What a whirlwind 2020 has been! The beginning of the year saw us directly affected by the bushfires for several weeks, and then to have Covid-19 come into play shorty after (and just before we were due to fly to Chicago for the gia Awards!) has definitely brought some challenges.
However! Remember back in October last year when I announced that Few and Far was nominated for a gia Awards? Just to jog your memory...
The Global Innovator Awards (gia) were launched in January 2000 by the International Housewares Association (based in the US) with the goal of honouring excellence in home goods retailing around the world. Giftguide, a trade publication for the gift and homewares industry, works together with the International Housewares Association in Chicago on the Global Innovator Awards and every year Giftguide picks an outstanding Australian retailer to represent Australia at the awards in Chicago! Few and Far was nominated to represent Australia at these awards, but unfortunately our trip was cancelled due to Covid-19 deciding to destroy the world!
But... I'm so excited to let you know that at 1am AEST on Friday 24th April 2020 it was announced that we had won the Global Honouree Award at the gia Awards!!!!!! Wow! This whole experience has been SO exciting and extremely gratifying, and we feel so honoured to have been announced as winner (even if it was the first award we have ever accepted in our pyjamas!). We absolutely love what we do and to be rewarded for our passion, hard work and efforts is so exhilarating and definitely an event to be remembered (and celebrated!). It’s also encouraging to know that we are following the right path.
We can’t wait to attend the event in 2021 in Chicago and to be able to celebrate our win and to share an inspirational experience with the many other businesses that had been selected. We were selected as one of 6 Global Honourees out of 32 applicants worldwide for 'retail excellence and setting the standard for global retail moving forward' (Wow! When I read that back to myself I still can’t believe it!)!! It’s such a shame we couldn’t attend this year to celebrate and to be awarded in person, but we’re looking forward to the opportunity of getting ‘dressed up’ and immersing ourselves in the ‘experience’ of the show in 2021 and all that Chicago has to offer.
Thank you (so much!) to the International Housewares Association for recognising our stores on a global scale! We are absolutely thrilled!!!!
