After a short visit to Wales, it is clear that the multiples are colonising where it matters - the sides of car parks in tourist towns. We have three examples of local shops that could do more to win business from tourists. At Montgomery, a town that has 35 of 50 retail units empty, we parked in the attractive high street and walked towards a cafe for a cup of tea. As we reached the door a bell on the town hall clock rang out. "We're closed, it's 4.30," the waitress said, with a smile. She really did look pleased to turn us away. At Trecastle, we stopped at a cafe which was recommended but claimed to be closed Mondays and Tuesdays. "You are open," we said, with delight. "In your ad it said you would be closed." We had a nice late lunch. The owner did not ask where we had seen the ad. Outside Welshpool, we stopped at a farm shop. It was expensive. There was some attractive looking honey. Underneath it said made in New Zealand. So did the next honey. And the next. By the time we found the local honey we did not care. The Co-op in Brecon sold me eggs in a pack of four. That was how many eggs I wanted to boil for breakfast. It was the stand out moment of the week. The local shops were OK but they need to be much better if they want to beat the multiples.
“Twenty years ago I was driving boxes to the post office in my Chevy Blazer and dreaming of a forklift,” says Jeff Bezos in his most recent letter to shareholders. A blink later and he points out that the company has grown from 30,000 employees in 2010 to 230,000 now. But his ambition is the same. “We want to be a large company that’s also an invention machine. We want to combine the extraordinary customer-serving capabilities that are enabled by size with the speed of movement, nimbleness and risk-acceptance mentality that is normally associated with entrepreneurial start-ups.” Amazon is great at disruption because of its customers focus and the fact that the internet means it needs none (or very few) people between its warehouses and the shopper. The threat of Prime, its membership service, is the biggest challenge facing the UK retail market and the wholesale market by extension. It is both a direct threat and an indirect threat in that is inspiring countless numbers of othe...
Comments
Post a Comment