“…if people value their local shops then simply – use them or lose them!”
HEDON faces the end of the financial year with the uncomfortable sight of more empty shops.
Footsteps in the Market Place, which only opened its doors last June 2011, has closed and has been stripped bare inside. Taste, the former delicatessen next door, is still empty after closing last August.
Photo business Forever Photography in the Pump Yard (at the Old Mill Market lobby in Market Place) is also empty after trading at the premises for
just under a year. The former Terrie premises on Baxter Gate is also still empty.
We asked the owner of Game People on George Street to comment on the closure of the national *GAME video-gaming chain last week. Game People owner Mike Pearce responded that it’s not just gaming, but trading is tough generally:
“It’s extremely difficult for the high street in general it’s not just gaming. Competition from supermarkets and online certainly do not help. Supermarkets can afford to sell products at a loss and make up any shortfall in the other thousands of products they sell. Internet retailers such as play.com and Amazon have exploited the VAT loop-hole for years something that is now only being closed. It won’t be the first or last high street store to close this year.
There are no signs of an improving economy. All I would add is that if people value their local shops then simply use them, butcher, baker or Newsagent – use them or lose them!”
“Buy local, shop local” on a more regular basis certainly seems to be a strategy that we can all participate in.
*Note: OpCapita bought the video GAME retailer out of administration on Sunday 1st April 2012, rescuing 3,200 jobs.
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