Step away from that mouse and shop indy

Let the tumbleweed blowing around the junction of Palmerston, Osborne andClarendonroads at Southsea be a salutary warning. For where giants once strode there is now nothing, not even an embryonic business, or even one taking its first toddling steps.

Forthiswastheterritory of department store Goliaths Debenhams and Knight & Lee, the one-time cornerstones of the shopping scene in well-heeled Southsea. All gone, victims of the recession, the pandemic and, most of all, the internet.

We all shop differently today and it became obvious, probably about the turn of this century, thattheoldBritishstaple,the department store, had its days numbered.

It was as out-of-date as dear oldGraceBrothers,thefictional emporium in sitcom Are You Being Served? The thing was, we weren’t, being served.

That’swhywewavedgoodbye to these faded retail palaces with their funny suction pump slugs which beetled around the ceilings on their way to ‘Accounts’ only to return minutes later containing the receipt. Museum pieces now, a bit like the cash which was once stuffed inside them.

Take a 10-minute stroll through Southsea and you’ll hit Albert Road, having passed through Marmion Road. Both, in their different ways, are the perfect advertisement for what, rightly, should now be the future of our high streets – the small, independent business offering something different with personalserviceatthetopof its mission statement.

We believe that if this nation of shopkeepers is to flourish again their outlets will only survive if we go and spend money in them. It’s too easy to sit back and click our way through the Christmas shopping. But on Small Business Saturday let’smakethe efforttosavethe wonderful array of small indy shops we have in this city.