Could Online Shopping Help to Regenerate Our High Streets?

Karen Mercer, My Coffee Stop. Photo by Anne-Marie Sanderson.

Save time by not reading this article and just buy something straight away from my website, to see if my theory is correct!  

BUY SOMETHING NOW!

Ok, if you must, here is the article, enjoy! 

Where does my money go to, who do I buy from?

I specifically ensure that my money is mostly spent on independent local businesses! So, when you buy from us, no matter whether it's from our shop in Shepton Mallet, or online, you know that we filter that money back into the local, independent and small business, circular economy. Buy from us and we make a concerted and conscientious effort to spend it in our local high street. We go to Peppers, The Hive, Denela's, Dredge and Male, Steve's Fish Restaurant, The Swan, The Bell, The Club Lounge, Hidden Treasures, The Dusthole, Anna's Attic, I-do Vintage, The Furniture Workshop, Minsky's Barbers, C.H. Penn the Jewellers and Starlight Studios and support numerous home businesses and charities in the local area, doing what we can. I've probably missed a very big one out there! We even support Haskins by choosing to shop at Aldi and other shops in their building! So, when you buy from us, you are absolutely supporting your whole high street because we make damn sure you do!

I'd really like to do more and for that, I need your help, please!

What I am asking for you to do is to please help my family and myself to contribute even more to our town. 

Since closing our shop in Enfield, we are totally reliant on you making a conscious effort to buy from us. I know it's hard to come into town when you've been working all the hours that you can, that's why I have created a website, so that you can still support our family and our business ethos, by ordering online from us. We deliver FREE to you if you live in the BA4 postcode area, we also have click and collect as an option. If there is one thing that you can buy from us instead of a supermarket, then please do just that.

What if you can't find the healthy, or vegan, or gluten-free thing that you want on our website? Then please just comment on this blog post and tell us the product name and size that you are looking for and we will update our website, to sell you the things that you are looking for.

We don't lead an extravagant lifestyle, we don't have massive needs but we would like to provide you with a business that you want to use and sells the things that you want and need at a fair, reasonable price. We want to create a business that is successful here in Shepton Mallet. 

When we closed our shop in Enfield, I thought that our customers/friends would love to buy from our online shop, I imagined people buying our Yogi Tea Bags, or Protein Powders, or our Coffee but this hasn't really happened but I still feel sure that it could, maybe I just need to say, please buy from us, we need you to help us and we would like to be give the opportunity to sell you the things that you need.

Since closing our Enfield shop, we have had to claim Housing Benefit, to help us be able to pay our rent. I don't want to have to claim housing benefit, I want us to be able to sell our friends and our family the things they want, at the price they feel able to pay.

In writing this blog, I might earn a few pennies from advertising revenue and I really mean, a few pennies! In creating my website that takes many hours, I have sold a few things but it could do a lot better. I need my friends and my family and my children's friends, to make a concerted effort to use it and if there is something that you want to buy that is health food or whole food orientated, then please let me know. 

I understand that you can't always get to visit my shop in person, or even get to it EVER, BUT please support my family and I in our venture to continue our Coffee and Health Food shop on the high street of Shepton Mallet.

Anna Perra's shop on the high street is closing this month, I haven't been able to visit for ages to buy at least a little something because I just haven't had the money. I've seen Penny's Sweets go, I've seen No 21 go, I've seen Nostalgia go, Tina's Pet Pantry, Fred's Shop, Twice as Nice, Mendip Fireplaces and Just Jo all these shops added character, personality and enjoyment to our high street and now Anna Perra is going, there'll be another empty unit. Anna is keeping her business going as an online shop and doing events too, so she's cutting one massive overhead from her business and concentrating on creating an income from decreasing her overheads. Seeing another shop close is always a shock to residents and especially, I feel, to other shopkeepers. It is a reminder of our own vulnerabilities and how needy we are for your continued support. Yes, I look at Anna Perra's shop closing and feel scared, very scared for the future of my shop too.

