Attrition of indie businesses on The Strait and Steep Hill
Walking up The Strait and Steep Hill, quite shocking the number of closed, failing or for sale independent businesses. More what one would expect in a run down town centre than what was once named only a few years ago the No 1 street in the country.
Why, what has caused this collapse?
One factor is the reliance on tourists. The tourist footfall has collapsed. The principle cause of this apart from maybe fewer tourists, is the bus that takes people from the High Street to Castle Hill, depriving them of an interesting walk, and for the local businesses loss of opportunist footfall.
Too many running the businesses are clueless.
Christmas and New Year is when there are a lot of tourists milling around. And what do the local businesses do, they close. They will reopen in the New Year when it will be dead until Easter.
Lincoln Castle closed. The Tourist Information Office closed.
And the excuse for being closed. It is Christmas and New Year.
It would be better to be open over the Christmas New Year holidays, then take a well earned January break relaxing in Tenerife.
Coffee Bobbins closed over Christmas New Year rumoured For Sale.
Undrinkable coffee from Lincoln Tea and Coffee, tea tea pigs owned by India conglomerate Tata, Tetley under any other name, a recipe for disaster.
Modern Classics, a greasy spoon cafe with Mod memorabilia, closed a couple of years ago. Has remained empty ever since.
Lincolnshire Live claimed a mystery it was closed. Not really, lack of customers, maybe hacks should get out and about a bit more.
Bird’s Yard junk shop, rarely open, odd hours when it is open.
Vintage Clothes shop, rarely open no surprise it has closed.
Base Camp, an excellent coffee shop, roast their own coffee, closed over Christmas and New Year. No indication when open. It is for sale, maybe has already changed hands.
The Rest, rarely open, Stokes coffee, rumoured for sale.
Bunty’s tea room, not open Christmas New Year. Former owner sold changed tack to distilling gin.
Harlequin Bookshop. An excellent bookshop or was. Now sitting derelict. The bookshop driven out of business by a greedy developer.
The shop below Harlequin Bookshop sitting empty and gutted.
Bookstop Cafe closed over Christmas and New Year.
Imperial Teas, excellent for tea, also coffee and chocolate, tea and coffee making paraphernalia. The rare exception open over Christmas and New Year, as a result a steady stream of customers. The other big difference, focus on quality and service, the staff and owners know their tea and coffee.
Pimento tea rooms. Once an excellent tea shop, served tea from Imperial Teas.
New owners took over and destroyed within six months. Yet more new owners have taken over, but will remain closed until sometime in the New Year, thus missing the Christmas New Year trade. An unhelpful notice on the window tells passers by to check social media for when open, but looks no time soon.
Widow Cullens Well Closed. Premises gutted.
The Old Mouse House Cheese Shop & Coffee Bar, previous tea shop closed and gutted. Fake cheddar cheese, tea pigs, Stokes coffee. How long will it survive?
If pass through into Bailgate, Bailgate Deli serving undrinkable coffee supplied by Lincoln Tea and Coffee illustrating why we need a latte levy.
Customers sat outside drinking from takeaway cups.
Not open part of the Christmas New Year season or closed early.
Pass through Bailgate to Coffee by the Arch, was for sale, sale agreed, buyer pulled a dirty trick, offered half the agreed price as contracts were due to be signed.
Down in the town centre, Sincil Street has fared even worse. Once, busier than the High Street between ten in the morning and four in the afternoon. A street lined with indie businesses in Victorian buildings, trashed by the local council in bed with the local Coop.
Each time a local businesses collapses, there is less reason to visit a street, more businesses collapse, a domino effect. And this collapse can destroy a street, as we have seen in Sincil Street and are now starting to see in The Strait and on Steep Hill.
It does not have to be, poor town centre planning, lack of understanding of how local economies function, clueless individuals running or should that be ruining the local businesses.
Internet and on-line shopping get the blame.
It is not why High Street chains are failing, they are failing due to piss-poor service. Their answer to on-line, cut service, treat customers with contempt, and thus enter a death spiral.
We have seen HMV collapse, the first casualty of the New Year. And yet indie record stores, for example Ben’s Records in Guildford, Resident in North Laine in Brighton, are doing well.
But, as one young lady running a business at the top of Steep Hill told me, she never enters a shop, buys everything on-line, she added the same was true of all her friends.
Indy businesses cannot compete on price, they can only remain in business on quality and service, something many on The Strait and Steep Hill fail to comprehend, and thus do not remain in business for long.
If you open a coffee shop serving poor quality coffee worse than the corporate chains, cut corners, buy cheap catering supply coffee, do not invest in equipment or people, open a cheese shop selling poor quality cheese will find in the Coop, are rarely open or keep irregular hours, then on hiding to nothing and will not survive for long, and will join the 80% of businesses that fail within their first 18 months.
It does not though have to be. North Laine in Brighton, three long streets similar to Sincil Street, side streets, quirky indie businesses, bookshops, coffee shops, fashion shops, music shops, little restaurants, always busy, not a chain in sight.
Indie businesses provide a sense of place, they recycle money within a local economy, employ people, but no help or support from local council.
