PROTECT OUR INDEPENDENTS

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 Cleggsays 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

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 g reat 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 p eople who knew you and y our 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 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 i ntermediary 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 ❝

Lockdown saw all non-essential shops and businesses offering face-to-face services closed for at least three months. W hile c ertain 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 these offerings leaving some with no support at all.

U nlike other sectors, our non-food high s treet 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 w as 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 prod ucts and services that they o ffer, 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 e conomy. 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

Topping & Co

The Bath Framer

The Dressing Room

circulating and investing in our local resources.

Supporting local businesses also means that you can boost local employment – small businesses are the largest employer of jobs nationally, and they are more likely to pay a higher average wage then the commercial chains. So more jobs locally mean more prosperity and a healthier economy.

Many believe that online retailers offer better deals, but prices are invariably very competitive in our local shops and businesses. So shop around, not just online, but on your high street, and if the high street is more expensive, evaluate the local benefits that investing your money here brings.

And you can see what you are buying in a shop! How many of us have purchased items online that loo k glamorous and full of c haracter only to discover that the parcel arriving at your front door is a laughably pale shadow of the image you saw on the site? Buying local also brings personality and character – many of our high street retailers use local companies rather than sourcing stock in bulk from far afield.

We are fortunate to also have creatives making their own products for their business – think o f Wa ller and Wood (which has now relocated to Box) with Carole Waller’s mesmerising hand-painted and handmade garments and Gary Wood’s statement pots; goldsmith Tina Engell’s glowing precious jewellery, and Nick Cudworth’s colourful paintings of local scenes.

So don’t search ‘gifts for the home’ on Google – visit Rossiters, Homefront Interiors, Bath Aqua Glass, Woodhouse and Law, TR Hayes, Beau Nash, The Ba th F ramer and The Framing Workshop. Don’t go straight to Boohoo and Amazon as a default – browse the shelves of The Dressing Room, OSKA, Flock, Jolly’s, Kimberly, Chanii B and Clandar. Don’t go to the big chains for your eye requirements, go to our local specialists Ellis and Killpartrick and Kathryn Anthony Optometry where you will be remembered and valued as a customer every time you visit. Don’t automati cally buy d omestic appliances online, visit Coopers Home Appliances in Bath.

Don’t always buy your alcohol at the big name supermarkets – consider Independent Spirit of Bath and The Great Wine Co. (formerly Great Western Wine) who can talk to you knowledgeably about their liquid goods. Don’t buy generic mass-produced jewellery, but visit our local experts such as Nicholas Wylde, Mallory, Jody Cory, Nigel Dan do, Ti na Engell, Icarus and Alexandra May. Buy your books locally at Topping and Co. and Mr B’s Emporium and, explore the eclectic and inspiring range of magazines at Magelleria and talk to their staff who can help you find what’s right for you.

We’re not forgetting the Bath food retailers who have adapted so adroitly during Lockdown, many offering delivery services to bridge the ‘stay home’ gap. For many of us, local businesses such as T houghtful Bakery, Larkhall Butchers, Avellino’s Deli, Darling Deli and the Kingsmead Square fruit and veg stall were a lifeline during Lockdown – and now more than ever before, we need to remember that we’re a lifeline to them, too.

And at long last we can let somebody else do the cooking for us again. The Peking –Bath’s longest-established Chinese restaurant – recently reop ened to offer a t akeaway service, with full restaurant service on the very near horizon. Schwartz Bros are back where they belong, at the top of the burger’n’chips charts. The pubs are open for business again; where The Marlborough Tavern, The Hare and Hounds and The Locksbrook Inn led, others swiftly followed, many thanking Bath Pub Co. MD Joe Cussens for his enlightening and informative short video detail ing exactly how his pubs’ r eopening plans would work and offering a textbook blueprint of the ‘new normal’ code of conduct for businesses owners and customers alike. Yum Yum Thai, Clayton’s Kitchen, the Dower House at the Royal Crescent Hotel, Chez Dominique, Corkage, Dan Moon at the Gainsborough Bath Spa, the Green Park Brasserie, food traders within Green Park Station and – by the time we go to press – many more all serve to re-remind u s that Bath is a food lovers’ paradise, offering myriad all-tastes, all-budgets, panglobal cuisine opportunities from Michelin flagship restaurants and cutting-edge, contemporary media darlings to the perfect post-pub bag of hot chips. Please, don’t keep your distance from any of them; just follow the new rules, sit back, and relax.

