Independent Retail in the U.K.

Photo by Sofia Conti.

The Independent Retailer.

England & Scotland.
Photographs by Sofia Conti.
Additional Photographs & Text by David Cross.

It’s raining on the street outside as the shop keeper leans on the counter and sighs, the foot fall has been low for months and takings are down. Regardless of the weather, this shop that specialises in men's outer coats on the Welsh border, isn’t doing much trade.
“Of course” he says, “it’s all on the internet these days”.
It’s an often quiet life and sometimes has a look and smell of the past. Due to city and town restructuring - based around the car and all too familiar by-pass, which in turn has become an excuse to build housing estates in clusters with annoying round-abouts and traffic lights, thereby negating the by-pass concept - these independent retailers can find themselves annexed in old parts of their towns. Drivers, intent on safe and convenient parking can find themselves so far from the original town that they simply don’t bother venturing to the older areas. Obviously there are exceptions as the old and traditional shops and their independent owners are embraced, though often at high rents, in various fashionable, tourist and or chic areas. Often a fancy super-market isn’t too far away, just in case one simply can’t do without one’s Essentials. Napoléon was probably the first to claim that the “British are a nation of shop keepers”, Ada Louise Huxtable concluded that if that was the case then the Americans were a nation of shoppers, fast forward to today and we are all shoppers. A fundamental difference though is where and how we shop in our 21st Century techno world, a space in which we can order and purchase virtually any product on the planet from a hand held device smaller than most calculators. In this piece we take a short walk around various high streets to see what is left of retail Britain post Brexit, Covid and the urban regeneration that has for some, blighted the nation since the 1970’s and even earlier.

The famous Barra’s Market, pronounced ba-ras, a Glaswegian word meaning “barra” or barrow a movable cart used to sell handy-crafts, dates back to the early 1920s and is attributed to Queen of the Barra, Maggie McIver and her husband James. When growing up Maggie was immersed at a young age in trading in and around an area called The Bridgegate, or Briggait. After a period of rent-ing horses and opening a fruit and veg shop, she put her efforts to creating a dedicated spot for the hawkers and traders, this was covered to protect the shopper and trader from inclement weather in the 1930’s and from then on became known as Barra’s Market, still in existence today. The retail experience of the time was quite different to our current time, and if you're anywhere near the age of 45 or 50 plus, you will remember the ordeal which involved a trip to the shops with a list and some patience perhaps, as the customers were greeted one by one by the owner or staff and dealt with personally. This regularly included chats about the weather, work and who was up to what minor indiscretion or worse, classic local gossip. Depending on your demographic, you would also have been taken to an open air market. This was either a treat, or a hellish experience and the outcome depended on many variables, the weather was a major factor as were greasy burger stands and the unappetising muck they swapped for £1.00. The trip to the market became a ritual every Saturday and you could watch your parents and 100’s of other people, that slowly became interesting to me, as they spent their wages on all types of “stuff”. It wasn’t unusual to witness mum or dad buy a weeks worth of food stock, along with pliers, car foot mats, candyfloss - yuk - used bicycles and a plethora of other things that as a boy, or girl at the time meant nothing. The chips were often very good though, that I do know. However, it did have a certain magic charm, it was a window to a world of adults and mystique, banter and strange characters - it was life in the raw, buying and selling for survival, standing on your own two feet, and eating burnt bacon sandwich’s. It was social commentary in high-fidelity. A mere few decades away from surround sound and internet introspection. The idea of “add to cart” and the “pay now” button hadn’t even occurred to Gene Roddenberry, but he did have 3D printing.

The indoor alternative lacked the hustle of outside, things were weighed and accounted for in minute detail and dropped into brown paper bags, these were tactile and familiar, replaced now by the thin cardboard folded around the books that arrive from that online retailer, named after a famous forest. Pencil behind the ear like a master carpenter, all the sums done in ones head, a millisecond of thought, and wham, a price is delivered directly and written on to your receipt by the grocer. There were grumbles but never much discount, though you would regularly leave with an extra juicy red apple for free and a cheery “good bye and thank you, Mrs So and So, delighted to see you”. Slowly at first and one by one all of the local independents moved out of my home town, the grocers were the first and then the butcher, even the fish ‘n chip shop had to go as the council decided that the block had to be redeveloped. Replaced with a giant intersection and at first 21 sets of traffic lights, then followed by a hotel, shopping mall, and drive through burger complex. Merde ! Like many original shops across the UK, they were side stepped and regularly bull dozed in parts to make way for bigger and more glamourous shops, replacing the old names and choice of old classics with seasonal wear designed by someone famous’ off spring, whose fashion tastes can leave one thinking that the Bay City Rollers weren’t as uncool as previously thought.

