Local shops have been talking about their struggle to stay open in the face of online competition and high rent.
eyond Brooke is an independent shop in Wellington Street in Douglas, which is being forced to close down by the cost of rent and online competition.
Jan Hewitt, owner of the clothing boutique, told the Manx Independent of the difficulties of running a small high street business.
?I?ve only been trading since June but already I?m closing the shop and just keeping my online side of the business running,? she said. ?The cost of running the retail unit is well over ?2,000 per month, excluding salaries. The cost of running the website comes in at under ?150 per month.
?My online sales have grown steadily since the launch of my website, whilst the shop sales have remained stagnant or fallen each month.
?Rent is so high there?s just no way I can make enough money to make the shop viable. I actually started the website as a side project, expecting it to perhaps not last, but it?s turned out the other way round.?
Talking about recent high street closures she said: ?It?s really sad, but everything?s going online, you need to be on sites like Facebook and Twitter to compete.
?People don?t seem very interested in walking into shops anymore and the rent is just too much to keep the shops open. Any online profits can get eaten up by shop rental.?
Abode, which specialises in home furnishings, is another independent Douglas store struggling against the internet. It will soon have an online presence.
Owner Mary Mason wrote to the Manx Independent after our coverage last week of the problems at HMV and our revelation that the number of parcels posted to the island had soared by 27 per cent in four years.
Her letter, which appears in full on page six, reads: ?I have been running Abode for over 20 years and without question the last three or four years have been the most challenging. I see no signs of improvement at all, in fact I expect to see further decline this year. Douglas looks like a run-down town - the more businesses that fail, the more run-down it appears.
?The downmarket shops perpetuate this impression. Douglas high street does not reflect the apparent affluence the Isle of Man seemingly still enjoys.?
The store has seen significant decreases in sales and Ms Mason does not see an easy answer.
?I don?t have a quick fix solution. A reduction in VAT would be welcome, but that would be unfair on other types of businesses also struggling here, and there are many.
?The fact that my only costs not to have decreased over this period are freight, despite bringing less goods in, and rent and rates, suggests that these are areas that need not just an individual approach, but a more collective approach.
?I have found some government departments extremely helpful and responsive, but others much less so, most notably over the regeneration scheme around Wellington Street last year. I think some sections of government that are meant to assist local businesses can at times seem to do the reverse. It?s increasingly unlikely that Abode will be here for another 20 years.?
ray lewis dear abby WRAL John Harbaugh jill biden jill biden martin luther king jr
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.