Housewares stockist, Atkinsons of Sheffield is celebrating its 150th anniversary, with its long history recognised in a recent BBC news story. Priding itself on good customer service, the family-owned department store’s tagline is ‘independent and individual.’
Having started out in 1872 as a small haberdashery on The Moor in Sheffield city centre, Atkinsons was bombed in 1940 and is now the city’s only department store after the closures of John Lewis and Debenhams.
Recognising Covid-19 as the biggest challenge of the current century, managing director Nicholas Atkinson (the fourth generation heading up the business) told the BBC: “We’ve adapted and changed enormously over the last few years.” With praise for Atkinsons’ employees, he added: “A lot of this credit [for adapting] goes to the staff and the people that have been with us for so many years of their lives.”
This month the store held an in-store only ‘£Million Anniversary Event,’ where customers were treated to special discounts over two weeks. These included 15% off purchases across the Cookshop department.
In 2020, Atkinsons won a Sheffield Retail Award, recognised as ‘a standalone family business loved by generations.’
Top: Atkinsons has been displaying memorabilia in its windows to celebrate its 150th anniversary.
