Smart square footage - The specialist who touches

Every time I am on my way to the supermarket I pass that little store with a window full of brushes and brooms. That same little store often raises a number of question marks in my mind. Normally I walk past the store, but today I stepped inside.

Every time I am on my way to the supermarket I pass that little store with a window full of brushes and brooms. That same little store often raises a number of question marks in my mind. Normally I walk past the store, but today I stepped inside

When I go through the door I see a walhalla of brushes and brooms. Hundreds are lying, standing and floating around on, say, 25 square meters. I hear two customers listening attentively to a lady who passionately talks about a special mushroom brush, the solution to their dilemma. The lady's name is Mirjam, the owner of a unique specialty store in the Netherlands: the Deventer brush store.

I feel at ease in the store, Mirjam is not in a hurry and takes all the time for me and my questions. It seems as if a certain calm descends on everyone in the store, which is a relief in a time where everything is going faster and faster. Meanwhile, I look around attentively and my curiosity gets the better of me. It feels like I have stepped into a time machine to the year 1860. I wonder how the store ever came to be but especially how it can exist for so long, amidst the online violence. For Mirjam, that prompts the story.

Attentively I listen to the story behind the brush store. Many entrepreneurs will be jealous of a store that has been around for so long in a rapidly changing world. According to Mirjam, it is not the speed of these times, but the conviviality of the store that does it all. The brush store even has its own museum, full of old photos and brushes. That makes her a specialist with a story and makes your visit an experience in itself.

The entrepreneurship and passion Mirjam has for her brushes and brooms is what makes this store so captivating. It seems that it is not so much about the square footage, but it is much more about who is there and what is happening. Miriam breathes the store and does her thing, you can't help but admire her entrepreneurship. That is what touches me and why I walk around again next time, on my way to the supermarket.

 

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