We went and spoke to Joseph and Vanessa, two store owners in Afflecks, about their businesses and what the Palace means to them.
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00:00Now here in Manchester more often than not we try to avoid doing the obvious
00:03but when I was told to try and find some of the people in Manchester with the
00:06weirdest wackiest jobs one place in particular came to mind and while
00:11working for a store inside an indoor market isn't necessarily a weird job
00:16role Affleck's Palace itself certainly is weird and wonderful and that means
00:20that it's absolutely perfect for what we're trying to do today as I say there's
00:24a massive range of really exciting stores in here people who come to
00:27Manchester often will not be surprised to hear that this is where we've ended up
00:30today there's one or two that we want to focus on in particular now American
00:34Graffiti is one of the oldest shops inside Affleck's Palace and owner Vanessa has
00:38been here 43 years now so I'm Vanessa Cawley from American Graffiti this is my
00:46business I've had it for 43 years started off a tiny unit and just progressed to
00:56what it is now it's just good for Manchester it brings people in tourists
01:02come they absolutely love it it's you know it's just always been here it's bit of an
01:08icon probably my most famous celebrity was Lady Gaga about 10 years ago but it's the
01:19people who aren't famous who is our bread and butter we have like students who've
01:25been here years ago in the 80s they've gone away they love to come back and reminisce they bring the
01:32family so it's like Affleck's is a must and from one of the oldest shops to one of the newest
01:37JH Kicks only opened in the Palace two months ago yet already to owner Joseph it feels like home
01:43yeah yeah yeah so first of all what it is it's not just a general fashion store it's a sustainable footwear
01:48store so what we do is we acquire used footwear and same with the jackets but obviously predominantly
01:53footwear and from all over the place or wherever we can we fully restore shoes that we get we get a
01:59lot of beach shoes restore them make them look brand new and we get them in our shop and we sell
02:03every pair under 65 pound I'm born and raised in Manchester went to school here primary school here
02:08and parents are from here still live here and so yeah as you see there made in Manchester it's a big
02:14part of it this is this is my home I got my first person in athletics when I was like 16 from school
02:19so when I've got a space in athletics it's like full circle moment man so I got athletics two months ago
02:25um just end of feb this kind of has everything for everyone so like there's so many wide variety
02:32shops and some of them are waiting and whack it and but they're so cool because it brings a variety
02:37of different people in I'm sat here yeah even on a quiet day where I'm not making sales the people
02:41like me it's like mad so it's it I'm always chatting to different types of people then in
02:45athletes it's just it's just it's just mad it's everyone can be who they want to be it's kind
02:49of a place that embraces everyone all types of you know whatever gender whatever um sexuality it's
02:55just everyone I feel like when they come in here they just know there's no judgment so I feel like it's