I want to support the high street, I want people to know about the shabby chic charm of Shepton Mallet but I cannot do it on my own, I need you to help. This is a two way process, I will help you get the things you want and you can help me to stay where I am on the high street, adding a big dollop of personality and charisma to our wonderful town!

People used to say that online shopping caused the demise of the high street, I see online shopping as a tool to help regenerate the high street and keep supporting those little independent shops that you love, even if you're working so hard that you don't even get a chance to visit them!

I look forward to receiving your order today!

BUY SOMETHING NOW!

Another Shop Shuts in Shepton.

Helping Mike Alford and his family and in turn, helping to protect our High Street by successfully campaigning against Tesco installing a Timpson pod at The Townsend Retail Park, gave me a warm glow and a real sense of achievement. Today, though, I feel like a firefighter who has been fighting one blaze, only to turn around and see that another fire was burning and the sustainability of another business on our High Street has been under threat. That business, Penny's Sweets, right next door to our shop, has now closed. Jenny Penny is pleased to take on new opportunities, which is a good thing but I feel gutted that they have closed.

I came to Shepton Mallet with the aim of helping to revitalise the High Street, to help visitors and locals to realise what brilliantly cool shops we have. Right from the word go, Jenny and her family were very welcoming, as our shop neighbours. I particularly enjoyed the support that Jenny and I gave to each other. I sent customers to her, she sent customers to me.

The closure of Penny's Sweets is a real blow to the High Street. To me it looks like a row of teeth with a space, where one has been knocked out, there's a gap, a big, vacant screaming gap. I'm trying to be thankful that the only casualty seems to be the shop, rather than Jenny or her family. Taking the decision to shut your shop is a very difficult process and it can destroy some people, so I take great solace in the fact that Jenny has retained her sanity and health. However, on a personal level for me, I feel so upset by this, I can hardly gather together my motivation to go into work today.

I've never thought about what it feels like for the shop keeper of the shop next door to the one that closed, before. In this instance, this shopkeeper feels very, very upset and sad, it is almost like there has been a death. I feel like crying and do, sometimes, when I walk past that closed door. I have in my mind the image of a happy, lively place, which is now a tombstone. I might get that a bit more into perspective soon but that's how it feels to me right now.

My morale is rock bottom and I want to blame someone. Basically, it's your fault because you didn't pop in enough and you didn't buy enough, or is it the fault of the economy, with the prison closure, the Co-operative bank closing and so on, or maybe is it the fault of the council, the accountancy firm at The Mill moved to Wells, as they couldn't get planning permission to expand their offices here in Shepton, or maybe it is my fault, I was completely focused on saving the High Street from the Timpson pod, depleting footfall even further, whilst in the meantime, my neighbour's business closes? Now I pose myself the difficult question, did my business help or hinder the business next door?

I like to think that I bought more visitors into town and I promoted Penny's Sweets to my customers and to all my visitors, I also talked about Penny's Sweets on social media. I like to think I helped the business next door to me but did I truly? I set up a Shepton Mallet Shops website to support all independent shops and businesses in the area and a Facebook Group, Discover Shepton Mallet, to let everyone know about these kinds of hidden gems. It wasn't enough, more needed to be done. Doing more in these times is like riding a ship in a storm, with one hand on the steering wheel, (If that's what it's called on a ship), whilst bailing out water, with a bucket, with the other hand.

I know I can't take on responsibility for the whole High Street but I do have to accept at least some responsibility for there now being an empty shop, next to mine. If I don't then I deny myself the power to make changes and make a difference in the future.

So, for the while, let me feel sad and analyse what I can do better in the future, with your support.

We said 'No'to Timpson at Tesco and they listened!

I received a most delicious phone call yesterday from Fuchsia at Shepton Mallet Journal, telling me the news that Tesco had withdrawn their application for a Timpson pod!



