Cabot Circus people

What the restaurant will look like ...

Our first blogger is Sue Stones who is the manager of the Harvey Nichols store in Quakers Friers. Make sure you come back every few weeks for the latest updates.

Thursday, 18 September

Sitting at my newly installed desk in my new office I can look out across the Cabot Circus development which is a hive of activity in anticipation of the opening day only a week away.

With over 100 retailers due to open their doors on 25 September for the first time, the city centre is buzzing with activity and anticipation. 

Closer to home the finishing touches are now being made to the store. Signage to enable everyone to find their way around has been fixed in place today and our buying and merchandising team begin arriving tomorrow to position the brands on to the shop floor, so that next week we can to begin taking off the wrappings from the stock.

All the stock was delivered late on Thursday and Friday night last week, we worked hard checking deliveries past midnight, thankfully we managed to open a few boxes from the accessories delivery and the sight of a python skin Zagliani tote bag in the palest of grey and a soft as silk caused enough excitement to finish the delivery. Sad but true!

Today we had a mini flood of sorts in our beauty room, unfortunately with expert timing I decided to show a group of visitors the room just as a tap from the sink which was being worked on decided to explode!

Luckily my visitors weren't too wet - I took pretty much the full force of the water jet, but we were trapped inside until we were rescued by our contractor who stopped the flow of water with a builder’s hard hat. The water was soon turned off and the offending tap fixed but suffice to say my Chloe jacket won't ever be the same again.

Finally this week, our bar has been finished. This has been the last major area completed mainly because the design of the bar, which has been fashioned out of sheets of Onyx, was ambitious and required specialist contractors from Italy to install it.

The lateness of its completion has worried me at times but it has certainly been worth it. Lit from behind the seven metre bar is the palest ivory colour and is totally stunning. I think it is almost in danger of outshining the restaurant!

We are now into the final week and late nights and stressful days are the norm now but with the end in sight, or should I say the beginning, we are all really excited that we will soon be welcoming our first customers to Harvey Nichols, Bristol.

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