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Saturday 1 June 2013

The High Street races into oblivion



Bracknell UK may be just another town, but I live here, and events have prompted some thought. The long awaited town centre redevelopment is now becoming real, and the many casualties include the 'Look In Community Cafe'.

This 'Cafe' was created and run originally for older people by Bracknell Forest Borough Council. It was very successful, but was closed in recent years as an unacceptable budget item, however, it reopened after being taken over by volunteers who had quickly organised.

It is, or rather, was, very popular. With more than a third of UK population aged over 50 (ref. 1) it is no surprise that business from over 100 paying customers per day was the norm. These were often with friends, so 'footfall' was greater, say 150.

The 'community' aspect of the cafe was key. People - customers, and volunteer staff - came and were motivated because of this. The minimal number of paid staff also appreciated the community values here.

Comfortable and welcoming, it was a place to look forward to. On occasions I found I could doze off in a corner (and nobody called the police) I could not do that in other cafe's ;-)

This community cafe closed yesterday. Its plans to move locally fell through. It is still looking, hoping, for a new location. It is unlikely to be in the town centre, nor near to the new shopping development (ref. 2).

I am one of the enthusiasts helping to find a new location. I take it that one will be found, somewhere, somehow. So I will be able to sup tea with friends, (or quietly doze off).

But what about the town, the shops, the new shopping centre being built, hoping for a good return on investment? There apparently will be no charity shops, no community cafes. Only undiluted retail units with 'realistic' rents.

Charity shops and community cafes may be at one extreme end of the retail spectrum, but they remind of and symbolise community, heart, compassion, a place that might care.

High street shops are in decline (ref. 3).

Yet even in Bracknell town, run down with many years of creeping closures, the Community Cafe had a thriving 150 users per day - in the town centre. Even when all shops around them were long closed, people STILL arrived!

Community trumps retail?

Until yesterday, when the Cafe finally closed. We will move out of town, keep calm, and carry on. But we will not be those 150 additional people per day that the shopping centre in future, would covet, we will be elsewhere!

Someone is missing a trick. A shopping centre which starts its life after two bus loads of potential customers, every day, are sent elsewhere? It may be unseemly to say so, but - WTF?

I recently had to buy kitchen equipment for home. Some pans were purchased in the town centre (marked down to half price, good luck with profit for that). The purchase was AFTER spending time in the Community Cafe which was my primary reason to be in town anyway. I also bought a high value, premium priced item, the same day, on line. I am an avid computer user, and I prefer to buy online.

The discussion and comment in the Media about the demise of this community cafe has focussed on the traditional view - in so many words - of a place where some wrinklies can selfishly do crosswords in peace and quiet. The discussion completely misses the value of a crowd of people attending for their own purpose, yet in the very location required for retail activity! Think of on line social networking, say, like Facebook for example?

If you have arranged to meet a friend at a certain place or cafe then you have briefly sampled your own 'community' event. Now think of 150 people every day in that location, all available, perhaps with younger family too, available - to shop?

Cart before the horse? Those people make their way there, to their community, NOT for retail. However, when surrounded by retail, shopping will be done.

The internet shouts out that the people attractor, the social aspect, the community, is what is so valuable. On line, the numbers are huge, but still even now, some high profile on line businesses are not yet sure how to exploit the numbers. But what big numbers! What would high street shops give, to be faced with large numbers of customers? How to get big numbers?

Translate some areas of the high street into the bricks and mortar equivalent of Facebook or Twitter or whatever social networking you use. Like - what about attracting a Community Cafe? Ah.

The Cafe closure attracted the press. The reporter noticed that our conversation in the Cafe was continually interrupted by people coming and going, greeting by name etc.

"It is more than a 'cafe' isn't it?"

I posit that such places, in the high street, in a shopping centre or similar, act as an essential seed for attendance at the location.

Historically it may have been less important, but now with such competition, good alternative choices, and less time to go and browse high street shops, the analogue of social networking on line, is the community activity in, say, a community cafe. And I do not mean a big chain franchise with its own agenda, although it may surely have its place.

On line facilities using the internet show how very strong the social aspect can be, almost every on line business tries to add a social networking dimension now.

The high street, so far though, leaves it to chance - with Joe's Cafe, or with Multi Global 'What's your name today?' type of coffee place. It works after a fashion but nothing like a successful happy landslide where, like for the Look In Community Cafe, people have struggled to be there against all odds, without ANY advertising at all!

As far as I can see, the high street is yet lacking appropriate enlightened self interest from redevelopment organisations, which continue to navigate their world using traditional retail philosophy.

To the shops I say
"So Long, and Thanks for All the Fish!" (ref. 4).

1) Demography-uk https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demography_of_the_United_Kingdom
2) Look In Cafe to close
http://www.bracknellnews.co.uk/news/roundup/articles/2013/05/23/89704-look-in-cafe-to-close/
3) High streets shrink in 10 out of 12 towns on Mary Portas scheme
http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2013/may/29/high-streets-shrink-mary-portas
4) Hitch Hikers Guide to the Galaxy
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/So_Long,_and_Thanks_for_All_the_Fish