Letter: Use shops or lose them
Monday 8th March 2010, 9:31AM GMT.
Wem High Street was a busy place in 1935's jubilee year
Letter: In response to the comments of Wem councillor Peggy Carson, as reported in the Shropshire Star, about the lack of suitable shops in Wem I would say: “Sorry, Peggy, we cannot put the clocks back!”
Sixty four years ago when I first came to live in the Wem area, the mainly family-run shops in Wem covered every conceivable requirement of both the townsfolk and those living in the surrounding area. The railway provided the only means of regular daily travel further afield and hardly anybody had a car.
Gradually higher rents and rates – together with the lack of support from customers – appears to have caused business after business to close down.
The greatly increased population of Wem is more mobile and would seem to spend its money out of the town, except when it comes to “takeaways”.
Sixty four years ago, we only had Obertelli’s fish and chip shop in New Street and Ellis’s cafe on the High Street.
As far as the remaining shops and businesses are concerned: “If you do not use them, you will lose them!”
Keith Iddles
Wem
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It is not just Wem that has this problem, most of the original market towns are losing their small traders to the supermarket giants. The little man just cannot compete with their purchasing power. Even after the expense of running a car to Shrewsbury one can still make a substantial saving on the average weekly shopping trip. It’s not disloyalty, it’s common sense economics. I personally knew a couple of small business owners in Wem, and 10 years ago they were complaining about the high rent and rates they had to pay so perhaps the local council should be prepared to shoulder much of the blame. As for re-vamping the High Street I sincerely hope they don’t make the same mistake they did last time. Boarded up shop fronts were smothered in truly obnoxious “murals”. The town looked as though it had hosted an amateur graffiti artists convention. I would say to Wem council, “physician heal thyself”.
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It is called progress.
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I’ve never seen the logic behind the “use it or loose it” appeals. If people aren’t using it, then is because people don’t want to use it – therefore it makes no odds if they are lost.
If businesses offered something unique or special then they would be used. Nostalgia has no place in afraid, especially in such hard times.
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Supermarkets aren’t innocent when it comes to the destruction of the country’s high streets. They go out of their way to systematically undercut – even at a loss – every outlet that even marginally encroaches on their territory. They don’t stop until they’ve removed every last scrap of competition from the area. Then they do it again in the next town. They’re like locusts crossed with cuckoos.
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They’re like locusts crossed with cuckoos.
Loco
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