No online shopping for me: I’m hitting the streets today to support actual shops – before they’re gone

THERE was a time when I’d criticise the shops that opened on St. Stephen’s Day. I’d have suggested they’d be better off giving their staff more time off after the busy pre-Christmas Day surge that had many shop assistants and storeroom staff run off their feet as they tended to the demands of customers.

But now I understand why – in most city centres and town centres – the store owners feel the need to get their staff back to work immediately and to throw open their doors. If they don’t, then internet retail sites will hoover up the postChristmas spend that is available: people shopping from the comfort of their sofas, browsing through sites and picking up what they think are bargains, especially if they have been prompted by emails.

But today, after giving the dog a walk, I intend to exercise further by heading into Dublin city centre to wander through a few shops and maybe pick up a few things I might like for myself or for the family, and, hopefully, at prices I consider provide value. I expect that there will be some to be had in the sales and I’ve put aside some money to get a few things, even though I noticed that some prices had dropped in advance of Christmas and was able to take advantage of that.

Weather

My children are likely to scoff at my early start to the day. I can anticipate the refrain: ‘If you want or need something Dad just go online and order it,’ they’ll say. And there are things I do buy online I have to admit, and I do have a recently purchased Amazon Prime account to accelerate delivery. I could surf a multitude of sites and find things – at greatly reduced prices – that will be delivered before I go back to radio and television work in early January.

But there are good economical and societal reasons – other than adding to my mobility in trying to work off the Christmas dinner – for braving whatever the weather elements are to take a trip to town. I won’t be dissuaded by the weather, even if the rain is lashing down or if it is freezing cold (which the weather app on my phone told me is unlikely). I like to annoy my children by telling them that there is no such thing as bad weather, just inadequate clothing.

Now, most men don’t admit to liking shopping. I don’t mean just food shopping – which I confess I largely ducked in the few days before Christmas, but only because I was busy with other things, including sorting gifts for all the family – but anything that involves going into shops, looking at things, trying them on (or waiting while others do) and then queuing to pay for them. It can be a bore or it can be physical, involving jostling and unwanted contact with others as you try to navigate the stress or the crowds hovering around the items you want. Not to mention the pain involved in emptying the wallet of cash or the pain of realising that the next credit card bill could be hard to clear.

Getting parking too can be an irritation, as can the length of time taken to exit car parks once the shopping is done.

But I enjoy going out, meeting people, both those known to me and strangers too, when wandering through shops. The social interaction of going into shops is important, just like it is better to work in offices or factories with other people instead of doing it from home where you meet nobody outside of your own family.

There are other good reasons to go visit actual physical, visible shops. It is not because I have any great desire to fill the coffers of major multinationals, if those are the shops I visit. But it is surely better to spend money in any shops – locally or foreign owned – that employ Irish people, pay their taxes here, collect VAT on behalf of the State and provide a focal point for people to gather and meet each other.

Prices

I understand some people prefer online shopping. And it isn’t always down to avoiding inconvenience or laziness among a more tech-savvy generation. I acknowledge the need that most people have to buy clothes and other items online at the cheapest price possible. I don’t blame anyone for looking for the best prices… especially those struggling with sky high rents for their homes. For that reason, too, it is not hard to discern why many people have resorted again to taking advantage of cheaper prices wherever they find them.

I understand too the inevitability of some of the shift to internet sales, especially given the computing power of the mobile phone. It is important therefore that Irish retailers improve their online offers, in conjunction with their physical stores – and there is evidence that they are doing so. It is also imperative that the Irish versions of UK and other foreign websites also charge appropriate prices: even with sterling declining in value many are trying to rip off Irish customers by charging far higher prices than they do in other markets.

But that doesn’t get us away from the need to support, where we are not being ripped off, the shops that pay the rates and taxes that keep our buildings and streets in better looking shape than happens during recession.

Impact

It may be too late to roll back the impact of the out-of-town shopping centres, with all of their shops under the one roof, where people can stroll warmly and drily once they have parked in indoor car parks. But many don’t have the same atmosphere – or architectural interest or, surprisingly, range of outlets and product and service choice – that is provided by wandering the streets and side streets of our cities and towns.

And it is worrying too that many of our shops are being replaced by restaurants and cafes: we have so many of these now that we must be reaching saturation and many will go out of business.

It may be better that we have them instead of the empty units that scarred out streets during the collapse from 2008 onward. But there are signs already that we have enough places to eat and drink, especially with many of the remaining pubs transitioning into that market too. The fear is that many will go out of business in the new year, as rents increase further (and some greedy commercial landlords are milking it again) and other costs, such as VAT, further erode profit margins. It will get difficult for many in the first quarter of 2019 when people rein in the spending and try to clear the credit card bills or save for the summer holiday.

And we may have more than enough places in which to shop too, especially if we, collectively, continue to abandon our shops for the internet option. It doesn’t take much migration to undermine the smaller shops in particular, but also the bigger chains. Once this sales season finishes I expect we will see many closures of those who have been struggling to go on. We may also see many of the bigger British chains scale back or close down as Brexit bites. Consumer confidence is fragile and the economic recovery may not have much longer to it.

If we don’t enjoy what we have on our streets it may not be there for us to enjoy for much longer.