‘Many magicians think that working in a UK magic shop must be an endless magic practice session, broken only by bouts of playing with the latest magic tricks to be released and talking about magic to famous magicians that drop by. Well, they’re pretty much right…
However, in between that, a few things get done each day to keep the shop open. Here’s our typical day assuming all the team are in the shop. In reality, one or more of the magicians will be off doing a magic gig sometime through the day. In fact, I could frankly be anywhere performing on any given day, but it’s unbelievable what you can do from a MacBook and an iPhone in the car!’ – Dominic Reyes
8am
The shop cleaners arrive.
The previous day saw a tidal wave of Styrofoam packing peanuts and envelope tape wash over the whole of the shop. Playing cards are removed from the ceiling, and sharpie pens recovered from everywhere. The whole place gets a reset!
9am
Coffee is brewed
It’s an hour before the shop opens. Now’s time to get our morning fix of coffee and review the workflow lists the team will tackle.
9.15am
The first delivery arrives from the warehouse. 3 or 4 hulking boxes of magic for the warehouse orders that day.
9.30am
Dominic checks the blog and social media feeds, He creates a schedule for that days new magic release and sets up a work plan for the site developers.
9.50am
The team arrives.
Jimmy Strange stumbles in and within 5 minutes, he is showing the team a new move he’s inventing.
Mark Henderson pulls up and unloads his collection of soft drinks and snacks in a corner of the shop.
Mirrah arrives and stares at the delivery with a growing sense of anticipation and unease.
John V and Mark limber up in preparation for a hard days site development.
Meanwhile, in the background, Dominic quietly slips into his office, closes the door and starts playing Mario Karts.
10.00am
The shop opens and the phones start ringing.
Mark and Dominic man the phones, while Jimmy and Mirrah start packing orders.
John V starts going through customer support emails and covering online live chat.
10.30am
Dominic shuts himself away in his office again for Skype meetings with magic creators and manufacturers.
The first customers arrive in the shop and Mark starts showing them some magic.
John V and Mirrah answer questions from magicians online.
Jimmy is in full packing mode, a flurry of tape, labels and packing peanuts.
11.30am
Dominic emerges from his office and shows some shop visitors a few tricks.
Mirrah organizes the international orders to be dispatched and arranges courier collections.
12noon
The daily deliveries from Europe and the US arrive. The whole team (Except for Dominic, who suddenly realizes he has an urgent phone call to make in his office) starts unloading the international deliveries.
12.30pm
The second run of orders is printed and passed to Mirrah, Jimmy and Mark to package.
The sacks of packages are put into the checking area to be signed off and prepared for collection.
Dominic works on training content for the site.
1pm
Dominic has a daily meeting with his warehouse manager.
Mirrah and Mark work through support emails and tackle the phones.
Mark is comparing and doing price checks on products.
Jimmy begins to restock the shop and updating the store inventory.
John v works on website development.
Jimmy still is packing like crazy.
2pm
Dominic is in meetings with developers.
Mark is processing incoming mail and returns.
Mirrah is still ploughing through support emails.
Jimmy hasn’t slowed his packing pace at all.
3pm
Final print run of orders going out that day.
Dominic’s talking to agents and working on contracts.
Mark and John V are on the phone preparing a shipping list for the next days delivery from the warehouse.
Mirrah is helping Jimmy pack.
3.15pm
The whole team gets distracted by YouTube videos.
3.30pm
Dominic starts pacing around the shop getting nervous that all the orders need to be packaged, and the shop is messy.
4pm
The shop closes to visitors.
Dominic is in meetings with the US warehouse and US manufacturers/distributors.
Mark updates customers about their orders.
Mirrah and Mark are on the phone lines.
Jimmy weights the mail sacks and prepared the sacks for collection by the various carriers.
4.20pm
Couriers start arriving to collect the mail sacks and boxes.
Mark double checks all the orders have gone out. Discovers we are a package short, and finds it under one of the packing tables.
Mirrah records back-orders and receive a report from the warehouse manager about the next days deliveries.
Dominic updates the blog and social media channels. He emails customers who subscribe to his newsletters
Jimmy is curled up under the packing table weeping quietly to himself.
John V is working on marketing materials for magazines and online adverts.
5pm
All the team starts to leave, but end up standing around, talking about magic and showing each other tricks.
5.30pm
Dominic is in his office working on new projects for Merchant of Magic.
John V is updating the site and taking final sales calls.
Julie and Emma are wondering why their husbands have not left work yet.
So there you have it. A typical day working in a UK magic shop.. The Merchant of Magic, and we all love every minute of it!
Each month, the Merchant of Magic helps a few thousand beginners and professional magicians learn magic and discover the