HAMPTON — The Best of British shop has been sitting on a row of small businesses in downtown Hampton since the early 1980s, selling exclusively British products.
For the past 10 years Jacqueline and Michael Taylor have been co-owners.
Jacqueline Taylor said the shop provides all British merchandise that ranges from food to tea towels to British-themed trinkets.
She and her husband took over the store when the previous owners, another British couple, moved back to England.
Before owning the store, Taylor had been working as a school teacher and a columnist at a local paper.
Neither she nor her husband had ever owned a shop before.
“Britain is a nation of shopkeepers,” Taylor said, “I fit right in.”
Taylor was born in England and met her husband, retired U.S. Air Force, there before moving here.
She said she gets all kinds of customers in her shop.
People from Australia, New Zealand, Jamaica and England, tourists and those who just love all things British are just a few of the types of people Taylor sees on an everyday basis.
“Sometimes it’s like the United Nations here on the weekends,” she said.
Best of British gets all of their merchandise from five different wholesalers.
These wholesalers will bring in the imported products and the Taylors will buy it from them.
On occasion a customer will request an item and Taylor said they try their best to find that product for them.
She said business is great, people come from as far as North Carolina and all over the state.
As far as she knows, they are the only store that sells British products in the area.
In addition to their in-store merchandise, customers can order online on their website.
Right now the online process is a bit informal but Taylor hopes to expand it once her husband retires from work.
As far as the future of the store is concerned, Taylor would hate to see it close down so her plan is to find someone else to run the store once she retires.
To learn about Best of British, visit their website or stop by at 555 Settlers Landing Road.
