Independent shopping: Iota

Iota is one of those shops you could easily spend an hour browsing. Unlike those generic gift shops with too neat rows of the same product in different colours, owner Méibh tells us it’s the antidote to the “Keep Calm and Carry Ons” of the industry.   

The shop is thoughtfully curated, with Méibh hunting down only items she really wants to sell, not just those that she thinks will. Iota’s stock is ever-changing from week to week, so it’s always worth popping in to find something new and delighting.

Iota’s ethos is to sell beautiful things at affordable prices; design-led homewares without the price tag so that everybody can make their spaces interesting without paying over the odds.  

What kind of things can customers expect to find in store? 

We do a broad mix. When we started we just did interior accessories, so housewares and mirrors and clocks and that kind of thing. But over the years it’s evolved to include jewellery and cards and more general giftware, but always trying to find things that are just a little bit different. Things that are design-led, but without the big design price tag so people can make their spaces look nice, but don’t have to fork out the very high gallery kind of price for stuff. 

What’s unique about Iota?

It’s a very eclectic collection of stuff, I think. It’s not prescribed. We have such a real turnover of stock and new lines. If I’m bored of something I’ll just stop. I try and keep things fresh so it’s always surprising. 

Tell us about your tagline, “Antidote to the Anodyne”…

In a lot of places you get kind of the bandwagon, for instance “Keep Calm and Carry On”, you know? And suddenly all the shops are doing it, everything with Keep Calm, and Keep Drinking… And so there’s kind of an anodyne thing to that – that nobody’s really thinking about it, they’re just going “oh, well that’s going to sell. That’s where it is at the moment.” So it’s just trying to bring in stuff that’s different and isn’t what Joe Bloggs is selling two doors down.

Why do you think it’s important to keep that culture of Independents alive?

I went to Florida last year and there was this kind of awful mall out-of-town culture, where everybody gets in their cars and drives to the mall. We went to a few and we were like, have we been here before? It was identical to the ones down the road. It was really depressing. We’re all different, people are different, and to offer all of us the same thing it just seems mad. It frightens me! We need a bit of unique.

Why should shoppers check out Iota?

Because we just have the nicest stuff! And even if people aren’t buying anything, sometimes it’s just nice to come in and have a wander. It’s really nice around here as well, you’ve got loads of cafes dotted around so you can just pop in, have a coffee and a wander.   

Shop online: www.iotabristol.com

0117 9244911
167 Gloucester Road, BS7 8BE

Monday: 10 – 5.30
Tuesday – Saturday: 9.30 – 5.30
Sunday : 12 – 5