As, at the time of writing, I am not aware of any comments made by Timpson or Tesco, I assume the withdrawal of the application is as a direct result of our online petition, set up in July of this year. The power of well over 500 signatures and over 150 strong comments, combined with great local press coverage by Shepton Mallet Journal, a supportive mention by Kevin McCloud in his Grand Designs Magazine and supportive retweets from local business man and creator of Kilver Court, Roger Saul and his other connections, which attracted more and more support.



Our online petition was set up using change.org, the format of their website was extremely easy to use with really useful articles and tips to help us garner extra support.



This is the first time I have ever set up a petition to campaign against an economic injustice, or any kind of injustice and to think it has been successful, is incredible. A massive thank you to you, if you did anything in any way to support this action!



Now to focus on the changing face of our High Street! Together we can make change.





Shepton Mallet shops triumph as application for Timpson at Tesco is withdrawn | Shepton Mallet Journal

A Guest Blog by Chantal Allison: #Transition Towns #Shepton Mallet

Why it's a 'No' to Timpson in Shepton
By Chantal Allison, from Transition Shepton.

Once again, the turning of the 'clone-town' screw is being felt in Shepton. One major argument for inviting large corporations into our local economy is to create jobs for local people. What doesn't get said is that these jobs are usually for minimum wage and are probably only part-time.

The proposal for a #Timpson, offering shoe repairs, key cutting, watch repair and dry cleaning will, I believe, create 2-3 full-time jobs at best. However,  three local businesses will be directly  affected;  The Shepton Cobbler, Wash Tub and C H Penns, the independent jewellers. That's at least eight jobs that I'm aware of that are at risk. This is not taking into account the impact on other businesses as the result of the reduced footfall in the High Street.

Timpson are a corporate entity in their own right, who  have over 1000 pods throughout the UK in #Tesco and Sainsbury's. This arrangement of course, works in favour of the supermarkets, since it encourages people to shop in their store, with a so-called one-stop, 'convenient' shopping offering.  

The one-stop shopping approach has at least two, perhaps unintended, consequences:

1/ All profits made from local labour is funnelled straight into the corporation's central coffers away from the local economy, thus further impoverishing the town. 

Local businesses do not do this. They promote the circulation of wealth within the local economy.

2/ A sense of community can diminish.

 A thriving High Street often creates and invigorates the local community.

Promoting local businesses is not just a romantic hankering for the good old days. Large corporations such as Tesco could not function without oil. They need it both in their distribution of food and goods and in the running of  their over-lit and over-refrigerated stores. This will become more difficult to sustain and justify as fossil fuels become more scarce and more expensive to extract. The move towards fracking is evidence that easy options for extracting fossil fuels are running out. The corporations will inevitably pass all the necessary price hikes on to you, the consumer. And if they're the only show in town, then they'll charge what they like.

Shepton needs a long term vision which ensures local businesses can thrive, local people can prosper, and the unique character of our High Street is promoted and preserved. The wider benefits of a prosperous and vibrant High Street is an increased sense of community for local people, more visitors who bring wealth into the local economy and perhaps most importantly, increased resilience against the anticipated price hikes in energy and oil.

Come on, Mendip District Council! Show some imagination and innovative thinking! Use your  committment to regenerating the High St by finding long term solutions that benefit the whole community. 

Allowing a Timpson outlet at Tesco in the Townsend Retail Park, is not the way to do it.

***********************************************************

Thank you to Chantal Allison, from Transition Towns, for contributing to the My Coffee Stop Stories Blog.

Transition Shepton is part of the Transition Towns network, which is a nation-wide grass-roots movement  promoting ways of reducing the carbon footprint and encouraging towns to create their own initiatives.

TESCO, 'Every Little Helps' so go on then, help!

I am just a shopkeeper with two shops and one of the most important things for me in business is ethics and sustainability, in fact, all my business decisions are taken with that in mind, in balance with the economics. I am not one for taking a business decision just because it would be good financially, it has to be sustainable and ethical and I have to be able to sleep at night and to know that I have helped my community and contributed to it in a positive way. Why can't Tesco do that?

