At first Sjackie’s was overlooked by Haarlemers who didn’t seem to realize what a unique shop had arrived on their doorstep. “If it had arrived in Amsterdam, the reaction would have been explosive. But here people came in (and still do) and pretended it was all normal. To this day, I only get a handful of people that will come in and go bananas. But people from Haarlemare like that. I call them “droog” which in Dutch means “super-dry”. They never show they are over-excited – you’re not supposed to show emotions.”

So why is the shop special? “Well, it”s a lot about how the things are displayed. Many of the articles I place in the store bare no relation to each other, yet they somehow connect. This surprises many people. It’s like, how can you have furniture alongside woolly hats? Why is there pottery and then weird little gadgets? I think it’s also the layout, it couldn’t just be display, and it also had to be a working space. I can’t just leave gadgets everywhere because the co-operative has to work in here too. This is a working space for them. That has also meant I can’t stuff the store full of things – which is a good thing. If I had a free reign, I would probably fill it to busting point but I don’t think I would like it. I also have to keep the space clean because of the co-operative and as I am a very messy person, this is a blessing in disguise.

The products in the store are a mixture of old and new. I buy new stuff that I like and find suitable and I buy old stuff when I can’t new stuff of that type or it costs too much. The furniture in the store is made by Piet Hein Eek who is one of Holland’s leading furniture designers. I also source other smaller new things from different wholesalers – I’ll go along and look through what they have and pick out small quantities of things I think match the mood of my shop. The old stuff I source at flea markets from places like Germany, Belgium and France. I don’t really find much here in the Netherlands. I also keep an eye out for textiles – old jumpers, blankets – which is how Shrunks came about.”