I was having a chat in my local cafe recently. I’ve only be resident in the area for 8 years or so, so still finding out about the place recently. It came up in conversation that the village we were in – of about 2000 souls- being reasonably far from any towns manages to support two cafes, two little mini-marts, a florist, two hair dressers, and two chipshops and a pub. So about 10 businesses. Not bad – But someone pointed out that in most peoples memory there used to be 54 shops there. I thought that was amazing – you didn’t have to leave the village to buy shoes, or a suit or a washing machine.
Being one-person / one product enterprises, in a spirit of cooperation rather than competition – it meant each shop had its own personality. The cafe we were in used to be a shoe shop where….
“you could get any shoe you wanted, but not in your size. You would however leave with a pair of shoes – either ones that did fit or ones you didn’t want”
So….. on the STW High Street – who would sell what?
‘Bear’s Necessities’ open all hours selling things you can’t afford to run out of; bog roll, milk, single cigarettes, and insulin?
‘Rusty’s Paneer’ single-issue cheesemongers?
“Hora’s House of Hammers” ?