Our loyal reader has been in touch again, this time after thumbing through the pages of a trade magazine. Oh yes. Things are rarely more exciting.
The writing’s on the glass, if not on the wall, for independent retailers in South Croydon as well as Shropshire
But after pointing out the story (see below), our loyal reader makes a very good point: “Could this be what is happening in South Croydon?” they ask.
Our loyal reader runs a shop in what someone, somewhere, who is doubtless paid thousands of pounds by Croydon Council as a “consultant”, has decided to call the “Restaurant Quarter”.
The shop-owner does not run a restaurant. Indeed, in common with the majority of businesses in the “Restaurant Quarter”, his business has nothing to do with food. But no one at the council, nor in the expensively hired consultancy, ever bothered asking our loyal reader for their opinion.
And as the shop-owner says, as they look up from their copy of their trade magazine, “This story is a telling indictment of what is happening to many small retailers all over the country when their business is getting squeezed from all directions.”
Take a read and make up your own mind…
After shutting its doors for good, the owners of the County Music Supplies shop have left a message on their window lambasting the local council.
The shop on Wyle Cop in Shrewsbury officially closed on Saturday 16th February. Before throwing in the towel, however, the shop’s owner commissioned sign writer Andy Field to paint a notice to customers, explaining why they have left the High Street.
The sign reads:
“Due to increasing costs, high rates, and the morons who make Shrewsbury’s parking policies and the wardens that enforce them making our customers lives a misery, we have decided to withdraw our business from the high street.”
Field told local newspaper the Shropshire Star: “They are yet another victim of the parking charges and the new Sunday charges have merely put the lid on the issue for them. It’s a sad sign of the times and another blow to the town centre.”
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