Royal wedding has Canadians seeking bit o’ Britain at specialty shops

<p>Canadians eager to create their own homegrown royal wedding experience have been tramping to British specialty shops and snapping up traditional treats and souvenirs to mark the occasion, shop owners say.</p> <p>Retailers carrying British food and memorabilia say the run-up to the wedding of Prince William and Kate Middleton prompted a surge in business as customers prepared to celebrate alongside the glamorous couple.</p> <p>Traditional British treats, souvenirs emblazoned with the royal couple’s smiling faces and novelty items bearing the Union Jack have been in high demand for weeks – leaving shop owners scrambling to keep up.</p> <p>Laura Hewitt, manager of A Taste of Britain in London, Ont., said Friday’s wedding has led to a sharp uptick in business, the likes of which she hasn’t seen in the store’s 10-year history.</p> <p>”I’ve seen a lot of weddings come and go, but it seems to me everybody’s so excited about this wedding,” Hewitt said in a telephone interview.</p> <p>The bulk of business comes not from nostalgic expatriates, Hewitt said, but from native-born Canadians eager to create their own homegrown royal experience.</p> <p>”We have a lot of customers I’ve never seen before,” she said. “We have regular clientele in the store, but I’ve seen a lot of North Americans that are really into it.”</p> <p>Breakfast parties timed to coincide with the London wedding ceremony seem to be the most popular type of local celebration, Hewitt said, adding that customers have been coming in droves to stock up on the necessary provisions.</p> <p>The store has done a brisk trade in scones, clotted cream, breakfast bangers and other specialty food items, she said.</p> <p>Souvenirs of the royal wedding have proved even more popular, she said, adding that stock has been moving out of the store at a record pace.</p> <p>”We replenished I think three times, and within an hour of getting things in, it’s gone,” she said.</p> <p>Commemorative mugs, bowls and other trinkets have also proved popular at A Bit of Home, a Toronto-area importer of British and Irish goods.</p> <p>Co-owner Henry Porsch said two out of three phone calls he’s fielded in the past few weeks have been requests for novelty items commemorating the royal couple. Porsch said he’s been unable to sate the public’s voracious appetite.</p> <p>”Unfortunately ourselves, and I believe quite a number of other retailers, do not have anything at this time because the release of the products was so slow out of the U.K.,” he said. “Very few goods made it over here on time for before the wedding.”</p> <p>Diane Hodges, an employee of Montreal retailer Bramble House, said the store experienced a similar squeeze.</p> <p>”We’ve had people since about three months ago asking us: ‘Would we get the plates? Would we have the teapots? Would we have the royal china?’ And honestly, we couldn’t get any of it,” Hodges said.</p> <p>One public whim Porsch was able to gratify was a demand for ingredients to recreate Prince William’s favourite cake. Word that the confection – comprised largely of chocolate and rich tea biscuits – would be served at the wedding reception sent demand for the treats through the roof, Porsch said, adding that stocks were depleted weeks ago.</p> <p>Chocolate and tea have been hot sellers at Calgary’s British Pantry, employee Julie Williams said.</p> <p>Last-minute party plans prompted an increase in the stream of customers as the big day approached.</p> <p>In fact, Williams said the unusually hectic pace at work will leave her little opportunity to take in the festivities, and she’s content to simply extend her best wishes to the royal newlyweds.</p> <p>”I just hope that they’ll be happy together,” she said. “That’s all I hope for.”</p> <p>Many of the shops themselves plan to get in on the celebrations by holding tea and cake parties over the next two days.</p> <p>- With files from Peter Rakobowchuk in Montreal </p>