The modern high street, if you can find it actually has less choice than you think, just take a walk around any “happening” town. Bristol for instance. There are a few exceptions, obvious codes and themes, fashion apparently, but people pretty much look the same in the way they dress, the label may differ, that’s part of your new choice, and is pretty much associated with cost, that’s your other principle choice. Indeed, as a girl rapper just rhymed on the radio, “She looks like money”. Selah. The internet has stripped the independent retailer of much of the human traffic that once so eagerly off loaded its money in exchange for see before buy goods, the giants recognised a chance to shop and collect and that together closes the circle further and tighter. Social media is or has already, stripped the individual of in part, their own unique identity, leaving some existing as human drones appropriating the costumes and attitudes of the scrolled super stars. That may sound extreme but, on our once suggested path to the Super Individual we have taken a break at the Hotel des Clones. Consumerism would be good for some pockets, but it also proved to be bad for the credit card and environment as a study by Aalto University reported in 2020 that up to 92 million tonnes of waste and 79 trillion litres of water were consumed per year just to make garments. As for credit, according to “moneynerd” and “money”, both are .co.uk addresses, the UK entered 2022 a frightening £72 Billion in debt. That is at least 1 Bn lower than the previous year, but hardly worthy of praise. The net effect of all spending is of course, pressure on the environment.

Here’s most recent data from the Association of Convenience Stores who are a trade association representing local shops across the UK. They represent their members through effective lobbying, industry leading advice and networking opportunities for retailers and suppliers. The membership includes a diverse range of convenience store retailers, from stand-alone family run independent stores to symbol groups and multiple convenience stores. These retailers operate in neighbourhoods, villages, on petrol fore-courts and in city centres. ACS’ core purpose is to lobby Government on the issues that make a difference to local shops.
39% of UK shops are truly independently owned. 32% are franchises, though are officially counted as independents. 29% are Multiples. i.e. major chain stores and brands. The remainder are cooperatives. The combined group raises circa £45 Bn in sales and employs around 405,000 people. Of the 48,590 stores 37% are isolated, mean-ing they stand alone in areas without noticeable retail business and 15% are located on a high street or city centre. Of the latter two, it would be interesting to know how many of these are the modern victims of latent class annexation as a result of redevelopment and the strings attached.

Real change came for the independent retailer in the 1950’s and the shopper too. The London Co-operative Society opened Britain's first fully self-service store in January 1948 in Manor Park, London. The goods were all on show as before, the difference here was, you were allowed to touch the products (!) without risk of a telling off or arrest, yes, there were cases of arrest by the police. The shop keeper in this newly inspired establishment simply sat back and collected the money before you left. This was followed in 1952, when Premier Supermarkets, a subsidiary of Express Dairies, opened the UK's first supermarket in Streatham, South London in 1951. Convenience was one aspect, collating as many goods as possible in one place came later but was inevitable as the increase in consumerism and the growing population, who embraced the new shopping experience, simply had to be competed for. Women were starting to earn better wages too which helped to increase the spending power.

Quality, outside of lines of text on point of sale equipment was never really high on the minds of the large suppliers, it was good enough and available all year round. The endless queue, shopping trolley - first seen in the U.S.A. and introduced on June 4, 1937 - shopping points, buy one get one a bit cheaper and free electric charging points weren’t far behind. The super-market has since joined forces with the other giant brands to form mega shopping complexes, we have all seen them, your town has more than likely been redesigned so as to divert all the traffic to one. What’s left in the centre is a shadow of what was there before, a random trip to almost any town in the UK will yield streets of empty shops or at the least, certain streets that have mostly been abandoned due to the before mentioned development but also rates, rents and sometimes, a simple cultural change in the area. All very hard to define exactly. But clinging on and often refusing to give in are the independents, some old and many new, all trying to forge a living and offer something different, yet old and familiar - a friendly face a unique space and a product that might have been by them or someone they know personally or perhaps, a factory in China as is sometimes the case, market forces being what they are.

Karen Horsley is an independent retailer and the owner of Gibb Menswear in Gloucestershire and has over 20 years experience in the trade having moved from Christchurch around 2017, where she ran two successful shops. In her opinion the falling trade is a factor related closely to car parking charges and out of town shopping malls. And like my home town, pedestrianisation has actually reduced foot fall to a point that many of the shops in existence during the transformation process, simple didn’t survive. It is a notable feature that giant, car based shopping malls, never have provision for the smaller trader, one assumes the space is too expensive to use in this way? Similarly, new build housing estates, can have as many as 2000 ready made customers all in one place, annexed from town by main roads and yet, no shop, (church/gym/library/community space/etc).

In 2001 Karen had two retail establishments, Southbourne in Dorset and another in Ringwood, Hampshire. Around this time a large shopping mall was built in Bournemouth, her trade died almost immediately. Shortly afterwards part of this new mall, the structure supporting the car park buckled under the weight of the cars, it was closed for a month or two over that Christmas and her trade rocketed. Now of course, this is a simple observation and a natural reaction by the public, but is also direct evidence that the super mall is having a detrimental effect on the independent retailer and therefore, the choice made available to us. We really are being forced like cattle into a one-way stream of commerce that involves the transfer of manufacturing and capital to the big factories and brands based in the far east. I heard recently that even the Irish made classic men’s wear brand, Magee, had to stop making bespoke suits due to paper-work complications relating to Brexit, having resisted through diligence the need to move the skilled jobs eastwards.

