SIR — Tim Moran (Mailbox, September 25) made an excellent point: whilst we may have to accept that supermarkets are a fact of life, there should also be space in our wallets to support small independent retailers in our town.
Just a small shift in the way we spend our money can make a huge difference to local shops and market traders.
Tim reports that his shop sees around 100 customers per day, each spending an average of £5.50. Imagine if, with the opening of a big
new supermarket, each of these customers continues shopping in Tim's shop, but they all now spend just £1 less than before. That would mean a fall in turnover of nearly 20% for our local independent retailer, which could be enough to close him down.
On the other hand, if each of these customers spent just £1 extra in the local shop, we'd see a near 20% increase in turnover — a real boost to business!
It has been well documented that when big new superstores arrive in an area, local shops do not close down because they suddenly have no customers. People carry on using local shops, and switch what might seem like only a small amount of their spending to the supermarket. That shift in spending, though, is enough to put the small shop under real strain, eventually forcing them to close their doors.
If we want to use our local shops at all, we must use them enough to allow them to survive and thrive. Just £1 per customer can make a real difference, so let's all make sure we're making a difference in the right direction.
Jessie Marcham,
3 Lincoln Street, Chesterfield.
The full article contains 290 words and appears in Derbyshire Times newspaper.
