Independent shops can beat the supermarkets, says Adam Trimingham

Despite dire prophecies of doom, there are still thousands of shops open all through the county.

And most of them are defying the recession to record bumper takings during the pro-Christmas sales when everyone save the shopkeepers appears to be on holiday.

Leading the way, as ever, are the big supermarkets. It has been hard for many customers to enter their car parks, let alone the stores, during the last few crowded days.

Then come the chain stores whose names occur in almost every shopping mall followed by the department stores.

Last and by no means least are the many family-owned concerns which add individuality and character to any shopping parade.

There are constant complaints that supermarkets are squeezing the commercial lifeblood out of the other retailers and it has been true over the last half century.

But I fancy that many local traders are at last fighting back and finding lucrative little gaps in the market.

The supermarket chains have been ruthless and efficient. They find the best big sites and use them to build large stores, often selling food at prices lower than those in the wholesale emporia used by small traders.

They use their financial muscle to drive down the rates charged by suppliers and they tempt the customers by offering multi-pack bargains or a free second item for people buying the first one.

Many of them fight their chain store rivals by selling books, DVDs, toiletries and clothes at knock down prices so that people can buy everything at one shop.

Superstores often cater cleverly for local needs too.

It used to be possible for smaller rivals to eke out a living in their shadow by offering a quick service for small items and by trading for longer hours on Sundays. A good example was Cottingham’s in Church Road, almost opposite the big Tesco store.

Cottingham’s kept going in spite of that but it could not fight Tesco when the rapacious retailer opened a smaller store in Western Road not bound by the Sunday trading restrictions. It closed a couple of years ago and has still not been replaced.

There are now nine smallish Tesco Express stores in Brighton and Hove alone. Dozens more like them have been opened in Sussex by Sainsbury’s, Somerfield, Marks and Spencer and sundry other operators.

But there is one operator prepared to fight the big boys and managing to do so successfully. It is the Co-Op which has more outlets in Brighton and Hove than Sainsbury’s and Tesco all together.

Gone are the rather drab stores of the past where shoppers were offered a dividend but precious little else worth having.

The Co-Op also closed its dated department store in Boundary Road, Hove, and even its large but fading flagship store in London Road, Brighton.

Instead it opened or expanded small to medium sized shops, often in locations ignored by the bigger groups such as Seven Dials, Shoreham High Street and Southwick Square.

Competitive in price and with a national reputation in areas such as wines and spirits, the Co-Op is deservedly popular.

There are other ways to beat the big boys too. One is to exploit their weaknesses. The greatest of these is in fresh fruit and veg.

I find that fruit from stores such as Tesco is kept chilled and tends to deteriorate quickly. Often grapes or oranges degenerate into a soggy mess within a few days.

Fine fruit and veg retailers such as Taj, which has two stores in the heart of Brighton, have found they can open near existing supermarkets and offer food of often superior quality at competitive prices.

Bill’s, which started in Lewes, has spread successfully into Brighton and has the added advantage of having a cafe attached.

Supermarket bread tends to be rather standardised and it is often only part-baked at the store. Individual bakeries can and do offer fine alternatives. The trick here is not to sell it, as some do, three times dearer than the same sized loaf in Tesco. There are limits to what most people are prepared to pay for bread.

Farmers’ markets, which operate successfully all over Sussex, have also shown a growing demand from the public for fresh, local food and drink.

Then there’s the important issue of personal service. If I go into my local shopping parade of Richardson Road, in Hove, I can expect a pleasant chat from the butcher, fishmonger and deli owner.

Down at the superstore you are likely to get a perfunctory nod from the check out operator or merely a disembodied voice at the self-service tills.

The superstores can appear remote and unresponsive. Three years ago I wrote to Tesco suggesting it could extend bike racks at Church Road.

Tesco said it would but nothing happened. I wrote several times subsequently but the bike racks are still not there.

I also complained that the exterior of the store was looking tatty and litter strewn. I received a reply brushing it away which was more than happened to the rubbish outside.

Then there are shops such as Dockerill’s, the hardware store, which has survived in the funky centre of Brighton because it knows what people want.

There are bike shops like Webb’s, north of Portslade Station, prepared to offer experienced advice on cycles and how to look after them in stark contrast to some superstores selling flashy bikes which fall apart as soon as they come home.

The whole North Laine area of Brighton is a glorious example of what can be achieved by small shopkeepers with style, panache and eccentricity.

Similar but smaller examples can be found in other towns such as Little Chelsea in Eastbourne and George Street, Hastings.

There’s no point in family firms competing with Asda over selling tins of baked beans. They taste much the same anywhere, are not locally grown and the superstore will always be cheaper.

There are also smaller grocery shops that deserve to fold with their dowdy displays of overpriced, unappetising goods.

But plenty of shops in Sussex are showing they can survive and even thrive, despite facing some of the stiffest retail competition to be found anywhere in the world.

It’s significant that the main retail high street casualties have been chains such as Woolworth’s and Zavvi rather than independents.

Napoleon meant his remarks to be disparaging about a nation unprepared for war. Yet the small shopkeepers had the last laugh over him as they may yet have in time over the retail giants.

Do you prefer independent shops over supermarkets? Tell us why below.