Butcher closure

Fri 13 Oct 2006, 13:33

To deal with the forum stuff first. I try to keep a fairly light touch in moderating it, as this isn't my personal fiefdom, it's the town's website. It is, however, unrealistic to think that the Charlbury Website can be immune from standard Internet forum patterns of behaviour. (That said, we are much less 'raging' than the ever lively Chippy website forum, for example - and that's not to say that either is better, but I think the Chippy one is more typical of the web as a whole.)

If anyone is too much of a shrinking violet to use the generally well-mannered, amiable backwater of the web that is the Charlbury Website, I'm afraid they have an unrealistic attitude towards the Internet, and it isn't really our job to educate them. And as ever with any community, if you want to improve something, get involved - don't just sit at the side throwing rocks!

(If anyone wants to continue this particular debate, could I suggest a separate thread?)

Back to the original subject of Brains, though, there's a great deal of sense being talked here by Igor, Derek and Jon, who I think are basically saying the same thing despite some differences of detail.

If much smaller places like Chadlington and Long Compton can support deli-style operations selling meat, there's no reason why Charlbury can't. Even an identikit version of either of those shops opening in Charlbury would go down a storm - especially if it broke the bizarre taboo that Charlbury shops shall only open from 9am-5pm plus a token effort on Saturdays, despite the fact the town has virtually no employment but one of the busiest commuter railway stations for miles.

As Jon says, it does require a willingness to "trade up". I have a lot of respect for News & Things in the way that they have sought to do this - selling newspapers at the station and through the Co-op, opening the new cafe, and so on. Much though Brains' meat is excellent and the Brains themselves are always friendly, I don't think there was the same willingness to identify the changing needs of the Charlbury customer. This means product selection, this means convenience (opening hours, methods of payment - hands up the shops that still don't accept Switch/Maestro in 2006!), this means putting a bit more thought into stock control (if you run out of baguettes, people will just go to the Co-op - and stay there), this means imaginative and thoughtful marketing.

An example: 25 years ago, when I was knee-high to a grasshopper growing up in rural Leicestershire, the butcher from the next village sent a van around once a week selling his wares. Why not try that here? A Charlbury deli/butcher could load up his van with high-quality ready meals and meat, trundle down to the station to meet the two HSTs in the evening, and trundle back up the hill loaded with cash from tired, hungry commuters.