Material Gains

Andrew Griffihs visits two businesses in New Mills and ponders whether the high street revival could be built on offering things to do as well as buy

There has been more bad news for the UK high streets with recent figures released by the British Retail Consortium (BRC) which paints a grim picture of life for these small businesses over the summer. There was a 2.7 per cent drop in footfall compared with the same period last year, and a continuing steady rise in vacancy rates which now sits at 10.3 per cent.

It is the internet and online shopping which is so damaging business in our towns and villages. It’s difficult for these smaller shops to survive when they are competing with online stores which have an ethereal existence on the web.

The future is ‘experiential retail’ say the experts, which is a vision for the high street where people not only buy ‘things’ but experiences too. It is an approach that is being encouraged by the Government with a new fund launched to encourage new and vibrant ideas for our shops, and there will be an opportunity to bid from a fund worth £25m.

‘They have got to be more diverse,’ said Jake Berry, then Government High Street Minister when launching the initiative. ‘They can’t all be hot food takeaways, charity shops and bookmakers, we want to see a diverse and vibrant high street.’

The trend towards ‘experiential shopping’ is finding its way into Derbyshire’s towns, and there are a few businesses starting to offer these kinds of experiences for visitors in the small town of New Mills, close to the border with Cheshire.

Linda Arrandale used to work as a trainer in a Manchester call centre for the Cooperative Society, so when she decided to take the plunge and open a fabric shop in New Mills it was, by her own admission, ‘a monumental change’.