Butcher closure

Wed 11 Oct 2006, 15:55

What a pity that a subject as important to so many of us as the closure of the butcher's shop is taken as a pretext by one or two testosterone-fuelled men to conduct a fatuous battle in public. Being a shopkeeper in the town myself, I know that a lot of people look at the website, but most refuse to contribute to a forum because of the kind of gratuitous rudeness that might come their way. The internet is often described as democratic and participatory, but the Charlbury website only shows how it can be the complete opposite and how 'ordinary people' can be excluded by a vociferous and self-righteous minority. How ironic that the yobs of the web appear to be largely middle class. Inhibited when it comes to slashing tyres or mugging old ladies, they enjoy a new-found freedom at the keyboard, where they feel they can mug all-comers.

Now to the subject of this thread!

Sales in my shop suddenly became erratic and inconsistent about 18 months ago, before the Co-op opened, due I think to uncertainties about property prices and pensions and the fact that many parents are having to support children through university. In the last year things have stabilised and improved. Blaming everything on the Co-op is simplistic.

Shops will survive if they 'trade up'. It's often as simple as that. Keeping the same stock as the retail environment changes round you cannot be sensible, but it's what people do. Running a shop is a highly personal thing. If it's a food shop, you want to sell the kind of food you like yourself, not what is to other people's tastes. If times change and people's likes and preferences change, but you carry on regardless, you can hardly expect people to keep 'supporting' you. On the other hand, if you change your stock radically, you may lose your existing customers and take some time to establish a new clientele! Easy does it. Like the Co-op...

The Co-op learnt fast. They extended the fresh fruit and veg section, took the wine range more up-market and then doubled the space for it. They're not going out of business: in fact they can hardly keep the place stocked.

It is too late to lament John Brain, or to seek to lay blame. There are alternatives, whether New Barn farm shop's local pork in Nine Acres, Slatters in Chadlington (which over-60s can reach free of charge by bus every hour), Callow Farm's own pork and Ditchley beef in Stonesfield, or the delivery service offered by Coldronbrook meats in Spelsbury (www.coldronbrookmeats.co uk) which includes their own Dexter beef and some excellent pies. What worries me more at this stage is what the demise of the butcher says about the future of other shops. If shops close because they cannot, or will not, change with the times, they may never re-open.

The local chamber of trade has tried hard to promote the town and encourage and assist businesses, especially the shops, but its work has sometimes been completely unsupported by those very people who most need help.

Anyone going to open a new shop in Church Street?