Michael and Thara Kenney have decided it’s time to retire

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FOR many years a full-sized stuffed bison stood guard in Chalk Farm Road – advertising the renowned Reject Pot Shop. The bison is sadly no longer there and the pot shop, which has been in place since 1980, is also soon to depart.

Owners Michael and Thara Kenney have decided it’s time to retire, ending the four- decade-old business of providing usable seconds sourced from factories in the Potteries.

The Pot Shop began in earnest in 1980, though Michael had used the store since 1976, having taken it on for £25 a week.

He was working for a firm that sold high-end gifts like cigarette lighters cast in onyx, and his business partner decided if they were going to be a nationwide distribution firm, they should be based in the middle of the country – hence the choice of Stoke on Trent.

And it was while Michael worked in the traditional heart of Britain’s china industry he noted the amount of seconds available that were perfectly usable but being sold at knockdown prices.

When the late 1970s recession put paid to a business based on selling luxury lighters, he decided to set up the Reject Pot Shop.

“The 750 shops we supplied stopped selling things, everything ground to a halt,” he said.

Michael had made contacts with a firm who bulk sold his goods, and also had a line in factory seconds, while he noted how Wedgewood had a successful factory seconds store.   “

When we first took on the space it was basically to store products to sell in London,” he explained. “Chalk Farm Road wasn’t a shopping street back then. It was full of wholesalers, and the store we took on was a motorbike repair garage.”

The pot shop quickly became known, with customers heading from Primrose Hill and Hampstead. Michael enjoyed sourcing stock and would make a weekly trip to the Midlands.

He said: “We’d go to the Potteries, look round the warehouses with seconds and pick out what we wanted, we’d buy a large range of things.”

When Michael got together with his wife Thara, who had a background in catering, the shop’s range expanded to include all manner of kitchen must-haves.

Thara said: “It seemed crazy for people to come in and buy their china and then ask for other catering equipment, and we just sent them elsewhere.” The shop has been closed over the past year while Michael, 82, recovered from an injury. It is open from Friday to Sunday – and the couple want to reduce their stock over Christmas before closing for good in January.

Michael added: “Trade recovered quite quickly after Covid, but a new cycle lane right outside our shop has really affected us.

“People do not want to carry china home in bags on a bus or bike, and since you can’t pull up any more, custom has really dropped off. “

We have had customers from right across London in the past. We have kitted out hotels, restaurants – the plates at Marine Ices were all provided by us, for example.” The couple say they will miss the stock-buying trips and chatting with customers.

Thara said: “It has been hard work, long days, but really fun. We had things people wanted so it was never a case of having to try and sell things. People came in because they wanted something they knew we stocked.”

And when the shutters come down for the last time, the couple plan to embark on seeing the world, something as self-employed shop-keepers they haven’t been able to indulge in as much as they would like.

Thara said: “We have family in Malaysia and the US who we want to visit – we will be doing a lot more travelling.”