There’s no doubt that Covid-19 will play a big part in reshaping our high streets – and t hey will look different. Not every one of our local shops will survive – nationally we have already seen the demise of fashion retailers Oasis and Warehouse and Cath Kidston, and Debenhams is restructuring in an insolvency process. And with cafés and bars under pressure with social distancing measures, it’s not yet clear how sturdy they can be. Central governme nt has massive challenges ahead, n ot only finding ways of dealing with the eye-watering level of their Lockdown subsidy, but in rethinking the unfairness in the retailing system such as the long-overdue reassessment of business rates, finding methods of taxing online retailers fairly, and changing the relationship between property owners and retailers.

What we can all do, in the face of this, is clear. Kee p it local. Support our independent r etailers and food providers. Take advantage of their quality customer service. Go back to our valued local shops and our businesses and our food venues, because if we don’t they won’t survive.

Don’t automatically buy online; it feels convenient but it’s impersonal and it’s doesn’t invest in the place where you live, or make our community the best place it can be. We nee d to recognise our local talents a nd support them. It’s always been a strong message, but it’s never had more power than right now. Corona is not forever, so let’s all help protect the character and charisma of our city. n

The luxury lure of the high street

If you are anything like a huge number of the population, you’ll have whiled away some lockdown hours with a bit of online shopping, and with the majority of shops closed it was really the only option. But now that lockdown is lifting and we are getting back to a new type of ‘normal’, it’s time to hit the high street and do some p roper shopping.

This is especially true if you are planning what is known as a ‘considered’ purchase –something you’ve had your sights on for some time, but not yet committed too. It could be an American-style fridge freezer, a new TV, or perhaps a range cooker. Whatever it is, you may have already done a fair bit of internet research and narrowed down your options to a shortlist of potentials. Mayb e you are waiting until you can physically get your hands on the item so you can see it in the correct setting, or you think you are ready but just haven’t clicked the ‘checkout’ button.

Well, you’re not procrastinating – you’re being very sensible. It’s all too easy to get carried away with reviews, recommendations, photoshopped images and sales blurb to make an impulse buy online, only to be disappoin ted with what is delivered to your front door. So, to avoid this, Coopers the kitchen appliance specialist have compiled their top reasons why buying from a bricks-and-mortar store should be the choice for your next considered purchase.

First, making a large purchase should include getting advice from someone who knows about the item you’re buying inside and out. By speaking to a salesperson directly, n ot only can you learn more about the products you wish to buy but you can get a better idea of how much you trust the store that you’re in.

When you buy from a physical store you also know who you are really buying from. You know how long they have been in business and can get a feeling about how comfortable you are that they’ll still be there if something goes wrong. With an online seller you have no id ea who the seller really is.

When making a large purchase it is vitally important that you see the item in person. You need to be able to test how the doors open on your new range or if your favourite baking trays will fit through the door of your new oven. The quality of an item is much easier to discern when you see it up close. Online images are sometimes misleading and you could easily end up with an item that you weren’t expecting.

Going to a showroom and experiencing the thrill of choosing your new appliances can’t be replicated from your computer. Seeing the colours and styles in person is extremely satisfying and can often inspire the overall design of your room.

Taking all of the above on board, it is clear that if you are making a considered purchase, it’s best to walk through the door of a retailer. So while your keyboard may have been well used over the last few months, now is the time to get out and visit the stores again.

C oopers has ensured that their store is safe for you to visit. You can browse the store during their opening hours, but you may find that the best experience is to contact them by phone in advance. They look forward to welcoming you back! n Coopers,13–15 Walcot Street, Bath; Te l: 01225 311811; coopers-stores.com