Independent shop owners in Bristol took a mighty hit in late-2008. First, there was the slap around the chops of Cabot Circus opening in town with the supreme and dominating potential to suck away at all their business and then Alistair Darling calmly informed us that the economy was fucked.

It’s officially a recession now and SY wanted to see how independent businesses in Bristol were fairing in 2009 in the face of all this hardship or whether they were doing better as shoppers looked around for better prices and the desire to shop inside their local economy. Therefore we have undertaken our hugely unscientific ‘Recession Investigation’ and interviewed a handful of businesses from various retail sectors and various areas of Bristol to see what they had to say. We even slyly got a few words out of a manager at one of Cabot Circus’ new flagship stores to see if they were feeling the heat at all.

Scoopaway is an independent health food retailer focusing on wholefoods, organic and no-GM products. Its one store on Gloucester Road has been trading for 17 years but its success has only more recently been realised over the last 5 years as people grow more conscious of the environment, pesticides and additives in foods and body care ranges.

Here’s what the owner, Tim Kilburn, had to say:

“Despite the Credit Crunch we have enjoyed some growth this year having been able to grow the business 5%. It is not all good news however as most commodities have increased in price too, along with wages and rent bills, all putting more pressure on the bottom line.

Something we can’t control is the constantly fluctuating prices of the commodities we sell. Crops and yields are affected by different world wide demands like: rising world populations; greater demand for a more Westernised diet; changing trade patterns (like when the Pakistani government imposed an export duty on all rice to stop the price rising internally); changing climatic conditions; and changing economic conditions (such as the recession and global currency fluctuations).

As a food retailer, I’m not sure if we have been affected by the opening of Cabot Circus or the recession too noticeably. I think the recession will make people more selective about which store they shop at and what they shop for. The likes of Aldi and Lidle have done remarkably well, but then again, Sainsbury’s recently enjoyed its best ever Christmas with sales up 4.5%. Therefore I would suggest that it is not just the so called ‘cheaper stores’ that are doing well, but also the stores which have a different approach to retailing with strong ethics and good management.

One of the positive signs of the recession is that we have increased our customer count in the store. We have an established, loyal customer base but this increase, I’m sure, is the result of our very competitive pricing policy, an increase in brand offers in-store and a no compromise approach to the quality of our commodity goods.

I hope people will continue to shop in Scoopaway and support all the independent stores along Gloucester Road; it has a wonderful, characterful range of shops and cafés which need the support of the local community. I also hope people will continue to be mindful of the environment and not compromise their ethics during any economic downturn. I know there may be difficult times ahead for many people including some of our customers and I sympathise, but I also think that we can sometimes highlight the gloomy side of the economy too much when there are success stories out there too.”

However, another independent retailer in Bristol we talked to isn’t faring so well. They wanted to remain anonymous so all we can say is that they have one highstreet store and the business mainly sells personalised luxury items like cards, gifts and books.

The shop is a popular one on the higstreet, having traded for well over 10 years now, but that’s all been put into jeopardy:

“Basically Christmas should be our busiest time of the year when we make most of our annual profits but sales for Christmas 2008 were down by about 35% on Christmas 2007. This is really devastating and unless things turn around and fast, I really don’t think that I’m going to be able to stay open.

All I can do is urge people to shop locally and keep the money they do spend circulating in the local economy. Don’t let the worldwide big-wigs take our profits or shops like ours will start disappearing across Bristol!”

Finally, we were able to speak to one of the senior staff at one of Cabot Circus’ new flagship stores. They wished to remain anonymous so all we can say in that the shop is an international retailer. Obviously these are just the observations of one employee and may not be a true reflection of every shop in Cabot Circus but it’s interesting nonetheless:

“I can’t go into specific targets but when we opened, the feeling was that sales should be high for the first few months. Cabot Circus has a good catchment area (the South West, Cardiff and Gloucestershire) and opening just before Christmas certainly helped. At the moment these targets are being met but it is difficult to say what will happen in the rest of 2009. Trading has definitely fallen, which is always the case after Christmas, but by how much it will fall remains to be seen.

My immediate feeling is that Cabot Circus is doing well because of the opening impact. People hear of a large shopping centre opening and want to go and visit so we’re in a bit of a honeymoon period. Whether they return remains to be seen!

Although we are meeting or targets, there have already been several shop closures around Cabot Circus. I think generally people realise that retail will struggle during the hard financial times and Cabot Circus will not be the only place hit.”