建立品牌像培育小孩，都需要經營，從來沒有快餐。在香港，參與投資買賣或者做轉手貿易的都能在短時間內可以有不俗的回報，有這樣的機會成本，加上種種的營商趨勢，在香港要建立一個品牌很難，很難，很難（因為真的很難，所以要說 3 次），而且是一個針對專屬市場的品牌。
其中，我們固然明白店舖的空間感對訪客體驗及品牌形象的重要性，即便是對於只能在網店接觸我們產品的外地客人，一個有實體店的新品牌，至少能添一些信心分，如果喜歡我們風格的，還可以添多幾分好印象呢。所以當初我們在陳設上都下了很多工夫。
From a manufacturer’s point of view, it’s quantity talks and the rest would walk. And from a trader’s perspective, it’s to buy low and sell high. Each with its pros and cons, and the bottom line is we are all trying to survive. The path that we choose is called the Brand Development; a name we give to ourselves to make believe we know what we are doing.
For all we know, branding consists of two things, they are time and money, which fundamentally boils down to a singularity called the monetary investment. So are we making a sound investment? In all honesty, we could be making a bank through the stock market and the property market, or, we may also went bust.
近月來訪過的舊客人都知道，我們的的店面起了變化，都變得比以前……親密了，是的，這是無可奈何的決定。本來 80% 的地方都是用作陳列室，但 5 年過去了，需要的空間也比以前多，我們需要把這個總面積不到 800 呎的空間重新分配給倉庫、文件庫、寫字樓、會議區、攝影區還有陳列室（改裝之前，倉庫、文件庫、寫字樓、會議區都是擠於其餘 20%的空間內，攝影區只可以朝行晚拆），解決辦法有很多，惟把現址作輕微改裝可算已是在長遠來說成本最低的決定，衡量過種種後，只好忍痛把陳列室範圍割走一部分，成了現在的店面。
HK is a place where space is scarce and the rent is steep. And in order to accommodate the ever miniaturization of HK, we have shrunk our retail area even smaller. We are quite pleased with this “out of the box” thinking!! Our shop has about 800 sq.ft , and we use approximately 20% of it for the retail purpose.
A smaller space means we would be very close to you proximity wise; some might call it cozy, others may feel annoyed, but we say “Welcome to Hong Kong”.
好些舊客人登門後，都會有種「是不是產品少了？」的感覺，也難怪，以前我們的店面都放了很多林林總總私伙玩意，手錶呀相機呀模型之類，什至用舊了的私伙包包也放在店面作了裝飾（很無聊…），只是現在把大部分這些 “雜物” 都收起了，而產品不但沒有少了，而且陸陸續續在增多啊。
現階段 Annie Barton 裹有 5 個牌子，其中一個是親身骨肉，網上商店有兩個，所以我們要做的事有很多， 換轉來說，這個裝修的決定實屬是擴充發展的其中一小步。
有機會見面時，大家會發現雖然麻雀是小了，但五臟還是俱全兼十分健康呢！
We have turned the rest of the area into an office, a storage, and a studio. In our opinion, it’s leaning towards the business side and weighing less on our hobbies. This is not what we had in mind, but this is our reality. The funny thing is, we have 2 more new brands residing in this smaller area.
If in town, please come visit us. It’s a diny little shop, but we promise Annie Barton is still a very hobby driven shop.