UK King’s good for souvenir business

As London counts down to the coronation of King Charles III on 6th May, souvenir shops in the Buckingham Palace vicinity are drumming up sales. The first coronation in 7 decades, the buzzing atmosphere sees tourists on the hunt for royal memorabilia.

Julie Whitehead's looking to take back a souvenir Down Under.

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."

Cashing in on the lead up to the coronation, gift shops are stocking merchandise from tea time utensils such as mugs, plates, crown shaped tea cosies and tea towels to paraphernalia such as egg cups, regal teddy bears and tote bags.

Cool Britannia's manager Ismayil Vadakkethil justifies the price bumping on exclusive items.

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."

Hailing from Commonwealth nations, many consumers are hoping to snatch original items to take back home. Rebecca's seeking out a rare to find royal keepsake to take back home to 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."

Although she'll be missing out on the momentous occasion in London, Adele Alison's purchasing memorabilia before heading home to South Africa, where she'll tune in to the live stream of King Charles III's enthronement.

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."

Vadakkethil remarked on the surge in sales and the recent shift in the customer base seeking out souvenirs around royal events.

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."

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