For shop owners · Nederlandse versie
You’re probably checking whether this is real. Sensible.
Ten minutes, at your own counter. You keep a print-quality portrait and a 60-second film. It’s free — and it can’t be bought.
We’re a couple — a photographer and a filmmaker — making a guide to owner-run shops in the Jordaan. A listing cannot be bought, which also means yours can never be outbid. We pick the first shops ourselves, on foot. After that it runs through the owners: whoever is in names the next one, on camera.
Joining takes one word: reply ‘yes’ to our message — or email hello@amstelguide.nl. Everything below is just the fine print.
What ten minutes in your shop looks like
- One portrait — in your doorway, natural light, two minutes.
- One question on camera — sixty seconds, one take, no rehearsal.
- One name — the owner-run shop you’d send us to next.
Then we’re gone. And we buy something on the way out — we pay full price in every shop, always.
What you keep
- The portrait — print resolution, yours, use it anywhere. Most owner-run shops never get a professional portrait; now you have one.
- The 60-second film — you publish it on your own channels first, before it appears anywhere on our site.
- The window card — “Bezocht & geverifieerd”, hand-dated on the spot, renewed each time we come back. It can’t be bought or requested, only earned by the visit.
- A permanent entry — your place on our hand-drawn map, in the walk planner people use in the street, with honest opening days and how to get a table or a chair. From your visit on, it carries the date we were last there — renewed every time we come back.
Who’s already in
Sixteen Jordaan shops are on the guide, and we’re walking to every one of them right now — portraits and films are being made this season. This is where their faces will hang. You’d be among the very first: there’s no queue of owners to vouch for us yet, so judge us on the work, not on references.
The guide itself is young. We won’t promise you customers — anyone who does is selling something. We promise you’ll be on the record properly, by people who actually stood in your shop.
If it reads right to you
Been in your shop already? Your page is coming this week, you don’t have to do anything.
Not yet? A message with yes and your quietest hour is enough. That’s the whole sign-up.
Got our message? Just reply ‘yes’ plus your quietest hour — that’s all.
Reply ‘yes’ to our message →Prefer email? hello@amstelguide.nl. We come to you, and you never leave the till. No forms, nothing to sign.
The questions you’d ask
Will this bring me customers?
Honestly: we don’t know, and we won’t pretend. The guide is young and growing shop by shop. What you get on day one is real either way — the portrait, the film, the card. If the guide grows the way we work, the rest follows.
What does it cost?
Nothing, ever. There is no paid tier, no “partnership”, no invoice later. A listing cannot be bought — that also means yours can never be outbid.
Why free — what do you live on, then?
Not this guide. We earn our money with photography, film, web development and digital marketing; the guide is our own project about shops we want on record before they disappear. The credit line under your photo is the whole bill.
Do I have to prepare anything?
No. Ten minutes at a quiet hour you choose, in your own shop, behind your own counter. One question on camera, one portrait in your doorway. Then we’re gone — and we pay for whatever we walk out with.
What if I close my shop one day?
Then your entry moves to our archive of what independent Amsterdam has lost — with your portrait and your words. We don’t delete shops; we remember them. That’s half the reason this site exists.
Question answered? A ‘yes’ is enough. Reply ‘yes’ to our message →