SOS ~ Save Our Shops. Time for action

In 1991 a ferocious tempest wrecked havoc in the North Atlantic. Sebastian Junger titled his best-selling account 'The Perfect Storm', his phrase since adopted to characterise those cataclysmic events – meteorological, economic or political – that result from a rare confluence of severe adverse forces. Long before the collapse of Lehman Brothers, traders on the British High Street were already in choppy waters, blown off course by the all consuming growth of the supermarkets and a rampant internet.

Add to these threats the credit crunch and a recurrent recession and town-centre shops now face a perfect storm of their own. A walk along any high street in the UK reveals the extent of the damage so far. Vacant shops leave gaps in the grin of even the newest town-centre development. The Sunday Times published an unenviable Top Ten of towns with empty units, a nationwide catalogue of commercial misery ranging from Ulverston with one-in-five, Rochdale with one-in-three up to Holyhead with nearly 40% of shops vacant.

It is a universal problem that needs a local response. Independent traders can batten down the hatches, reduce their costs and the stock they carry while still playing to their strengths – accenting their personal service and celebrating their individuality. The Local Authority could look to use revised parking facilities and charges as a positive incentive to bring in more shoppers.

But these measures are equivalent to relieving oneself into a gale. It could be argued that we have the retail landscape that we deserve; supermarkets are dominant because they are popular, the internet is cheap and convenient and is already the shopping destination of choice for a new generation. No amount of window dressing, street cleaning or advertising will draw the crowds back to the high street in their previous numbers. The battle needs to be for the hearts and minds, as well as the wallets, of the local population.

Market towns grew out the need for sellers and buyers to meet, and from this economic necessity grew the facility for people to socialise. Markets are where people gather, not just to trade but also for the crack, for friendships made amidst the deals. This human interaction is the real casualty of the current retail wars. What society is left when all shopping is with a trolly or a mouse?

This is an SOS.  We need a call to arms to Save Our Shops. Shoppers, you need to be aware that if you don't use them, you will lose them. Do not wait for an election or for Mary Portas to sort things out.  Act now ~ treat every £10 note as a ballot paper. Cast your vote in your high street today. Make a point of shopping independently at least once a week. Numerous simple individual actions can aggregate into a tidal wave of public support.

First published 'Times & Star' October 2009