A lovely friend of mine sent me a text this morning with a picture of an article taken from today’s Metro. The headline shouted “20 charity shops in one town centre”!! Wow, could this be more up my street?
The article, a full page spread went on to list all of them (a nice selection and some I hadn’t come across) with photos of every single one – don’t you just love a journo. Apparently the local businesses are struggling to compete with the charity shops owing to no business rates and as they say in the article “free stock”. Something doesn’t quite sit right about a business going under because of too many charity shops. Could there be other reasons for them to close? Over priced rent, the wrong product, the lack of disposable income in the town? I have an idea it may have been a combination of factors, one of which being the shops they have to compete with.
I do wonder what would have happened to these shops had the charities not opened in them in the first place? Would they all be cute little craft shops, tea rooms and art studios? Or would they be empty, boarded up and full of graffiti? Maybe the local council could start a pop up shop initiative to support sole traders get a foot hold on the retail ladder? Just a thought but hey I’m no Mary Portas.
The town is Bexhill – On – Sea, I’ve just had to look it up (showing my ignorance here) and it does look like a nice traditional seaside town. Having spoken to those in the know, the town was a thriving seaside town many moons ago but now suffers, as do many, from tourists no longer visiting. This is echoed across the country so at least Bexhill – On – Sea has an array of thriving charity shops. With a population of circa 41,000 (about the same size as St Neots and we have 10 charity shops) it does seem like quite a few to chose from – Sophie and I would be stuck for choice!
From a shoppers perspective I did wonder whether these shops are packed to the rafters with wonderful booty, are the people of Bexhill – On – Sea amazingly generous with their giving? With 20 shops to fill that’s a lot of donations! Is Bexhill – On – Sea a prosperous town, it seems not. So should the traders be looking at whether there is a need for these shops in their community? Not only to support these great charities but for the people who buy from them?
In the article there is reference to a “think tank”, I’ve always wondered what these are, who says they work for a think tank? Do they in fact sit in a room with no windows as if in a tank whilst thinking as I imagine they do?
But the one big question this article has prompted is, which week of the summer holidays should Sophie book for our family trip to Bexhill – On – Sea?
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