Ali Bongo

Norwich’s headshop Ali Bongo celebrates twenty years on their St John Maddermarket premises. Owner Simon Hambury gave us some of his time to talk through the history of the shop, their anniversary celebrations, and how he owes a lot to the students of Norwich for providing custom year upon year.

Despite celebrating twenty years this winter, Simon told me that Ali Bongo started out a little while before that, in the market town of Beccles in Suffolk, in 1992. Growing up living behind his father’s photography shop, Simon got to know the ropes of retailing, and, when his father passed away, he wanted to continue his legacy by taking on the business. Simon explained to me that he was training to be a chef at the time, with little to no knowledge of photography, his father’s passion and business. After trying out different stock, one day Simon decided to try out buying incense, gemstones and basic smoking paraphernalia, something he begrudgingly described as “hippy stuff”; “I hate that word, but that’s what it was!” This change in stock proved popular, allowing the business to move to selling at local fairs and markets, most notably at Snetterton Sunday market, which has since closed.

I was surprised to discover that the name ‘Ali Bongo’ predates this change in stock; the shop gets its name from a previous partner of Simon’s, Alison, who had the nickname Ali Bongo. The name’s affiliation with bongs just happened to be a coincidence later down the line, although Simon told me he still gets asked “are you Ali? Are you Mr Bongo?” As a shop-owner, Simon likes to remain low-key, admitting that he often tells people he just works at Ali Bongo, as it makes his life a little easier. Although he no longer works on the shop floor, Simon told me about the connections he made while managing a small business, employing local people to sustain the community, often providing students with part-time work too. “It was almost like they were my children,” he explained, “like they were flying the nest. I was watching them grow up and get other jobs – I miss that element.” Even without being so hands-on, Simon is passionate about making Ali Bongo a real community that values its workers and customers equally; “it’s so cliché, but customer service is so important to us – it doesn’t matter if they’re buying a pack of papers or a £400 vape, every customer is a customer.”

This excellent customer service translates well to Ali Bongo’s websites, with Simon’s strong belief that their physical location as a shop helps invite customers to buy online. “A lot of people, when they shop online, [have] the perception that you’re just in a pokey little warehouse, that you might not be real people,” he explained. “I think people like the fact that we’re ‘real people’ - there’s a level of trust that goes with that; you know, they’re people, they’re going to answer the phone.” If it wasn’t immediately obvious how much time and care Simon puts into his business, Simon relayed to me just how magical it was when himself and his partner, Cath, came across the premises for their shop. Moving from Norwich market to a physical store was no easy feat, and Simon wanted to make sure that they found the perfect place. “I can recall as if it was yesterday,” Simon recounted, “getting into this building and ringing Cath and saying, ‘this is it, I’ve found the place!’” The pair spent the best part of a year renovating the place themselves on a tight budget with the help of family and friends, finally opening in 2004. “Twenty years, in a brick-and-mortar shop, in the current economic climate, as an independent is quite an achievement,” Simon smiled, and I’m inclined to agree with him.

I was curious about Norwich’s general attitude towards shops such as Ali Bongo that sold paraphernalia. Simon’s business has flourished in Norwich, and online, for a reason, but with subjects such as the buying and selling of cannabis being largely taboo in the UK still, I imagined his business didn’t come without its issues. “The thing about being a destination shop is, if you know you know,” Simon explained. “We would never put it in people’s faces […] we wouldn’t want to offend anyone.” Simon is well-educated on the legalities of his business, as every responsible shop owner should be, but it appears to me that he has gone above and beyond to make sure his products never get into the wrong hands. “When they changed the tobacco law from sixteen to eighteen, I made a point of reaching out to trading standards and saying, look what’s the law with rolling papers, for example. There is no legal age that you can or cannot buy rolling papers,” Simon clarified, but the business set all their products to 18+, making sure no minors enter the store. “That helped us and our relationship with the local trading standards, the council and the police.”

Simon’s outlook on Ali Bongo as a business is really uplifting, particularly as he credits Norwich’s vibrant university scene for the success of his store in the earlier days. He told me how he used to have a stall that visited the main campus of UEA selling paraphernalia, something he laughed about being of a very different era. “A lot of people think Norfolk is a little slow on the uptake of a lot of things, but every university city has its own underground vibe and scene, so that’s what we’ve existed on.” Curating that vibe in the shop itself has been important too, with Simon telling me that “music’s always been a bit of a constant thread throughout the business.” He proudly told me about three of his employees having success as local DJs, and how he likes to create a certain atmosphere in the shop through the music that they play; “there’s a lot of affinity with music, street culture, and the world of smoking paraphernalia.”

To celebrate twenty years, Ali Bongo are promoting prize draws and giveaways in store. Between 2nd and 8th December, customers can win over £1000 of prizes, and hunt for special Bongo coins, with ten being hidden in store each day for customers to trade for goodie bags. A particular highlight Simon spoke about was a competition to guess how many sweets are in a bong, with the winner taking the bong and its contents home, a sweet nod to the shop’s days at county fairs. On Saturday 7th, you can see live DJ sets from Ali Bongo’s staff too, which will be a lovely celebration not only of the shop’s anniversary, but the people that make it such a great place to be. Simon rounded off by telling me why his business was so special; “if you’re into the counterculture, I would argue that there’s no greater place, with a wider selection, and a happier bunch of people, than Ali Bongo.”