A common issue mentioned by the retailers that were spoken too, is that of the “great British sale”. Many shop owners have found themselves competing for customers through their out of season sales - a sure sign a shop is in trouble. The backlash here is that many customers then stop buying at full price, which brings us to value, or more accurately, perceived value. You can pretty much forget about customer loyalty without a discount scheme. Let’s take the humble chocolate bar, the one named after the red planet that Elon seems to prefer for his retirement: on a recent field trip, I discovered that you can pay anything from 50p to £1.68 for one of these bars of chocolate, which are considerably thinner than they used to be. You can try this yourself, pick a main stream product and go find its actual value.
Possibly, through bad politics and the cost of living crisis, which for millions has been happening for years, and decades, we have reached a point of extreme pragmatism as well as poverty; why should I buy your trousers for £60.00 when I can get similar for £30.00, or even £15.00? What are you really paying for and what real extra value is there, quality is a quality that can no longer be relied upon. If quality and value are perceived, and probably at a very person-al level then what is left is even less tangible, style, taste, requirement and function. All are of course important elements, the latter two being the most realistic “values". But as with all products that are over made in quantity - a by product of over mechanisation as a result of itself, i.e. two workers in Japan can make 1500 pairs of jeans in a day, so you might as well work at night too and now find or create the market - the seller has to compete vigorously for attention. If you have made five million designer tee shirts it stands that you want to be in a prominent place to sell them, if you then pay half a million in rent, there is a vested interest in your success, after all, no one wants to go unpaid.

All businesses have a hard job trying to balance these things and make a profit and as our retailer Karen at Gibb mused, “… if you're not on Destination Street, then it is hard”! A retired bicycle dealer told of “failed anti-dumping laws aimed at Chinese factories, which did nothing to stop Vietnamese bikes turning up and being used as loss leaders in the super-markets”. Over all it has started to look very much like a two tier system; made nicely, costs a fortune and sold from boutiques with the other side of the coin being the distinct opposite, with a little wriggle room in the middle. There are good things to spend your money on, don’t get me wrong, but are we dealing with a shopping experience where we face products of unquantified value and quality and even purpose, the rubbish bath duck, for example and the latest small car as owned by my partner that refuses to do more than 90 miles on a charge, in spite of the much higher claim by this most noticeable of German motor car manufacturers.
Beyond the occasionally chanced upon bargain and mass availability, our global commerce has brought us little in the way of real intrinsic value to the goods we buy. An Oxford brain once told me that for someone to earn a pound, someone had to lose one. Working in retail myself at the time, I replied that the situation was probably worse than that.

The traditional and once open air market of Barra’s in Glasgow suddenly feels like a refreshing place to be. The trade is brisk today as shoppers and traders are keen to exchange cash and goods, the temperature under the roof is biting and the wind funnelling through the entrance chills the bones like ice. The produce looks and smells fresh, the wooden baskets that hold the fruits and vegetables haven’t changed, the logos have but as expected, it’s still mostly foreign, grown in Europe and further afield. Regardless of the complications at the E.U. border the UK still imports around 68% of its foods. More than one grocer remarked that this is and will be an ongoing problem. Likewise a fashion designer in Glasgow spoke of supply issues relating to the liquidation of several of her contacts during Covid -19, and although she supports the workers, Post Office strikes have had an impact on her deliveries.
An independent importer and distributor of plastic “grips” as used by indoor climbing centres told of problems at the border due to simple box ticking errors, a product of Brexit, meaning many of his customers were simply buying direct from the largest brands and E.U. based retailers, the cost is similar and the process simpler. Everyone that spoke to us cited rising rents and energy bills, which have hit the whole country. Many of the traditional trades that are practiced by the independents are family run and some have high hopes of passing the business on. Others have found that dwindling profits means that the family offspring go elsewhere for their careers, often in modern tech industries, an area that Jeremy Hunt, current Trade Minister has high hopes, particularly in AI, where three UK companies are market leaders. This is of course fantastic but as we move at speed towards an artificial intelligence… we should be mindful and even a little protective of the past. Humans and all the creatures on the earth are more important than the machines. Thankfully, there will always be a place for the independent retailer and the generally happy staff that greet you. The growth in microculture craft beer brands, hair salons and the plethora of unique start-ups will always be a part of the British retail landscape. The collective we, (the consumer) just need to remember that every now and then, we should consider by-passing the mega stores that ring our cities and drop in to the local shops, for there you will often find a worthwhile product, something a little different to the established trend, it might not be essential but you will be supporting the community with your purchase.

Thanks for reading.