AN INDEPENDE
AN INDEPEND ENT REMEMBERS
“LET THE S HIM
On the hunt f step back in time wit
1 l wer or a new
983 witness major develo the beginn the internet not how w it today)
ed some opments: nings of (though
we know ), the
mobile (as opposed to car and what Michael Jackso the moonwalk, which w witnessed being perform o
inebriated patr pub as they made their way windows at closing time. Th no personal computers, and .
ons of the Gr
also pre-PC in another way Power selling i
Black k & D k y.
I remember the satisfaction I felt with every single Bl
Decker power
tool that we sold. Cash was flowing so much more fr eely than ever before and it was tough for me to fight the temptation to go mad and fill the whole shop with this stuf f
f. I had to
remember that the profit margins were as tight as a… (here you get And, yes
to fill in a suitable simile). we e doing okay with associated
sales, but even this was not exactly empire-building. Happy times.
Then it happened: people began
asking for Bosch power tools and walking out when we had none to offer. Why? Because they wanted something of
f on two levels (ther e’s pr to captur
Black & Decker example of our needing to stock obably a it
better quality than . This was another
mor e appr means keeping a better alternative e a sale.
opriate term), but
One of the issues concerned with B&D was the inability of orbital
y
sanders to keep hold of the paper ed,
sanding sheets. This, I discover
applied mostly to the gr units that had been imported on the e weak
een-coloured cheap from Canada, wher
spring clips left customers somewhat cheesed of
ff with Black & Decker as a
whole. Not a good move. The local sales manager told me
www.diyweek.net
) phone, n called
we often med by otty Sark past our e
here wer we were
AND SEE W GETS
w supplier and an interesting th part 36 his stories from
BUGGER T WHERE IT ”
tin
un te cu hi
h fr w
tr U
w st
TRY
esting run in with Sticky Syd; our independent hardwareman takes a om the shopfloor
ny town.
I listened with mounting terr nable to understand why he was elling me his plans for world key utting domination. He’d even made ds that
or,r, imself some display boar
e was filling with blanks pinched rom his employer
Unflappable, seen it all befor And, then Syd came back to ask if key-cutting
ry and see where it gets hi e.
we would allow him a
tall in our shop. We had to admire hiis determination but no way did we want to hand over our key business o someone else, though in retrospect, it would have given us more time to oncentrate on other areas, whilst ental
w to
ld h i
that the majority DIY range e o wer ee
used two or thr
for more serious always
the Master
If anyone w the
of the tools in the only meant to be times a year
o r, and
seemed surprised that I didn’t know this.
high
For the less ambi craft r un
h-spec
Decker Professiona only from B&D S
itious, ther
we had it: the r wasn’t meant for a Marvellous! Maybe I shou more committed a Mastercraft tools, were equally appall e o g
seemed the mor set about looking Bosch, hoping for b
Leather cuts Sticky Syd was nationwide chain o that’s goods, not g although ound th
ar
did open a leather village, whose bu
Service Centr e was
ff
wanted something jobs
there was Black &
al range (available es).
range. So, there n of the mill stuff anything serious.
uld have been and taken on the gins
pp
but the mar ling, so I did what obvious step and for a supplier of
better gins. mar manager of a
of leather shops – ,
gear r, by the way y,
his time someone shop in a nearby ulk of sales was
“No wa hand ou over to – thoug it would
o ld
ay did we want to ur y business ke someone else gh, in retrospect, i en s
d have iven us g
more time to concentra on other areas”
te
mainly by male-order (not a typo); it was closed down by the council. Anyhow
line in shoe repairs and key cutting. Syd was tall, beefy y
w, Syd’s place also did a y, with a fluffy
y, ffy
hairstyle that was a cross between a 1970s American soul singer’s and a candy floss. You get the pictur e. day, complete in
by. Sury
He came in one company overall, and told me of his ambition to set up by himself – cutting keys; something we also did, as did another shoe mender close eplaced and
ely he would be r then there’d be four of us at it in one
co al in to
P D I
ncome. But he’d alr
I’m hi
ti
lso bringing in some useful r eady owned up
o stealing his employer’s stock, so usted
m certain we couldn’t have tr is fingers not to stick to ours.
ostscript
During a recent trip to Calderdale, was shocked to find that a local hardwar e shop had ceased trading. Being concerned, I found the shop’s acebook page, with timeline posts ecent closing down
Fa d p
co So es I
co it
escribing the r rocess, amidst a multitude of omments om grateful customers.
fr stablished, long-r
cu od bu
ba ef ba ot p
sh in to
o, what had happened to this well- unning business?
ouncil’s parking char no longer financially viable for ustomers to pop into town for the dd few items (it’s not only the cost, ut the risk of being fined if late
can only guess, so here goes: the ges made
g
ndependents curl up and die and es become decimated.
hop online, bank online, own centr
Please don’t have nightmares. 19 JULY 2019 DIY WEEK 15
ffect had made the four town centr anks close down one after the ther. So, no banks and expensive eason why people local
ack). Over 19 years the knock-on e
arking: another r r, claiming they
were miss-cuts. My boss said: “Let the bugger m”.
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36
