Edwards & Hope

Edwards and Hope is a simple alternative to some of the bigger electric retailers, offering a variety of electric goods for much cheaper than most of the big stores on the outskirts of town. Also, the service is much more personalised: advice can be asked from real electricians, not a student helper who will just pass you on to someone else. However, it doesn’t have the stock or selection of the big stores, leaving Edwards and Hope a bit of an odd addition to the North Laine shopping community.
Where most shops in the Laine are aiming for cool and/​or chic, Edwards and Hope is delightfully old-​fashioned. These are electrical retailers who aren’t trying to sell you otter-​shaped lamps, or something similarly bizarre enough to appeal to Brighton’s cool-​kids crowd: they’re here to offer simple, basic advice on any electrical faults, problems, and sell fuses, plugs and the like. I’m not sure how they survive in an area like the North Laine, but they’ve clearly been around for some time, so they must be doing something right!
What Edward’s and Hope can offer over most other electrical appliance shops is the personalised service. These guys know what they’re talking about, and can offer a lot of direct advice about any issue you may be having in your home. This is a great place to go to ask for help: they won’t charge a fortune, and they are directly available: you won’t have to talk to useless student advisors in big chain stores or wait in call queues to speak to an advisor again in this field.
However, being a small shop, Edwards and Hope never seem to stock everything you’re looking for. More often than not, customers seem to go in for advice, then go and buy the items in B&Q or Dixons. In the end, the best use this place has is for advice and the occasional purchase: they simply don’t have the warehouse mentality that some of the bigger shops do.