Cooper’s, 25 High Street Caerleon

ON Caerleon High Street, Cooper’s gift shop has been catering for the needs of the Caerleon community for seven years, writes Claudia Wyatt.

The shop offers a vast and eclectic range of gifts, furniture and interior design items, as well as artwork from local artisans, items with a Celtic touch and plenty of present ideas for children.

Claire Cooper has always had a passion for handmade gifts and homeware and took a leap opening the shop in 2011 after quitting her job as a receptionist.

Claire and her husband Darren initially started in a smaller unit in the Ffwrwm but moved to the bigger shop around the corner on High Street.

“We chose Caerleon because we wanted to set up shop in a place with a bit more charm about it. We love it, we’ve actually moved here too.

“We try to source everything from the UK and we support local business and makers. We’re very keen on supporting smaller and local companies.

“Once you start looking, there are so many great producers selling high quality and beautiful products”, said Mrs Cooper.

“We have a lot of very loyal local customers and we try hard to help if people are looking for certain things. We listen very hard to our customers to see what they want”, Mrs Cooper added.

Cooper’s try not to stock large amounts of one item as this allows them to bring in new stock on a regular basis.

“We’re looking for new things all the time and customers come in because of that. They know they can come in from month-to-month, or week-to-week and and we’ll have new stock for them.

“I’m constantly looking for new and exciting stock, it’s my passion”, said Mrs Cooper.

Cooper’s offer a loyalty scheme, when you buy something in the shop, you get a stamp and once you have earnt five stamps, you’ll get a 25% discount on the next purchase.