Coronavirus vs independent retailers

I work for an independent high street retailer. Since the coronavirus has hit and now taken hold it fills me with horror to say but I can easily see this being the final nail in the coffin for them. This pandemic could be the game changer that puts shopping as we know it into the past….I sincerely hope I am wrong but I am worried.

1 Outlets refusing to handle cash, has almost forced people to do on-line banking and card only transactions.

2 Social distancing is sending so many people to shop on line who have never wanted to before. Independent shops are far more about community and offering a local service.

3 The media coverage of retail has focussed almost 100% only on what happens at the major supermarket chains. They seem to be held up as the be-all and end-all of shopping so consequently that focus takes away from the independent family run stores getting forgotten about or certainly pushed right down the priority list even by long standing suppliers.

The store I work for is a ‘Home & Garden’ shop so it stocks a lot of cleaning products, gardening and home improvement items. Mindful of the ‘service’ we offer and ‘community’ we are part of it is interesting to see this week that pharmacies and other third parties have been asking us if we can help out delivering prescriptions. We have already been dropping off our own customer orders for free to the over 70s and the people self-isolating locally so of course we will do whatever we can to help if we can stay open and survive, I know the national chains would not do the same.

It was already THE sector that has suffered hugely over the past 20 years due to the relevant regulators and authorities taking zero action against the unfair practices and policies by others who failed to support those businesses. They allowed ‘loss leading’ tactics when the internet started. They allowed free parking at out of town parks to the very same emission causing, congestion creating cars that were hit with huge parking fees for going into towns and cities.

This week we see certain authorities are wielding the power and threatening to take action and investigate all examples of unfair/ irresponsible retailers who are over charging….the same authorities who but did absolutely nothing when retailers were being forced to shut down by newcomer dotcom sites who all undercharged to buy customers and take business away from genuine traders. The lack of action pretty decisively wiped out hundreds of thousands of jobs, we have lost high street names forever and consumers have had much choice taken away from them.

It could already be too late but the sector really needs regulation to prioritize fairness in the way retailers compete for customers and business to give the remaining ones a chance to survive by competing on a level playing field.

Please remember independent retailers and help them.