Open doors, open stores, open arms
Why business is booming in the small Scots town that refused to be ruined by lockdown
THE rain and bitter wind sweeping down Auchterarder High Street was scarcely an inviting prospect for a day’s shopping. And yet, as the easing of lockdown allowed its legion of independent shops to throw open their doors for the first time this year, a steady trickle of customers returned to breathe new hope into Perthshire’s Lang Toun.
For four long months, the smart gift shops, shoe shops and ladies and gents’ outfitters, which rely almost exclusively on Auchterarder’s passing trade of wealthy tourists and affluent locals, could only stand by and ponder their uncertain future. The sense of déjà vu must have been overwhelming.
A year ago, the Scottish Daily Mail spoke to shop owners trying to survive the first lockdown. By then, eight weeks of enforced closure had turned one of the most prosperous high streets – just a pitch and putt from luxurious Gleneagles Hotel – into a ghost town.
Shops deemed non-essential, yet vital to the charm and character of this historic town, had to rely on government handouts to tide them through these leanest of times.
Others had to think creatively about how to continue to serve while staying within the rules. Much of the talk then, as it has been since the latest shutdown began on Boxing Day, was about which businesses might never reopen.
It would have been entirely understandable had they thrown in the towel after suffering the worst retail year of their lives.
However, the Mail returned to find shopkeepers far from defeated and still defiantly up for the fight.
After such a punishing battle, which has claimed much larger retail scalps nationally, it was notable how few casualties have been recorded.
A quick march up this mile-and-ahalf-long thoroughfare on a blustery Tuesday found butchers, bakers, beauticians and the bike shop all present and correct beside favourite outlets for pet lovers and fashionistas.
At opposite ends of the High Street, James Urquhart, the 100-year-old ironmongers, and Alexa Dunlop’s wellestablished fruit and veg shop still provide daily essentials.
Restrictions mean some pubs and restaurants are yet to reopen, and one venue, Max and Ben’s Bistro, announced its doors would remain shut permanently.
HOWEVER, new shops have sprung up, too, while others have expanded. All are gambling on the public unleashing their pent-up demand to splurge some of the £150billion experts estimate has been saved up during this crisis. This is a tale of hope and resilience, although a nagging worry persists these delicate shoots of recovery could easily be blown away by future pandemic storms.
‘If things continue to open up and travel gets easier, you would think things would get better, but it’s crystal ball stuff really. This continuing uncertainty, from a business point of view, is very damaging,’ said Richard Hally, the sixth generation to run R. Watson Hogg, the ladies and gentlemen’s outfitters at 52 High Street, founded in 1850 as a spin-off from the family’s textile mill.
Mr Hally, 55, reopened at the end of last month, offering appointments to his loyal clientele of mainly well-heeled older ladies with whom he has been keeping in touch.
‘I have been pretty busy yesterday and today with customers we knew were coming. We targeted them with timed appointments to keep things safe,’ he said. ‘There is no question that after this particular lockdown in Scotland, with dour, dreich, depressing and dark weather for such a long time, there is pent-up demand from people to go shopping.
‘I have seen that in the last couple of days. One phone call to one of my best customers and her words were, “I just want to spend some money”, which is obviously quite nice to hear.
‘They have been locked up, unable to go anywhere or to go on holiday, no lunches, no dinners, no coffee with their friends or anything like that, so there is a bit of pent-up demand, no question about it. Which is great, but that will fall away as it always does and you start to rely more on tourism through the middle of the summer.’
Sadly, due to international travel restrictions, those tourists will not be the free-spending Americans and Japanese for the most part, but staycationers and daytrippers.
‘We are fortunate here that Gleneagles and the clientele they attract from down South and across Scotland are people with more disposable income. They’re still £300-a-night for a room and if they drift down into Auchterarder, that benefits everybody here.
‘But I built my business in the early 1980s on American trade. It is very important through the summer months.’ Gleneagles and Auchterarder have always been linked umbilically, an invisible cord through which the lifeblood of commerce flows. ‘The trade Gleneagles gets impacts us greatly,’ said Mr Hally. ‘I believe from mid-May onwards, Gleneagles is to be very busy and the staff there tell me that they are running at the highest occupancy that they can.’ Mr Hally feels the exit from lockdown has been too slow. ‘After seeing
what we went through last year and how we’re progressing with vaccinations, I think non-essential shops should have been allowed to open at least at the same time as hairdressers, which is only a few weeks ago, but a few weeks can make a big difference to small retailers,’ he said.
