Tower and Town, April 2019

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DIY Rainbows

DIY Rainbows is located around the corner of the end of the High Street on The Parade next to the launderette. It is run by Jigs Patel. The shop caters for between eighty and one hundred customers per day aged from around fifteen years old to senior members of the community.

When we visited the shop, our first thought was that it was huge and seemed to contain everything you could possibly need. Their main bestselling products are their range of paints: garden paints, wall paints and house paints. They also sell door handles, locks, batteries, paint brushes, glue sticks, saws, sandpaper, torches and all the other DIY equipment you could ever think of. Thirty percent of the shop’s products are made in the UK; seventy percent of their products are made abroad. Therefore, Brexit could have an impact on their sales, as the majority of their products are from abroad and, when we leave the EU, importing and exporting rules and tariffs will change.

The shop’s peak seasons are in the spring and summer. When asked how chain shops affect their sales, Mr Patel replied that the main impact it had was that they had to change the way they sell things to combat upcoming businesses. The shop got its name from an earlier owner, Wendy Rainbow and her husband, and Mr Patel’s father took it over 33 years ago in 1986. Mr Patel thinks that Marlborough is a good place for the shop to run, as the town knows the business and customers use it frequently. Also, because there aren’t many other hardware shops in Marlborough, DIY Rainbows is the most trusted and used hardware shop in Marlborough. We asked if having the College in the town benefited the business and the reply was that although the pupils and college did not directly benefit the business, because Marlborough College is well known, it helps put Marlborough on the map and attracts people to live and visit the town, which ultimately attracts customers to the shop.

Finally, we asked Mr Patel what his favourite part of the job was. He said that meeting new people, helping and chatting to town members made his job very enjoyable. The shop was very nice, they seemed to have all the necessary DIY and hardware equipment you could need, and the staff were able to give excellent product advice.

Georgie Creswell and Chicha Nimitpornsuko