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Lerwick town centre


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http://www.cuttingyourcaruse.co.uk/carbust37a.htm

 

This says much the same as all the others, but interesting nonetheless.

 

The street is improving with the number of eateries in close proximity. If one is full one moves onto the next. Shops such as Conochies, selling a wide range will be there for many years yet, although I imagine they will have seen a dwindling of sales over the years in magazines and newspapers, the latter because you can get your news instantly online, the former because you can get a subscription delivered to your door usually somewhere around half the price. For the recyclers there is the charity and junk shop sector. We have pharmacies and home wares stores, crafts and sport are catered for, no shortage of hair cutting establishments, once we discount the banks then the majority of the rest appeals to the tourists.

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Ninety-nine percent of shops across the U.K. will happily take orders online, promptly send the purchase to the given address while smiling all the way because the money continues to come in. I wonder how many shops on Commercial Street do the same? I wonder how many across the whole of Shetland do that? Delivering by post or courier after the order is made on the net kinda kills the need for Commercial Street, and it encourages the drivers to go nowhere near CS. After all, we don't want to run down too many pedestrians.

 

No time to chat now, got to order a Shetland lamb and a Fair Isle jumper on Amazon.

 

Online shops require money and effort to set up and constantly promote. But fundamentally I'd say they're no longer worth the effort since they have an impossible time standing out against the competition of dominant websites. Even if you're thinking about it at a local level with a collective online presence, the "support local (but pay much more)" ethos probably won't gather the optimistic following you might hope... It's best to coerce shoppers into a high  spend in a shop where they can't price compare!

 

Amazon/ebay have established themselves as dominant marketplaces with low cost items, so usually the best approach as a retailer is to use them as an outlet for exposure and let them take their cut. Though whether you can compete on price via high volume sales remains to be seen. So yes, you perhaps should be going to Amazon for the above but to buy local!

 

The only solution in my eyes is legislation to create a level the playing field with retail stored vs online. Whether that is done by competition laws, tax, is another can of worms... Certainly no one will want Amazon to have to increase their prices, since we've already been given that cake and it would be impossible to take back...

Edited by tooney1
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The only solution in my eyes is legislation to create a level the playing field with retail stored vs online. Whether that is done by competition laws, tax, is another can of worms... 

That suggests no more than inflicting the rulers profits or preferences upon the common man - regardless of what you, me or the folk next door may wish to purchase. If that comes to be, it will show just how democratic those that rule really are.

 

Online shops require money and effort to set up and constantly promote. 

So does every other shop, supermarket or sales house, builder, builders merchant, what- and whoever. Fortunately for the people trading online, it doesn't cost as much to run and maintain, as they need less to operate. That tends to reflect on us by keeping the prices down a little.

 

Why have a lot of the local dealers apparently remained offline, rather than gone online as well as maintaining their shops and local businesses? It would give them the ability to sell worldwide, as opposed to selling to no more than those within walking distance.

Edited by George.
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There are those on Da Street who were running what was little more than a cartel. Most of what I want is not available, “but we can get it for you sir”. That may have worked in the old days, but it doesn’t work now. Times have changed, I can get a it myself, more quickly and for less.

 

In all my years, many years ago, of serving the retail trade, I never met a poor shopkeeper, neither did I meet one that wasn't grumpy. The only cheerful ones were the antiques dealers.

 

We buy old junk and sell fine antiques. I don't know if that sign ever really existed, but it summed up the trade.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Lerwick is one of 10 cool shopping districts around the world

It's certainly claimed to be, usually by the people that have a wee shop there. Think that I'll stick with Amazon, the prices are quarter of what's charged around here, the selection is a hundred times greater and only too often it's delivered free of charge.

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It's certainly claimed to be, usually by the people that have a wee shop there. Think that I'll stick with Amazon, the prices are quarter of what's charged around here, the selection is a hundred times greater and only too often it's delivered free of charge.

Lerwick is one of 10 cool shopping districts around the world

 

Well, you say that and I agree about some of the prices on the street but Amazon is virtually slave labour and to me that is unacceptable - https://www.businessinsider.com/amazon-warehouse-workers-share-their-horror-stories-2018-4?r=US&IR=T

 

I have tried to buy local as much as possible both here and when I went south last week because, and I believe this to be true,

"When you buy from a small business, an actual person does a little happy dance."

And they do, ok not in front of you, but they do.

When I wrote my blog last week about Christmas shopping, I had a few replies from readers saying Commercial Street looked wonderful with so much unusual imaginative choice on offer.  So I think we should count our blessings and support them too as much as we can rather than resorting to the Temple of Amazon.

 

But that is just me and my thoughts and no doubt I will be slammed down by the neigh-sayers!

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Well, you say that and I agree about some of the prices on the street but Amazon is virtually slave labour and to me that is unacceptable

The minimum rate that Amazon pay in the U.K, as of October this year, is £9.50 per hour. The minimum legal wage for those over the age of 25 in the U.K. is now £7.83 per hour. I would suggest that Amazon are not the ones at fault, however the rubbish in Westminster that inflicted their idea of a minimum wage upon us are less than perfect. They are both leeches and parasites, and regularly show themselves for what they are, in my opinion of course.

Edited by George.
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I think why support the local shops and buy local when they don't support me. They charge sometimes 4 times the price of things that i can get online or from coop/tescos.

But i also know its hard to run a business at a profit in the town and they need to make money but tbh i need money too so i do what i have to do.

Its not nice but its how i feel about local business.

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  • 4 weeks later...

 

Well, you say that and I agree about some of the prices on the street but Amazon is virtually slave labour and to me that is unacceptable

The minimum rate that Amazon pay in the U.K, as of October this year, is £9.50 per hour. The minimum legal wage for those over the age of 25 in the U.K. is now £7.83 per hour. I would suggest that Amazon are not the ones at fault, however the rubbish in Westminster that inflicted their idea of a minimum wage upon us are less than perfect. They are both leeches and parasites, and regularly show themselves for what they are, in my opinion of course.

 

 

i remember before minimum wage the UK had security guards working for 75p an hour.  I wouldn't want to work for minimum wage rates, but I would at least make sure my effort was proportional to the wage.

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