He suggested the air of caution and confusion over the rules left older shoppers, in particular, reluctant to leave home.
‘Even now I have customers, often elderly, who are still unsure and confused about whether they should be out and about,’ he said.
‘They may have had two vaccinations, but some haven’t been out since Christmas 2019 and are, perhaps, rightly concerned whether they might catch anything.’
For Mr Hally, the stresses of the past 12 months have been immense. ‘Even as a small shopkeeper in the middle of Scotland with a few staff it was still concerning how the bills were going to be paid,’ he said. He took advantage of the government furlough scheme and £10,000 grant and the business rates holiday, but still needed to refinance his debt to cover the £50,000 of stock he had already bought for the last spring/ summer season.
‘The help from Westminster has been fabulous, and we managed to open for most of last autumn. But now I am ordering stock for this autumn/winter, so it’s another gamble. I do worry about a third wave later this year but I have not factored any of that into my planning, because I hope I am wrong.’
For pet shop owners Ally and Elaine Kay, it has been a good war. Their shop, Townhead Pet ‘N’ Pony, at 162 High Street, sold pet food, which meant it was classed as essential and allowed to keep trading throughout the pandemic.
They opened a second premises next door, catering purely to the growing equestrian trade. A lifeStreet. size model horse in the window has been a draw, especially for children, and the Kays are running a naming competition. The new shop – so new it does not yet have a name – is stocked with thousands of pounds of merchandise bought before the first lockdown a year ago.
‘We needed somewhere to display it all. This used to be the Chocolate Galley, a coffee shop and chocolate makers which has moved to Crieff, so it all worked out quite well for us,’ said Mr Kay, 69, who is also chair of Auchterarder and District Community Council. One bonus was a boom in pets: ‘A lot of people have bought horses during lockdown, as well as dogs, which have soared in price,’ he said.
He concedes he has been surprised by Auchterarder’s resolve: ‘The town has been quiet: the biggest indicator of that is you can actually get parked on the High But people have adapted. I know of one man who used to run a bar who has now set himself up as a man-with-a-van doing house clearances and the like until the pub is allowed to reopen. And it was really encouraging to see that when shops were allowed to reopen, they actually did open, including some that are normally closed on a Monday.’
At the Auchter Larder sandwich and takeaway shop, at 161 High Street, owner Euan Mackenzie has barely stopped slaving over the hotplate since launching just weeks before the first lockdown.
FAR from being fatal, the timing could not have been better, with ‘work from homers’ needing to escape their makeshift offices for a coffee and a cake, or a lunchtime sandwich. ‘It’s a treat for them to get out and grab a burger or a milkshake,’ said Mr Mackenzie, who turns 40 next month.
‘I’m on first-name terms with about 40 or 50 people we didn’t know at all beforehand.’
Last summer, he opened a sister shop, The Scone Larder, in Scone, Perthshire.‘We always intended to open several, so it has been a natural progression,’ he added. ‘We are a takeaway anyway so we were never hugely affected by the restrictions as such.’
When Stuart Bryce opened the Gin Thistle, at 81 High Street, in July, some felt a cocktail bar was the right idea at precisely the wrong time. ‘We got great support from the town, but when we had to close at Christmas, we had to think on our feet,’ said Mr Bryce, 33.
‘I started doing takeaway cocktails and they have proved really popular.’ At a time when he has been forced to shut completely, state aid has come to his rescue.
But the father of two has no regrets about launching a new business during the pandemic.
With restrictions on licensed premises selling alcohol indoors not due to be eased until Monday, Mr Bryce must wait a little longer to resume normal service. But he said: ‘We have opened again for coffees and light food until we are back in full swing. But things have been steady. And we are still doing takeaway cocktails.’
Auchterarder’s High Street is determined to look forward to brighter days. And that, surely, is something worth drinking to.