one man’s fight against all odds to find the person who can save the earth from destruction as a huge meteor is going to strike the earth. He travels to several places – each time getting miraculous help to continue his quest. The book is set in 4 different continents. The inspiration for finishing the book was the birth of my grandson Shaan in 2021. I burnt midnight oil to finish the book in his honor.
Have you been working on this idea forever?
I had this idea since a very long time. I was just waiting for something to click. When I was in Lisbon in 2016, I took some pictures thinking that the book will begin there – but somehow it was not the right place. I then went to Marseille for my office work and then there was a click. Everything was just right. I took a few pictures and told myself that this was it. And yet, I did not start writing. When Covid arrived, I started writing in bits and pieces. It was only when my grandson was on the way that I starting working on it all day and late nights.
What is the biggest obstacle you have had to overcome?
The biggest obstacle has been time – the time required to write – and do all the other chores (work + home). At times I would get stuck and would not know how to go to the next chapter. I would go to sleep at 2 am – and then ideas would start flowing.
If you are reading this article and are living in Switzerland, France, or anywhere for that matter, you will know how much the bank fees are for transferring money from one person to another. I'm not talking about transfers within the same country (we all use Twint now at any rate).
But my example is concrete. I live in Geneva and my son lives in San Diego. I asked my son if I could Twint him (equivalent for him is Venmo) but we quickly both realized that those services are only aimed at payments within the same country and currency. TWINT was founded in September 2016 as Switzerland's payment app.
When he needed money transferred to his US bank account, I was using bank-to-bank transfers, often swallowing up huge fees and long transfer times. I was so delighted when I used Wise.com (previously TransferWise.com) and saw how fast and inexpensive it was.
We recently heard about BODEGA43 and realized how important constant temperatures for preserving bottles of wine is to connoisseurs. We caught up with Roger Kolenbrander, co-owner of BODEGA43. He tells knowitall about his product.
Why did you start? What has been the inspiration?
Out of love and passion for wine. I have been in the wine business for 25 years, always missing a wine cellar at home. The idea came up, after leaving the wine business, when we could take over a very small Dutch company for wine coolers.
We started to design our own wine coolers under the name BODEGA43. It started for fun and to finally have a good wine cellar for private use. At that time it was not meant to be set up as a big international company like it is now, but due to already existing international experience in another job, soon after starting in The Netherlands, we decided to expand to Germany. After that followed Spain, Italy, United Kingdom, Israel and now most of the European countries, like Switzerland with weinkuehlschrankshop.ch.
What is the biggest obstacle you have had to overcome?
Initially the production. We were growing so fast that for the first few years, we could not produce the quantity we were selling. Now the biggest challenge is to handle the technical part of all the websites we manage.
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