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OVER THE
COUNTER
BY DAVID ROBERTSON OF JP POZZI, ELGIN AND BUCKIE.
Teenage
Kicks Being 14 is a difficult age. You are still not technically an adult, yet you are still able to be left alone and trusted. You will be blossoming and developing your own unique identity, gaining independence, and likely exploring (or thinking about) romantic relationships. Unbelievably PG Live celebrates its 14th birthday this year meaning it is embracing all the joys of puberty!
I think I can remember being 14 years old, making the most of the opportunities those youthful years allowed! And I have no doubt that PG Live will be flexing its agile muscles in a similar vein next month. PG Live’s proud parents, the owners of this very mag, are forever steadfast about the show highlighting new product, supporting newbies and of course progressing our already vibrant industry. I am gutted that I will be missing the show, only the second time since its inception and in both instances I have had an excellent excuse - while the first time was due to the ash cloud from Iceland, this year is for an altogether happier reason, it coincides with the arrival of my first born. So why is PG Live not just another trade show? Why is it that it is important to retailer, publisher, agent and overseas distributor alike? Quite simply when it was established all those years ago the focus was to create a show that brought the whole of our industry together under one roof where product, good practice and the passion many of us have for these special bits of paper could shine. Now you may of course call me biased, but I really think PG Live has achieved this and more. Many felt that last year’s July show would be the most important as it was the first time it had been held in two years due to the lockdowns and Covid, but for me this year’s is equally as important especially as, with travel restrictions having eased it 20
PROGRESSIVE GREETINGS WORLDWIDE
will see the overseas visitors returning to add that extra global glow. We all need a good distraction, especially if it will help our businesses and our psyche. What do I mean by that? Well quite owning/running your own business, whether retailer or small publisher has never been more challenging. Costs for us all are spiralling like noone could have foreseen and this will literally pressurise every company large and small. Paper costs have rocketed, print costs have
soared and what profit we are all being left with is shrinking. We seem to be heading towards a recession and we need to prepare ourselves for this. So, the first thing not to do is panic and have a knee jerk reaction. We really do need to try and keep calm and get out there to see and talk to people and a trade event, like PG Live is the perfect place for that to happen.
Above left: A great compilation album including the title track by the Undertones as well as other indie bands. Above: Don’t curl up in a ball like a hedgehog, prickly challenges need to be faced. Below: David Robertson at PG Live 2021 with Lorraine Bradley of Rush Design.
The biggest challenges I hear daily in all bricks and mortar businesses are footfall and staff. In recently released figures footfall in Scotland showed a 6.3% improvement in April over March in 2022 yet footfall was still down 14.8% on 2019 levels. Shopping centre footfall was even more worrying with 20% decrease in April figures but importantly it was slightly better than the 32% decrease in March. “April saw a more promising set of figures for visits to stores in Scotland” proclaimed the SRC (Scottish Retail Consortium) director. I’ll take that. He also indicated that retail sales, shop vacancy rates and footfall all pointed in a more favourable direction but admitted that these were all things that would need to sustain as the strong economic headwinds would affect both consumer and business optimism. Basically, it is slightly better, but of course we don’t really know what is going to happen in the future.
