Katie’s job is very unique… (Picture: Andy Garbutt)
For many people, being surrounded by 2,000 garden gnomes would be their worst nightmare. Those painted eyes seem to follow your every move, and some of them look a little too happy. It’s unnerving.
But for Katie Chester, this is her idea of fun — and it’s a good job too, as it’s what a day in her life entails as Asda’s chief gnome handler.
The 37-year-old from Leeds spends all day every day thinking about gnomes, coming up with new gnome characters for the supermarket’s range, and inspecting the current selection of gnomes.
She’s been doing this for the last seven years, but many people don’t know her job even exists.
‘No one else on the planet can say they spend their day wrangling gnomes, and I think that’s pretty special, but people do look at me strangely when I explain what I do,’ Katie tells Metro.
‘I’ve definitely had a few double-takes as people don’t believe gnome handling is a real profession, but I’m here to tell you it’s a full-time job!’
The 37-year-old spends her days surrounded by 2,000 gnomes (Picture: Andy Garbutt)
Asda has been growing the family of gnomes it sells over the last decade and the weird and wonderful ornaments are now considered cult products by shoppers. They go viral each time new ones are released, with shoppers rushing to snap them up.
Some of them are priced at as little as £2 each in Asda, but high demand sees them end up on resale sites like eBay for more than £40, as fans try to collect them all.
The current range includes nine permanent family members; Grandma and Grandpa Gnome, Gnorman and Gnorma (the mum and dad), Gnoah and Gnorah (son and daughter), Baby Gnome, and Gnorris and Gnessa (the family cat and dog) — plus a whole host of supporting characters.
Katie and her team are the ones responsible for coming up with new family members, as well as re-imagining the current characters to give them new poses, outfits, and hobbies. You can buy classic versions of the gnomes, as well as more kitsch ones such as Grandpa Gnome dressed like Santa Claus at Christmas.
There have also been disco dancing variations, gnomes in unicorn costumes, rainbow ones for Pride, and some lounging on swimming pool inflatables with a cocktail in hand.
The festive gnomes are especially popular (Picture: Asda)
Only the ‘créme de la créme of gnome-kind’ are allowed to join Asda’s gnome ranks according to Katie. So how exactly does she work out which ones make the cut?
‘We introduce around 45 gnomes per year across both gardening and festive, and have two seasonal drops: Spring/Summer and Christmas. That’s a LOT of gnomes and each one is unique, so a large chunk of my time is spent brainstorming the newest additions to the family,’ the mum explains.
‘I’d say I spend around 4 hours a day gnome-planning in peak season — but this can be anywhere up to a whole …read more
Source:: Metro
