12

negative equity

let’s all raise a glass and toast the passing of jessop’s, the photography retailer.

there yesterday.

gone today.

another specialist lost, another repository of information gone.

some of the reasons for its demise are down to the fact it didn’t respond quick enough to the changes in the way that people take and view photographs. cameras are being replaced by mobile devices such as phones and tablets, while photos are now being viewed on those self same devices and stored online.

another reason was the use of jessop’s as a showroom so that people could go and buy from amazon at a much cheaper price.

add in the factor that all too often the landlords are interested in upping their rents and filling the vacant space with yet another starbucks, even though it must be very obvious that there is fast coming a point where there are more places to drink coffee than there are people to fill them up.

(mmm amazon and starbucks: two success stories that don’t pay tax double win.)

we run the risk of turning our high streets into areas of coffee shops, fast food joints and various sized versions of everyone’s favourite supermarkets.

the real irony of this is that it doesn’t help the suppliers either – as more and more power is concentrated into the hands of one or two retailers the greater their influence over the suppliers becomes. it has the potential to become a retailing clusterfuck.

won’t be long before another chain bites the dust.

take this opportunity to go support your local shops. want a coffee – go to a local independent. want a book? spend some money with your local seller.

trust me you’ll miss them when they are gone.