they don’t provide any character. “Businesses can be turned around - for instance a local shop was visited by Mary Queen of Shops and business has improved for them but you need a long term solution, not a brief honeymoon period due to television exposure. I don’t actually use this shop very often unless I’m travelling home by train and I walk past it and this is because they have double yellow lines outside it, so you can’t stop in a car and pop in. The local council should be removing barriers to the success of small businesses like this, not imposing them.”
Sue Cook
The China Studio, Ringwood “In our town we have a high street that is full of independent and interesting shops and a shopping centre that is all multiples. “We are basically the only gift shop in town so there is not a lot of competition but we provide something for everyone. We hold a range of products that cost from one pound to several hundred.
“Bland towns are a problem. If they all look identical then it is because they are all full of chain shops and the independent shops are getting lost and so is the excellent service that you get in them.
“If you work for a big company you know that you are going to get your wages at the end of the month so you don’t have to work so hard to take care of your customers. In most shopping centres you could be anywhere in the country - people like Ringwood because it doesn’t look exactly the same as the town they have just come from. “To encourage more independent shops you need to lower rents and rates and shoppers also need to support local and independent businesses.”
Dianne Muollo Torphins Pharmacy & Post Offi ce - Banchory Kincardineshire “We are in a small village. There are only about four other shops here; a butcher, a doctor’s surgery, a newsagent and a baker. We are fi ercely independent. Because there are so few shops, no one offers the same products as us. “You can be anywhere in the country and all town centres look identical. It is a problem because it means there is no personality. It’s a shame. We went to a nearby shopping centre recently and you could have been in Edinburgh or Birmingham or anywhere else; they are all the same.
“Councils could look at the rent of the
premises in the high streets to encourage more small businesses. There are a lot of empty shops in Aberdeen but independents cannot afford to take them on. If it’s raining then people don’t want to shop on the high street, so councils need to make it more appealing to small businesses so that they can attract customers.”
Rahsan Turan Valentines - Harpenden, Hertfordshire “I don’t think that Harpenden is really a clone town, there are mostly boutiques here. To make sure that we stand out we search exhibitions for something different that our customers won’t have seen before - this means that we often go abroad. Also, we keep our prices low - we don’t charge boutique prices. “Bland towns are defi nitely, defi nitely a
problem. When you see something for the fi rst time it is new and interesting. The second and third time, you have the same reaction, but after that it becomes boring and tired. People want variety - we all need it in our lives, otherwise everything becomes dull and there is no character.
“The government should do something to encourage independent businesses to step forward, some kind of support, perhaps through taxes. That is where it should start - with the government.”
Carrie Wright Warren & Wright - Settle, North Yorkshire “We are in a very small Yorkshire Dales market town. We only have one multiple - a Boots chemist. We sell jewellery and gifts but we try to provide for local people as well as visitors. I think that clone towns are a problem. Shops like us in small places do well out of big towns becoming more identical, we are then more unique. “Yorkshire Forward and Business Link try to promotes market towns and rural towns. They are trying to get the message to the public that you will get better service from us and that we can be very competitive on prices too. Whether these organisations really accomplish anything is hard to say.”
Summary
Although several Cambridge residents defended the city against claims of blandness, no one we spoke to disagreed about the general state of the UK’s high streets. Most made the same point - the government and councils should be doing more to encourage independent retailers and high street diversity. Many also called for landlords to charge more realistic rents - however, this is largely a by- product of supply and demand. Landlords generally charge what they think a tenant is willing to pay. However, as Brian Wiseman relates in his column this month (page 10), some would be more than happy to take a low, speculative offer rather than losing money each month on an empty property.
But back to the topic of cloned high streets - multiples generally multiply because they have a successful business model that attracts customers and makes money. When the latter part of this equation breaks down, the multiple fails and disappears into the retail graveyard (see: Woolworths, Threshers, Zavvi, MFI... the list goes on).
Would you like to have a say on a topical issue in the gifts industry? To be a part of a future instalment of Grass Roots, please call 01442 289957 or email:
phughes@lemapublishing.co.uk
With many other multiple retailers allegedly teetering on the brink of the abyss, it seems like more vacant units could soon be appearing on the nations’ high streets. Is it a vain hope they these units could be fi lled with diversity of independent retailers rather than more of the same?
gifts today 17
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