It's no secret that Tesco are struggling, especially after the news that their CEO Philip Clarke was ousted after poor financial results. I believe #Tesco is suffering financially because they are too aggressive in upscaling their retail operations, at the expense of local communities and local long established businesses. Surely they must realise that economic times are extremely difficult. In their rapid diversification, they have not chosen the best option, this aggressive way of doing business destroys the economy of the local community, it directly takes the pounds out of the pockets of the very people, that Tesco need to be cash rich, their customers!

Someone needs to make Tesco see logical, economical sense:

In the short term profits rise with aggressive trading but in the long term, agressive trading destroys the health of the very economy it relies upon for it's success.

If I could have a chat with the Chairman of Tesco, not the CEO, as he is leaving and not with the incoming CEO because he'd be new to the job, this is what I would like to say:

'When Tesco decides to really give back to the community, when the relationship is truly symbiotic, instead of stifling, then you will see sustainability in your business.

When you give a percentage of your profits to your community, you will see that the community will choose to support you.

Think of sustainability and success in business, as being like the water cycle, if there was someone at the top siphoning off a large percentage of water for themselves, then the amount of water in the cycle would decrease and they too, would not be able to enjoy the resource of plentiful water, as the water cycle would have been destroyed, it would no longer be sustainable. That is what is happening to our economy, you are hoarding the finances, not sharing and that is why your profits will fall and fall. It is due to greed and faulty thinking that you have got yourselves into this mess. 

At the moment Tesco, I can't afford to support you. If I support you, then that would mean I would be supporting your plans which have already caused devastation across the UK's High Streets and supporting the planning application for a Timpson pod, which you have recently put in. This Timpson pod would offer, shoe, watch and jewellery repairs, as well as key-cutting and dry cleaning, all services which we have firmly established by family businesses, for years on our High Street.

Putting a pod like that in place will decrease footfall in the town center and be a kick in the guts for small businesses on the High Street, my customers. If you take money from my customers, I don't have money to be your customer!

Do you get it now? Do you understand why your business is now failing too? Tesco, you are busy destroying the circular economy, when you could actually be responsible for making it stronger and healthier.

Think about it, giving more to your local community financially, not just with tin collection schemes that customers pay you for and then you donate to a local charity and make yourself look generous when you've added 30% of your own goods on top but by encouraging local businesses to thrive, by really teaming up with them and working together towards mutually beneficial ways of trading. Do that and then you will see Tesco thrive again.

So, Tesco, if you want to know the secret to true economic success, it is sustainability and sharing.'

Seeing as it's not very likely that the Chairman of Tesco will have a chat with me. I appeal to you, to please help me to stop Tesco's planning permission from going through.

Please join my Say No to Timpson at Tesco campaign, by clicking on the link below and signing the petition  it brings up and sharing with your friends too. Thank you.

Say NO to Timpson at Tesco!

You can also log an objection to the planning application, directly to Mendip Council, using this link:

Application Objections

Business Mum Week!

SHOCK Cash Mob at The Village Wholefood Store!

Did you know...

That from October 1st to October 7th, it was Business Mum Week 2012?

I don't know about you but I'm a Mum and if you're a Mum too, you're probably very busy, if you're a working Mum and especially if you run your own business, then you're probably extremely busy.

That particular week was for me, extremely busy indeed! It's one of those weeks, where I didn't realise, until at the end of the week, when I could relax and allow myself to rest, I looked back and thought, 'That was a busy one!'.

Art Exhibition!

For a start, we had a new art exhibition going up, by Love Light Art, on Monday. The old exhibition had to come down, the new one had to go up, more space had to be made, as there are so many brilliant pictures, just so many of them, there are cards and prints and at the same time a new delivery of goodies came into our shop, that all needed pricing and labelling up.

SHOCK Cash Mob!

