Meet the Shopkeeper - Dallimores

Dallimore’s is something of a homewares lovers’ institution on Rokeby Road, the place to head for if you need a funky spatula, a Le Creuset crockpot or a lovely set of bowls. Monique Ceccato reports.

Cups, Saucers, and Conversation

Jill Dallimore knows her regulars well. She knows their life stories.

She’s met their children and has their dogs’ names down pat. Every now and then, she’s even on the receiving end of a pictorial show-and-tell. It’s all part and parcel of long-term store ownership in a friendly community like Subiaco.

“I like a chat, so I’ve made friends with people that have been coming into my store for the past 20 years,” says Jill.

She and her husband, Mark, have been at the helm of Dallimore's since the early 2000s. “I’ve always been interested in architecture, homewares, and what-have-you, so buying the homewares store just seemed like the natural progression.”

What started as a franchised business quickly morphed into a stand-alone homewares boutique, taking on the Dallimore family name and unique identity. Dropping the franchise gave Jill the freedom to handpick the brands and items she wanted in the store, and the flexibility to work in the way she preferred – lengthy chats with her long-time customers included.

“Those customers still come in now,” she says. “Sometimes they don’t buy much, and they just look. Other times, they just come in and have a chat. But, that’s what has really held us in good stead, our loyal customers.”

They’ve been there for Dallimore's through thick and thin, helping the store navigate the peaks and troughs in their lengthy innings in business. This unwavering support for their favourite local – and a universal quest to find activities to alleviate confinement-induced boredom – got the family-owned store to the other side of COVID lockdowns, one pasta machine sale at a time.

“When we got locked down, we thought, what the hell are we going to do?”

Like the rest of the world, the lockdown in March 2020 halted all trade at Dallimore's, forcing Jill and her family to scramble to find solutions. Luckily, it didn’t take long for the tills to turn over again.

“We were actually really lucky,” she says. “Business got so busy for us during COVID because people were all working from home. Our locals were coming in and buying things because they were all making bread, making pasta, and rearranging their homes during their lunch breaks. A lot of things that we might sell only two of a year, we started selling two a day. Our customers really helped us along with it.”

Pre-COVID, Jill stepped away from the customer-facing role in the store, leaving her daughter, Sarah, to take the reigns. Sarah made the store her

own, reorganising a corner to house children’s fashion and setting the wheels in motion for a potential holein-the-wall cafe (which didn’t end up coming to fruition).

While her daughter had the store under control, Jill didn’t sit idle. Instead, she returned to university to complete her degree in landscape architecture she’d started before falling pregnant with her children and spent some time working in the field. There was also a brief foray into handsewn linen aprons and napkins, and she even managed a few shifts in the air with Virgin Airlines before her budding flight attendant career was abruptly grounded.

Now, Jill has come full circle. During the week, you can find her right back where she started, serving customers with a smile at the store. “My daughter has just left us to go and work on other things. She has a family now and, I think after 20 years, she’s allowed to,” she laughs.

Though the store is, once again, in a new era, it’s still the Dallimore's customers have always known and loved. Business is still humming along nicely, and Jill has no plans to upset that balance.

“I think that, if you know what you’re doing, you do it well, without trying to be everything for everybody,” she says. “You do what you know and stick to it. We may dabble in other things down the track, but, for now, we’re pretty happy just sticking with what we do.”

Dallimore's Homewares, 173 Rokeby Road, Subiaco. Visit dallimoreshomewares.com.au

KITCHEN WISHLIST Take a wander around Dallimore's and you'll be inspired to restock your kitchen cupboardst.

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