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If you’re going to be successful in business during a recession, you’d better find ways of adding joy into your customer’s lives.

I am just loving the promotion at Exclusive Roots. If you’re in Oxford (or if you’re not going near, maybe they’ll let you do it online), they are currently offering customers the chance to write a personal note to the  (*sniff*) special person in their lives, to be attached to the fabric heart in the window above until Valentine’s Day.

Each time they add a new message it will be tweeted and Facebooked, and the message with the most Retweets and Shares will win a £50 gift voucher to spend in the shop.

I haven’t made it into Exclusive Roots yet – it’s on the ever expanding list of places to check out – but I contacted them from having a look at their website because the stuff looks absolutely fab. I’ve attached a few pics here so you can see the kind of products they sell – quite crafty, kitsch, authentic pieces from sub-Saharan Africa that are Fair Trade but cool with it.

The shop is on the Woodstock Road (helpfully just opposite Browns Restaurant -I don’t know about you but shopping makes me hungry), so pin your message up and see if your sweet nothings can turn into fifty somethings ready for your romantic night out.

Exclusive Roots, 8 Woodstock Rd, Oxford, United Kingdom, OX2 6HT. Tel: 01865 511992. www.exclusiveroots.com