At the same time, I was secretly organising a mob of ten people to go into a great health food shop, The Village Wholefood Store, to shock the owner by all spending £10 each and giving a brilliant local independent retailer a boost with finances and some great PR, with the press coming down to cover the story and highlighting Jill Simpson's business! You can find out more about this story by reading my guest blog on Clare Rayner's The Retail Champion Blog, or by taking a peek at the coverage by The Enfield Advertiser!

New Skinny Me Meet Up!

In the same week we were hosting a special event for the participants, or potential participants in the New Skinny Me programme. It was at that point, on Friday, the end of the week that everything seemed like it was colliding together.

Collide!

My 3 year old wasn't feeling his normal self, not ill but just not himself, let's say, not ill....yet! I was meant to be concentrating on the New Skinny Me meet Up but couldn't, everything was coming together, yet colliding at the same time! A lady that I had connected with on Facebook arrived at the same time as the New Skinny Me meeting was still ongoing, with clothes and toys that I was buying from her in preparation for my 3 year old's next birthday and all at the same time as trying to pay money to the lady from the Enfield Preservation Society, for some picture cards of our local area, for the shop. My phone was beeping and bleeping with people responding to posts and pictures of the Cash Mob event and the art exhibition, oh and asking if they would like to vote for me in The Top 100 Mums, Business Mum Awards, by The Mum's Club! And at the same time, I was trying to get an Enfield contact for a journalist, for a story, just to help them out because I reckon, that's what Mums do, isn't it! At the same time, I'm trying to meet up with my brother from America, my sister-in-law and new baby nephew but haven't got not one second to spare, to communicate!

My 3 year old got his cuddles, New Skinny Me ladies, got their guidance from Amrit, The Enfield Preservation society got their money, as did the lady with the clothes and toys and guess what! The journalist even managed to get his contact!! I even got to see my brother and the rest of the family, then my car broke down, with 3 year old in it too. Just remembered that I was covered by my insurance policy, as an added extra to have breakdown cover! 

We were rescued, then I got home and oldest son was very pleased to see me, I was exhausted and needed to clear up the lounge ready for the weekend, whilst Gunter, my partner cooked for us all.

So, that definitely was one busy and exhausting week!

Top 100 Mums!

Today, Sunday, life was a bit calmer, after I had put in a food order to arrive at the shop, for the next day, we all went to and enjoyed the new weekly Crews Hill Market! Towards the end of the evening, I got the children ready for bed, with relaxing baths and washed and combed their hair, got their things ready for school and nursery the next day. At around 9pm, I get onto facebook and get distracted for a few hours, then decide to wind down and get ready to go to bed, as it's 10.30pm. I decide to finish up by reading my emails and deleting the ones I don't need. I open my email up and right at the top, in big capital letters, where I can't possibly miss it, there's an email with the subject starting, 'CONGRATULATIONS!' My heart started thumping, was I one of the Top 100 Mums in the UK, or not?

I opened the email and, read through quickly and this is what it said....

'CONGRATULATIONS! You have been voted into the Top 100 of the Mums Club 2012 Awards!'

I read on and the email told me that it had been Business Mums Week the whole of my very hectic week and the irony wasn't lost on me, that I completely didn't realise purely because I'm a busy Mum!

So to everyone that has voted for me in these awards and made me feel loved, valued and appreciated, I say a mighty big thank you and I will always do my best to share our success, with you! 

Fairtrade Fortnight 2012

Let's Take a Step Together!

I'm gearing up for tomorrow! I have my t-shirt, I have the brochures, I have the stickers, I have the products, I've got the ingredients for cake, yeah, I have my cake and I'm going to eat it and I'm going to make sure that you get some too! And it's all Fairtrade!

Monday the 27th of February, is the start of Fairtrade Fortnight and it runs up to Sunday the 11th of March.

