It’s been a difficult year for the General Stores brand, with half of its estate forced to close – but there is light on the horizon, in the form of a new shop at Kampus.
The Manchester-born business has built a reputation for building the city’s coolest corner shops, where your usual essentials rub shoulders with local suppliers.
Along the way, that’s included Ancoats General Store, Stretford Food Hall, and the now-closed Sale Food Hall.
Its newest site has been five long years in the making, and is finally now open in the garden neighbourhood of Kampus.
With black and stainless steel fixtures, concrete floors, and bright strips of lighting, it’s way more futuristic than your average corner shop.
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Inside, you’ll find a Green and Grounded plant shop selling lush houseplants, and Bohee Cafe, with cakes, bakes, and coffees.
There are freshly-made sandwiches to go from Sndwch, and beers from local breweries like Shindigger and Cloudwater in the fridges.
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Upstairs is an enormous mezzanine level that will be used for events, from yoga to wine tastings.
Speaking of the opening on their social media channels, General Stores said: “Kampus General Store has been 5 years in the making. We are so grateful for the opportunity and patience by all involved to bring this project to fruition…a warm Thank You to them.
“Our business has been through a tough time recently resulting in the closure of half of our estate.
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“Making tough decisions and facing into pressure points hasn’t been easy and the daily focus continues to be around staying positive and moving forward.
“With that being said, it is exciting to be delivering another store with new twists and more opportunity for collaborations than ever before!”
General Stores joins other local food and drink businesses at Kampus including Nell’s, Great North Pie Co, and Beeswing.
This week, the area also welcomed the festive pop-up Bar Hutte for the first time, with karaoke cabins, winter drinks and live music.
Drama Call opening first-ever flagship shop in Manchester
Danny Jones
Streetwear superstars Drama Call are opening their new flagship store and first-ever permanent site in Manchester city centre this weekend.
Expect massive queues and lots turning up wearing the increasingly recognisable starry logo.
Already a much-loved brand not just here in 0161 but across the nation at large, the native independent business turned street-style favourites and UK fashion phenomenon are no strangers to HUGE pop-ups in their hometown.
However, they’ve never had a mainstay location anywhere in the country, let alone Greater Manchester – well, until now, that is…
Credit: Press shots (supplied)
Debuting in the Northern Quarter this Sunday, the venue located on Tib Street will effectively serve as Drama Call‘s new HQ.
The local label has done everything from popping up vans with Manc rapper Aitch to collaborating with Man United for multiple limited edition collections, so it only felt like a matter of time before they’d make a big brick-and-mortar splash in our fair city.
Most notably, they’re also taking over the same unit as the Sheep Shop, a former skate shop and legendary urban clothing tastemaker of the 90s; they were one of the first places in Britain to stock famous names like Stüssy, Supreme, Carhartt, The North Face and many more.
With that in mind, it feels only fitting that they carry on the trendsetting tradition from the same premises, and just spitting distance from the likes of Note, as well.
And that’s not all, either: before the full launch, they’ll also be holding an exclusive cash-only shirt swap event, where a limited number of certain collector’s items will be sold for as little as £10.
Other things to note are the additions of signed vinyls by homegrown artists such as the aforementioned Aitch and even The Smiths.
In fact, the store will also feature strictly Mancunian exclusives, too.
Everything from polo shirts and tees to branded mugs, matchboxes and other accessories will be available in-store only.
NQ is bound to be buzzing across launch weekend, with doors officially opening to the public on Sunday, and we wouldn’t be surprised if you see people camping outside the front well ahead of time.
What a moment the Manc shopping scene is having right now.
Featured Images — Publicity pictures (supplied via Pear)
Manchester
Andy Burnham explains why Number 10 North is so important as it officially ‘opens for business’
Emily Sergeant
Andy Burnham has explained his key reasons for launching Number 10 North as it officially ‘opens for business’ this week.
You may remember that earlier last month, Andy Burnham revealed he had intentions to create a Number 10 North if he was to become Prime Minister, with the new base expected to be a ‘dominant driver of the UK’s economy’ once it was officially up and running… and now, fast forward to today, Number 10 North is officially ‘open for business’.
Operating from Heron House in Manchester city centre, as previously reported on, Number 10 North will be the Government’s new ‘situation room for growth’.
It also brings the ‘levers’ of local economic growth and devolution together under one roof for the first time ever.
Number 10 North has officially ‘opened for business’ / Credit: gov.uk (via Wikimedia Commons)
With the Prime Minister expected to work from Number 10 North each week, so that decisions about the country’s economic future will no longer exclusively be made in Westminster, and with other ministers also working from there on a regular basis, the Government says the move underlines its determination to ‘do things differently’.
Now that Number 10 North has officially opened, Andy Burnham and his fellow ministers have explained why this move is so important for not just Manchester, but the north as a whole.
“For 40 years, power and resources have been sucked into the centre, and too many communities have felt forgotten, without the attention and investment they deserve,” explained Andy Burnham.
“Number 10 North will change that by putting more power into every postcode across the entire country. It will be the situation room for making Britain better, the place we use to get power out of Westminster, into the hands of people at a local level, so that they can turn things around.
“The days of Whitehall resisting devolution are over, for good.”
First Secretary Louise Haigh added: “Today marks a fundamental re-balancing of where power sits in our country. Number 10 North has been set up to drive economic growth in every postcode and put power in the hands of every community.
Daisy Jackson -
9th November 2023 
