Closure of so many of our shops is food for thought

Julie Christie, actress, Ritchie Blackmore, rock guitarist Julian Lloyd Webber, cellist, Robert Carlyle, actor, Gina McKee, actress, Anthony Michael Hall, actor, Adrien Brody, actor, Sarah Michelle Gellar, actress Abigail Breslin, actress, I READ the article regarding the closure of shops (April 12) in Huddersfield with great interest.

Coffee shops and bookstores were two from four ‘winners.’ No surprise there.

This letter is about shopping patterns.

Until several months ago at least once a week I came down into Huddersfield. The Oxfam bookstore was still then open.

I invariably bought a book for pleasure or for study as I am a mature student.

I usually returned one (so a win-win for Oxfam), then bought a coffee and a treat from a local coffee shop, checked my minimum £2.40 parking and returned home.

This little trip meant around £10 to £12 went into the local economy most weeks, not counting anything else I bought.

Sometimes I visited twice in a week.

Or I spent roughly £50 per month, every month, looking at it another way.

Maybe not a fortune but now that amazing book shop with interesting staff is now sadly empty.

Consequently, all my £50 now stays home each and every month.

While another small ‘could be so attractive’ walkway between two shopping areas has even less footfall. A kind of lose-lose sort of situation; perhaps reminiscent of Benjamin Franklin’s ‘For the want of a nail ...’

How many more shopping visits to ‘regular haunts’ get lost this way?

I’m not an ‘experienceseeking’ shopper, although I would enjoy and do support experiences which are not food festivals.

I do, however, travel to Hampstead, London, regularly.

There, the Oxfam bookshop is bang on the High Street, well used, attractive and an asset to the community. Bit like the one we had really.

This morning I looked back at the plan for Huddersfield (October 2017), and thought about those trips to town, described above.

Sometimes I stayed to eat, perhaps until 9pm, enjoying a ‘leisure activity’ with ‘local elements.’ In fact, ticking four of those ‘plan for Huddersfield’ boxes.

I cannot see Huddersfield becoming a ‘reason to visit foodie town,’ nor a ‘ book town.’ I was just enjoying what we had. No more.

Despite the talk of ‘clear branding and product offering modest linkages’ I’ve illustrated above, they become lost along with our shops.

I have worked in the retail trade and profits come from patterns of spending, diverse shops and relationships between customer and retailer, not only ‘experiences.’ I AM glad for people enjoying the benefits of a bus pass, as Paul Routledge wrote about.

I too welcomed my 60th birthday to receive mine.

My work involved physical strength which I couldn’t hack on a daily basis.

I left my employment as I got too old to do it.

I will be (as it stands at the moment) 66 years old when my time for a bus pass arrives. And it’s the same age for a state pension. I would love to have benefited at 60.

So not everyone can hop on a bus at 63 years old. Unless you pay. It’s not a cheap ride these days.