Yesterday I wrote a short piece on how we could relatively easily improve Dunbar’s High Street environment through some well targeted and concerted action on some of the obvious environmental bads. Hardly rocket science and it certainly doesn’t need a government report to tell you how, though I await with anticipation Malcolm Fraser’s report on the revival of Scotland’s High Streets, which must be due very soon now.
My follow up piece reflects on the plight of traders, that loose coalition of the dispossessed consumed by the creative destruction of capitalism [1. a deliciously ambiguous metaphor for innovation coined by the Austrian economist, Schumpeter] and latterly by recession. Or maybe it is the beginning of the end of capitalism, as some say the destruction is greater than what is being created, that much worse is to come. Or perhaps things aren’t quite as bad as they were in the the seventies and eighties, which saw fundamental transformations of the economy with devastating consequences for entire communities.
Traders often lament the demise of the High Street and blame everyone including the internet, out of town shopping centres, East Lothian Council policies, Government policy – especially Westminster ones, evil supermarkets and even shoppers themselves. Rarely do they blame themselves. It seems to me that these are all contributory factors. Changing work and consumption patterns explain a lot and less regular shopping habits are one consequence, the policy environment has been skewed against them (encouraging out of town shopping and suburban growth), and culturally we are looking for experiences not just products. So, as one ex-trader put it to me: “the High Street needs to reinvent itself for other purposes.” I’m inclined to agree, since the axis of everything has firmly shifted away from the local to the global. But let us not get bogged down by the causes here and explore whether there is a range of affordable prescriptions that could be applied, without too much engineering work, resort to celebrities or visions (in history people who had these inevitably got strung up), far less drafting wordy strategies and action plans or similar mostly pointless displacement activities.
Here are my first 8 – off the rop of my head, in no particular order – tuned to Dunbar’s historical character and issues:
- Promote food provenance – even if your products are not local find out exactly where they come from and train your staff so they know what to say when asked; use attractive labels to highlight provenance; whether your oranges come from South Africa, Morocco or Sicily this is a great excuse to create a conversation with your customers! They will shop more and spend more.
- Clean the space in front of your shop all the way to the curb; scrub it down daily or every other day – it will look like you care (I know it stinks but it has to be done!) Embarrass your neighbours into action. Make sure your bins are squeaky clean and removed / parked neatly as soon as they are collected. Nothing is worse that for pedestrians to navigate an obstacle course through dirty green bins, fag buts and litter.
- A lick of paint – shops that need repainted should do so but take care to select from a suitable historic palette – we are after all in a historic Conservation Area and it is a legal requirement to gain prior permission; not only that we have a striking concentration of historic buildings that need care, and this all by itself should attract many more visitors and inspire local pride in our town.
- Revitalise window displays – shop keepers should enlist help with creating interesting and attractive and regularly changing displays – there is an art to using your display creatively to attract customers; even empty shops are an advertising opportunity – see if you can negotiate a good deal and take one over? Clutter up your window with signs and too much information and people will prefer to stare into their phones.
- Reformulate your offer and brand – if you are competing with low cost internet shops and ebay, it might be an idea to avoid appealing to offer driven customers. Differentiate yourself to appeal to a more discerning shopper, who perhaps is seeking pre-purchase advice and after service, as well as convenience; the cheapest deal will inevitably be online – competing on price is a race to the bottom. We’re almost there.
- Offer something completely different – like home delivery, or some value-added service (installation, repair, pay online pick up later). Hang on the supermarkets do that already, but why let them steal the show?
- Extend opening hours – Saturday afternoons, Wednesday and Sundays, or mornings – but also by extending our presence online perhaps adopting social media as a means of getting customer insights or targeting offers, new product launches; develop an online conversation with customers (is there any time to kill between between sales? I can think of a few who have loads);
- Pay a professional to do the things you either cannot do or just have no time to do (few small businesses have much time to spare) – it sometimes costs a lot less than you think. Never ever get your children to do your art or design work (unless they are the preternatural sort) and definitely don’t let them chose your new shop name. Whatever advice you get, make sure that it fits your reformulated offer, e.g. is that new plastic advertising hoarding better suited to a garage forecourt than a historic High Street? Is it even legal?
And that is it!
Think this all pie in the sky? Maybe. We’ve tried the free market approach and filling them up with theme pubs, betting shops and affordable pound and expensive convenience stores, the liberal sprinkling of expensive CCTV and free for all parking ain’t worked either.
Why not tell Malcolm Fraser what you think and give him advice on revitalising your High Street.