We thought it might be interesting if we interviewed one of the website owners listed on Shopsafe. This is what happened ...

SS: Tell me a bit about your online store?
C&K: Cooks and Kitchens is a (nearly award-winning!) cookshop that has developed a significant online presence over the past 6 months or so. We try to cover all the usual cookware categories, but much of our web business is generated on specialist items that people can't find locally. I especially like the fact that virtually all our online sales go to areas outside our normal retail patch.

SS: What are the most extreme lengths you have gone to to make a customer happy?
C&K: I'm afraid we don't do 'Milk Tray Man' type heroics, but we frequently get into long email conversations to close a sale and we did find a set of scales for an Australian customer, 4 months after their enquiry!

SS: What is the weirdest thing a customer has asked for?
C&K: We get enquiries for all sorts of daft things related to cookery, but the best one recently was 'How do I use a tin opener that I recently bought?' - It gets better because, whatever tin opener it was, they didn't buy it from us!

SS: When is your order deadline this Christmas?
C&K: Monday 19th December

SS: What is going to be your biggest seller this year?
C&K: I'd love to say Alessi kettles or high-end knife sets, but it's probably going to be cake tins....

SS: What would you buy yourself from your shop this Christmas?
C&K: Wow, that's tough, as I'm a cook at heart. I have a real soft spot for Emile Henry's new Flame casseroles that should be online in a couple of weeks, but I would probably replace my Wusthof knives with an even better set of Wusthof's or buy some Bridgewater crockery.

SS: What was the last thing you bought online?
C&K: Sadly, it was an 1893 map of the village in which I live, bought yesterday.

SS: Which is your favourite online store?
C&K: Gaynor Sports (for walking gear).