The aim of Fairtrade Fortnight this year is to get 1.5 million steps for Fairtrade registered as actions. so, this Fairtrade Fortnight is to inspire you if you've taken a step before, or if you've never taken a step before! There are so many different steps that we as individuals or businesses can take, they might be small steps but each of them added together can make one big step, to help farmers and they communities in developing countries to receive fairer payments, fairer wages and fairer conditions.

Our Fairtrade Story
When we opened our coffee shop 3 years ago and we made a pledge to ourselves to use only Fairtrade coffee, not to offer a choice but to commit 100% to Fairtrade coffee, despite the tough economic times, we knew that it was the only way that we could feel good running our business. As individuals, our business is an extension of ourselves and what I wouldn't feel comfortable doing in my personal life, I will not do in my business life either. So, yes, we chose Fairtrade coffee, we went on to choose after just a couple of months Fairtrade tea and chocolate and we just kept expanding the amount of Fairtrade that we did, until after just 6 months we bought our own oven specifically so that we could commit to using Fairtrade ingredients in our cakes.

How did this passion for Fairtrade begin? Well, I read about it in a pamphlet from the Fairtrade Foundation, just a month before we opened our coffee shop. I had not heard of Fairtrade before that time. That's what inspired me to create a guide to the independent shops in Enfield that sell or serve Fairtrade, you can pick one up in our shop, or you'll find me out and about during Fairtrade Fortnight, encouraging other individuals and businesses to 'Take a Step' for Fairtrade and I'll have a stack of them with me then, to give out.

You can download our guide to Fairtrade in Enfield, from here!

Fairtrade shouldn't be a unique selling point!
The decision that my partner Gunter Hollenstein and I took, to stock Fairtrade was hardly a decision but more of a heartfelt step that we knew we had to take. Is there really a choice? If you know that one way of trading means that checks have been made, premiums paid and a minimum price band introduced and another means that workers are unable to unionise, that there is no guaranteed price and communities are not given additional help, then why would you, or even could you choose any other way? The Fairtrade labelling system guarantees that the farmers of that product in the developing countries have been given a Fair deal, as specified by internationally agreed trading standards.

I don't want My Coffee Stop stocking a good range of Fairtrade products to be our unique selling point! This is a unique selling point that, I'm wishing wasn't!

I actively encourage and delight in telling other coffee shop owners the excellent Fairtrade suppliers that we've found, so that they can support Fairtrade too and that's why suppliers are listed for everyone to see and use in the Fairtrade Guide that we have produced.

Fairtrade Fortnight Launch!
Just over 6 months after the riots in Enfield, I'll be taking to the very same streets to launch Fairtrade Fortnight in Enfield. I'll be wearing my Fairtrade tee-shirt, armed with stickers, the Enfield Fairtrade Directory and cards on which to register step/s and I'll be encouraging individuals and businesses to 'Take a Step', with me for Fairtrade!'

I'll be starting out at the Civic Centre in Enfield and will work my way up through the high street and back up to  My Coffee Stop at Enfield Chase Station. I'll pick out people and businesses randomly to approach and encourage to 'Take a Step' for Fairtrade, in the hope of helping the Fairtrade Foundation accomplish a grand total of 1.5 million registered steps!

The launch will take place at 10am on the first day of Fairtrade Fortnight, Monday February 27th, outside the Civic Centre, by the chunky Enfield sign.

Keep an eye out for me throughout Fairtrade Fortnight, as you never know when I might appear and ask you to 'Take a Step' with me!

Please Take a Step
I hope this post inspires you to join in and 'Take a Step', when you've taken that step, whatever it is, please register it here!

Please help me to encourage people to 'Take a Step' by sharing this article, wherever you can!
Facebook, Twitter, +1 it if you so desire. Hey! Maybe that can be your step, if you like.

Share this article then register that you shared an article about Fairtrade Fortnight.

As they say, 'Every Step Helps'.

Thanks for any steps that you do take to support Fairtrade Fortnight!

Enjoy!

Karen. xx