The King's good for business - 3rd May 2023

The UK's counting down the days to King Charles III's coronation day, on 6th May. Souvenir shops around Buckingham Palace are making a big profit. Tourists are purchasing souvenirs to remember the historic event.

Julie Whitehead's getting her mum a souvenir before heading back to Australia.

Julie Whitehead: "But my mother is a fanatic royalist. So, she's got a glass cabinet with all of these royal things, like her other daughters have come over here and purchased all this memorabilia. And so, I'm gonna pick up the King Charles ones for her because her cabinet's full of Queen Elizabeth."

Images of the king have been printed on coronation souvenirs. Gift shops are packed with kitchen and tea time utensils, tote bags and royal teddy bears.

Manager of Cool Britannia souvenir shop, Ismayil Vadakkethil said people don't mind paying extra for a special souvenir.

Ismayil Vadakkethil: "It's available in most of the shops around in London now. But we have some exclusives that which we have, so we had to pay some extra to get them in. For example, some of the mugs here, they're made in the UK itself. So, they might pay like £3 extra on the mug, but they don't mind paying it because, because of the quality, and they are made in the UK, so they like to buy for the price we have put on them."

Many customers are visiting from countries in the Commonwealth. Rebecca's shopping for something that will be rare to find in Canada.

Rebecca Grisnich: "Well, I'm from Canada, and while the monarchy is also in Canada, they don't really have any coronation stuff. So."

Adele Alison will miss the coronation celebrations in London. However, she bought her souvenir to enjoy tea while streaming the event in South Africa.

Adele Alison: "For the coronation, yeah. So, at least when we're back in South Africa on Sunday we can watch it and have some tea."

Since the announcement of the coronation, Vadakkethil has noticed that local residents are also purchasing the souvenirs.

Ismayil Vadakkethil: "We sell equally like, royal family stuff plus the souvenirs. But recently, I've noticed that it's not just tourists coming in, like people who work next door like in the offices or like people from, the Londoners itself; they come in to the shop just to buy the coronation stuff. So, that, that's a bit of change. Yeah, so we have both tourists and local customers coming in for the coronation."