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OVER THE
COUNTER
BY DAVID ROBERTSON OF JP POZZI, ELGIN AND BUCKIE.
Ranting And Raving
Even when my Dad was very ill, he would ask the same questions every time I saw him. Were we busy today? Were the papers on time? Who was working? That shop was a huge part of his life. It was a validation that he had achieved something from very modest beginnings. The way he cared for those who worked with us, the many suppliers that became friends made it feel so important and so very real. My father was a fiercely proud and fair man who never asked for anything and that was often to his disadvantage. He would never ask for discount as he believed people would be as fair to him as he was to them. Yet with each passing day I get more and more frustrated at our politicians and the way they look on and treat family businesses and small retailers across the country. ‘Fair’ is not a word I would use. I don’t want to get political here and I don’t want to say that one party is better than the other as I honestly don’t think that any of the politicians really understand the challenges we face as business owners. The vast majority have never had to do what you or I do. They have never had to create their own wealth. They have never had to worry about having to generate the money to pay their staff wages, let alone themselves. They throw words around like ‘regeneration’, ‘urban space’ and ‘rebuilding’ without any true understanding of what that entails. Covid has accelerated some patterns of decline and we are in a period of rising inflation. 18
PROGRESSIVE GREETINGS WORLDWIDE
I am writing this on Valentine’s Day… The day for lovers, the day for romance, but I have a pregnant wife who doesn’t really feel like going out and is understandably tired, all the time! Tomorrow is the third anniversary since my dad passed away. I think about him every day and often wonder what he would have made of these last few years. How would he have coped with the separation and hardship of Covid, of keeping your distance, of the changes to his beloved business? But we have to keep the faith and enjoy our love of those around us, in our personal and business lives, even if the politicians continue to irk. Above: The Robertsons felt the love…David and his wife Nicola’s Valentine’s Day cards to each other. Left: A young David (with an uncanny likeness to Ed Sheeran) with his dad. Below: It is hard to replicate the personal service an indie offers instore via an online experience.
The stark reality is that the majority of our customers will be facing a squeeze on their disposable income and it will be even harder for us as retailers to win their spend. No one wants to have the difficult conversations on minimum wage, living wage or whatever you want to call it. No one wants to really tackle rates, landlords, lack of investment in buildings or indeed the choking of footfall into the town centre. We have never sorted out car parking charges, the horrendous planning legislation that takes forever or the imbalance that allows some buildings to be allowed to rot while others are forced to spend fortunes on theirs. There is also an issue fast incoming with old shopping centres in towns that need to be knocked down, but continue to limp
along, while beautiful new glass buildings are green-lit often on the edge of town. I believe that we are in a transitional period between the old ways of retail and the new proposed mixed use of the high street. In the latest round of bounce back funding in Scotland our Chancellor has allocated £3million for city centre funding for the whole country. Yes, for the whole country and I am pretty sure that towns and cities up and down the country could spend that on a single area easily. We simply can’t wait around for others to fix it, but many of us are tired of trying. We end up praying that our business will exist like some kind of little island on its own. That doesn’t work though as you need
