Card Factory

Card Factory was absolutely heaving when I stopped by the other week. Situated in Crossgates Shopping Centre, this wee card shop was certainly proving popular on my first visit. Just as I was heading over to check out their stock I remembered — it was Mother’s Day that coming weeked, which goes some way to indicating why it was so flurried of custom.
I had in fact already bought my card, and gift, and sent them both the day prior so as not to send it too late, so I wasn’t in any great panic to purchase. I did fancy a quick look around though, so nipped in and did a quick scan. The sad thing is, is that the options in there were really lacking in my opinion, in stark contrast to their excellent staff. From what I could see, the staff were really working hard to help out their customers with choosing and buying the right cards, alas, there was not a great selection for them to perform this task!
Plenty of stereotypical standards, the rude funny ones, the pink ones for girls and blue ones for boys, or princess vs. footballer and so on. I suppose the standard customer may well be satiated with a simple «Birthday Girl» card endowed with some awful joke about chocolates or aging, but I look for something more refined, thoughtful and creative than that.
I thought the staff seemed great — helpful, friendly and hardworking — but the cards on offer left little to be desired, for my tastes in the very least. But then — hey, they were heaving!