BooHoo! Won't Somebody Think of the Town Centres...

An Open Letter to those Shopkeepers Decrying the Death of Ramsgate Town Centre

The traditional town centre is dead. Let them rest in peace. They had an innings out of all proportion to their actual worth. I look forward to the sainted day when all of this ugly, grasping commerce is out of town, and the centres are places for recreation and leisure, not the dull, drudge hum of a market selling cheap, nasty crap, or small businesses in ramshackle hovels flanked by charity shops and boarded-up buildings. We live in a world of style over substance. Try either and you might see some results.

However much you whinny and gripe about it, what are we the consumers actually losing if we accept the assessment that the death of the traditional town centre is a bad thing? Moth eaten, mouldering, tatty shops selling poor quality rubbish for an unreasonable mark up? The usual array of "pile 'em high" chainstores like Woolworths and Peacocks? Please.

Are consumers really supposed to subsidise these shopkeepers for the "pleasure" of using these local businesses? The pleasure is usually non-existent. Reasons for shopping in the town centre were always necessity or convenience. Necessity has disappeared with the advent of internet shopping and out-of-town retail parks, and convenience has been compromised by poor parking, uncompetitive pricing and a fucking market blocking up the street. Get creative. You don't earn the right to a living merely by dint of your location, I'm afraid. Can't earn money? Whose problem is that exactly?
If it's too hard, don't do it. Don't make out you're doing us all some kind of favour by existing.

If shopkeepers want to compete with the out of town complexes, by all means let them. Even make it easier through tax breaks if you like. But the way for them to succeed isn't through a price war, or shovelling poor quality rubbish into the pockets of consumers, it's through being different; offering a quality of service where they can't offer choice.

This old view of the town as the hub of commerce and trade is frankly Victorian, but in a way, that retrospective approach would be a way forward. Imagine a row of pleasant, ornate shop-fronts in the old imperial style, etched lettering proudly proclaiming the name of the store, some ironwork - railings or signs, personalised service, goods to be proud of in the window, a civic pride in the area - all this would make a joined-up approach that balances the heritage of our towns with the best our small businesses have to offer. See York Street for an example.

It's not up to the consumer to shop in the towns for the sake of "our heritage", it's up to the towns to address the reasons why shopping there is an almost entirely unrewarding experience in the first place.

The town centres are disappearing because they don't work. That's not the fault of the consumer. We don't owe you a living. Now fuck off out of it and stop blaming us for your own shortcomings.