First the pandemic, then the cost of living crisis, high street markets and small business owners/shop owners suffered enough in the last three years. According to BBC, in June, months into a cost-of-living crisis that was only set to get worse, a vast new department store opened in Liverpool's city centre. The past couple of years have felt like battle after battle for retailers. Not only the Covid pandemic, but the soaring cost of energy, staff shortages and rising wage bills made business tough. That has been topped off by an economic downturn, that is prompting shoppers to rein in their spending and rail strikes that are keeping them at home.
The Guardian reported that retailers have failed to benefit from a post-lockdown boost in UK high street activity this year after soaring energy bills and the cost of living crisis forced households to rein in their spending. Despite an increase in face-to-face shopping after the lifting of Covid 19 restrictions, Barclaycard data released for the whole of 2022 showed retail spending fell 0.8% on the previous year.
The debit and credit card company said the number of transactions was up this year but the highest inflation in four decades had resulted in smaller basket sizes as consumers sought to keep track of their budgets. Overall in the retail sector, there was an increase in the total number of card transactions – up 5% – but the total amount spent was down by 0.8%.
A 33% increase in energy bills resulted in consumers becoming more selective in their spending, with Barclaycard reporting people cutting back on subscriptions and home improvements.
The UK’s annual inflation rate already stood at just over 5% at the start of 2022 but was pushed higher by the impact on gas and electricity bills of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February. By November it had more than doubled to 10.7%, slightly below October’s 11.1%.
However, the community shop owners continue to do their bit to help the citizens. Speaking to Asian Voice, Deepen Patel of Meet & Deep News said, “This year more than ever, people are struggling to heat their homes with the cost of living crisis. Businesses are struggling to keep all of their fridges, freezers, lighting and equipment on for the long 16-hour days because the costs of electricity and gas have been increased by such a large percentage.”
However, the Meet & Deep family of newsagents in Twickenham, believe that businesses are not only there to serve as business owners, but also the main purpose of a business for us is also to add something to the community that they serve.
“So we have decided to put a board outside our shop, and right on there, if anybody is struggling to heat their homes at the moment, can come in and stand in our shop. We can offer a seat, and people can sit down and can also work on their laptops from our shop,” Deepen told us.
Explaining the reason why Patels took this humane step is that their shop is naturally warm. Deepen explained, “We have no heating in our shop. But we have three big chest freezers, three double doored fridges, and lots of lights and machines. And all of this equipment creates a lot of heat energy. So our shop remains naturally warm. This is very good in wintertime and people come into the shop and comment on how cosy and warm it is. Some people will come and stand in our shop and say they don’t want to buy anything and just wanted to warm up.”
“Of course, we let them stay there. Our Guru in the Swaminarayan temple in Neasden taught us that in our business, the first thing we should always do is practice kindness. He said people should come first and profits will follow. He said if we serve other people, then God or the universe will always serve us like karma. So we love to use our shop and good ways to help others,” he added.
At the moment when the cost of living crisis and the cost of electricity and gas is sky high, where people are struggling to heat their homes, and they have to make a choice between eating and heating, the Deep & Meet News family wants to be able to serve the community which has always supported their shop
Deepen calls this the ‘Meet & Deep newsagents Heat Hub’. The family has talked about this on their Facebook page Meet & Deep News. They also run another Facebook page called Kind World through which they are trying to appeal to people to give us opinions about how we can make the world a bit of a kinder place from our little shop in Twickenham.
“We know that we are just a small shop and not as powerful as supermarkets. But we genuinely believe if we make an effort, we can make a change. Even a small change can help promote a bigger change,” Deepen told Asian Voice.
