independents feature.qxp_Layout 1 11/07/2020 08:33 Page 1
BATH | INDEPENDENT BUSINESSES
Protecting our independents
Social distancing has eased; we no longer have to stay at home; shops, cafés and pubs are reopening, but have our shopping habits changed? Can we pick up where we left off? Emma Clegg says if you want a warm community that matters, one that provides local jobs and attracts people to the city, we have to value our independent outlets as a priority
Bath Aqua Glass
36 TheBATHMagazine
drapers, hardware from Combens and shoes from Stone’s Shoe Shop. This warm vision of community shopping is long gone and the high streets have changed beyond all recognition in the intermediary years – with the rise of convenience shopping at big supermarkets, the dominance of global brands which have chipped away at the character of our towns and cities, and finally the rise of online shopping. Then came Coronavirus and lockdown.
❝
Go back to our valued local shops and our businesses and our food venues, because if we don’t they won’t survive
❝
I
’m old enough to remember Green Shield Stamps. Popular in the 1960s and 1970s, stamps were given away at filling stations, corner shops and supermarkets. One stamp was typically issued for each 6d (2½ new pence) spent on goods, so large numbers of stamps had to be stuck into the books. That was my job in our family, sticking them all, using a wet sponge and a pad of newspaper beneath, into the collectors’ books provided. I took great pride in the neatness of the sticking, and in the completion of a booklet. I have no recollection of the benefits of these efforts, but apparently my mother would have claimed merchandise from a catalogue or a Green Stamps shop. This is a snapshot of a more leisurely era in high street shopping, a time where it was a social experience, where shops were run and staffed by local people who knew you and your family. I don’t remember visiting a supermarket as a child – we went up the steep hill in Underhill, Portland to The Spar, asked for grocery items over the counter and my mother chatted to the lady who worked there. We got bread from the local bakery including on special occasions Portland Dough Cake (a butter-rich yeast-raised cake with spices and dried fruit, glazed with syrup that probably wouldn’t stand up to any nutritional scrutiny now, but was loved by all then) and visited Kerslakes for newspapers, sweets and if I had enough money a Wade Whimsie animal, my childhood favourite. My mother bought meat from the butchers, fabric from the
Lockdown saw all non-essential shops and businesses offering face-to-face services closed for at least three months. While certain retailers and businesses benefited – the grocery trade, bicycle shops, and those offering or introducing delivery services – the grand majority had to close their doors and wait. Their income disappeared as their costs continued, and while the furlough scheme and the business rate holiday have helped many, there have been notable cracks in
Nicholas Wylde
|
suMMer 2020
|
issue 212
these offerings leaving some with no support at all. Unlike other sectors, our non-food high street retailers were vulnerable way before the virus struck. Christmas sales have been declining for years and shop owners have been dealing with rising rents, business rates and minimum wage rates, as well as losing much of their regular trade over the years to online retailers, who have much lower property costs and are therefore much more resilient. Spring stock was ready, but didn’t make it into stores, but the costs were still there. Online retailers on the other hand have benefited significantly, and the shifts in shopping habits driven by a population based at home are likely to reshape consumer habits in the long term way more quickly than economists predicted. We have always championed our city’s independent retailers and food outlets and the variety of products and services that they offer, and Bath has been luckier than other urban centres in having a large proportion of independent traders, which is something that our visitors have always loved, and draws them to our shopping streets. Independent shops are our lifeblood. Local businesses are the backbone of our economy. Spending £10 at a local independent store means that up to an additional £50 goes back into the local economy. That’s amazing! That’s because the money you spend goes to the shop owners and this goes back into the local community as they use their money locally – including in restaurants, pubs, public transport and other shops – thereby keeping the money
The Great Wine Co.
