If shops increased stock levels it may reduce the need to look online
I REFER to comments about the Post Office’s recent introduction of a mailing point to local addresses, based in the UK, and the potential damage that shopping away from Guernsey – principally on-line – may be doing to the island’s economy.
Please excuse me, but perhaps an important point is being missed. This is maybe best illustrated by my own experience of shopping in Guernsey.
I want to shop locally, to support our island economy: indeed, I try to do this whenever possible. But when I go to a local shop to obtain something, I am finding – more and more – that they do not have my wanted item in stock. Indeed, I have found myself increasingly having to visit several shops on the island to find what I want… or not: most frustrating and time-consuming.
If I cannot find my wanted item locally, a quick search on the internet usually quickly finds a source elsewhere. And so, perforce, I shop off-island.
The more I, and other islanders, find themselves similarly frustrated, the more we will shop off-island. Local shops will receive less income. This means that they will no longer be able to afford all the stock items they might have done previously. So it is more likely, when I shop in the future, that I will not find what I want in Guernsey.
Sadly, this creates a vicious circle. And this is the real danger that off-island shopping poses: the possibility that more local shops will be forced to close doors due to lack of business.
Perhaps, if local retailers want to redress this situation, they should concentrate on supporting local shops to enable them to maintain – or even increase – their stock levels.
In this way, next time I go out shopping, I will be much more likely to find what I want locally, without being obliged to go elsewhere.
Meyrick Simmonds