When it comes to shopping, think small next Saturday - Kevin Buckle

Avalanche records in Waverley Market is a cornucopia of vinyl, posters, T-shirts, and vintage , quality second hand, and upcycled clothingAvalanche records in Waverley Market is a cornucopia of vinyl, posters, T-shirts, and vintage , quality second hand, and upcycled clothing
Avalanche records in Waverley Market is a cornucopia of vinyl, posters, T-shirts, and vintage , quality second hand, and upcycled clothing
​​Next Saturday is Small Business Saturday when people are encouraged to shop local and shop small.

One thing I’ve never understood is that the main sponsor is American Express, as any small business will tell you they don’t take American Express, as the reason they offer their customers such good deals is because they offer such poor deals to retailers.

Most customers are aware of this and will ask if we take an American Express card and every now and again one of their representatives will come in wanting to explain why we are mistaken in thinking their offering is poor, but their only defence is that we will get more sales if we take their card when in fact we never lose a sale by refusing.

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I do remember the second to last sale of the day on Christmas Eve a couple of years ago when a customer got upset with me for refusing the card even though he had plenty of others he could offer. He explained that he too was in business and had no problem taking an Amex card. Surprised at this I asked what he did and it turned out he sold very expensive hand made jewellery.

He claimed, and I had no reason to not believe him, that he had customers that said they would only pay with American Express and I could understand that with a high ticket price and a high profit margin this was something he was prepared to live with.

He got really quite annoyed about it, though he did of course use a different card instead. And then to make matters worse for him my last customer of the day, who had been standing behind the guy all this time, then chipped in as he was leaving that he too had a retail business and never accepted American Express either.

Interestingly we get many customers, mostly from abroad, who because of where we are in an expensive shopping centre in a prime location and given the wide amount of stock we have on offer assume that we are part of a chain and will ask where else they will be able to find our shops. Quite often it is somebody who will be visiting London thinking they would pay us a visit there.

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Ironically we also get visitors who have come up from London saying they had scoured London looking for the sort of stock we carry and been unsuccessful.

I used to recommend Camden Market when asked about places to visit in London, though it is decades since I was last there. Then a couple of years ago I had a couple who bought a lot of things from music to T-shirts to posters. I asked if they were visiting and they said yes they lived in Camden and worked in Camden Market and Avalanche was the sort of shop everybody thinks they will find there but go away disappointed.

People are pleased when we say there is just one shop that they are doing their bit to support a small business in an expensive location.

Certainly the high street is an expensive place to be, so next Saturday I would definitely recommend that folk do spend their money with small high street businesses when they can.

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