Welcome to Dark Therapy, where we make retail therapy the only therapy you need. We give you the dopamine and serotonin you seek and a good dose of humour, sarcasm, and witchy goodness. We opened our doors to the public at the end of September 2024, and we are a crystal and witches apothecary that carries a wide variety of witch’s herbs and spices, sage, incense, and altar items, as well as crystals of various shapes and sizes.
It all started in 2022, frustrated with being cooped up with the effects of the pandemic and having mobility issues too, it made it hard for me, Vicky, one half of the duo who run Dark Therapy, to get out and do the things I once enjoyed. We decided to make a small business, hoping to have it as a hobby to keep me busy. Something I could do from home on TikTok, in the evening. It allowed me to meet new people and chat with people, share my knowledge and wisdom with others, help those in need and also, mainly give my mental health a much-needed boost. I was one of the first UK crystal sellers on TikTok in February 2022, starting with just a small amount of stock I had invested my own money into. We did a 12-hour live to kick it off and had mainly friends of ours from online in with us buying little bits and bobs. I think we gave more away in competition prizes that night than we made in takings. After a few weeks, things started taking off quickly as the majority of sellers on the app were from China, and with us being in the UK we were able to offer quicker shipping and lower prices for some items.
If you have never worked with the likes of TikTok or a social media shop, it is hard work. They give you sales targets, when a customer pays for their order, depending on the status of your shop, it can take anywhere up to 28 days for the payments for your sales to clear through their banking system, meaning you have no way of buying new stock from any profit that you are making for a month. If you get negative reviews, any more than three in three months, your shop will be closed – with them keeping any monies owing to you. Complaints can be not related to you as well, Evri lost or damaged my parcel, delivery was late, it went to the wrong address – people do not realise that leaving these comments and one-star reviews because of something completely unrelated to our shop was so damaging. We then started getting more competitors to join the platform too, and they would come into our lives to ask questions and copy what we did, down to what gifts we gave out to our customers on orders and how we packaged our products. They then would leave negative reviews, knowing it would affect the ranking of our shop, and do it to try and get one over on us. The thing is, if people had just messaged and asked for help and advice I would have gladly given it, I am all for supporting other businesses, even in the same trade. There is room for everyone out there. But after six months we could not keep up with the demand for orders, plus the demands for targets, number of sales, number of lives per week, quality of reviews, etc from the TikTok gods that held power over your livelihood, combined, it was taking its toll on my mental and physical health, so we pulled the plug. I ended up in hospital due to the stress of it all and we decided a break was needed to take stock and decide what to do next. I was still determined I wanted to do something and that something was a shop.
Gavin, the other half of the duo who runs Dark Therapy, thought I was mad. But I had a vision and he knew that once I get an idea in my head, I am like a dog with a bone, I will not give up until I have been successful. A shop was my new goal as it allowed me to still do all the things that I loved, but this time I would not be still confined to the house. I would be out meeting folks and sharing my knowledge, wisdom and stories with others. The search began in the new year of 2023, and we searched, and we searched. We looked high and low. My first time being out of the house properly after the pandemic to go and look at a shop, as I was on the shielding list, having escaped COVID-19 this whole time, and we got COVID from the estate agent at the first shop we looked at. The Universe was not on our side, for a good 18 months or so. Everything we tried seemed to hit a block, for one reason or another. I started to give up hope of finding something suitable and in my frustration posted on our local business community page about how it is so difficult for business start-ups to get their foot in the door in the current economy, and how finding a shop can be like pulling hen’s teeth with estate agents wanting ingoing deposits of three months rent, plus paying rent quarterly too – so six months upfront. If I had that sort of cash lying around I wouldn’t be a struggling new business. I had a local business owner reach out to me who had a venue that was previously used as a Gin Bar quite close to where we lived, which had been closed for a few months. He was looking for some new tenants to take it on who were not interested in using it for the Food and Beverage industry. We loved the venue and he liked our business ideas and motivation, and as they say, that was that. The deal was done. Three weeks later on the 24th of September 2024, we opened our doors to the public.
At the time of writing this, we have been open for two weeks, and it has been great so far. We have been featured in the local paper and had an influx of new followers to both our TikTok and Facebook pages.