Mostly, and there’s always a danger in generalising but this is my article so I can, you’d probably agree that online is killing the UK high streets - unless you’re shilling for Amazon right now, and if you are, how come you’re got time to read this? - and for the chains and empty retail units with no names, it’s not been great thing.
Trying to compete against the digital behemoths and social juggernauts when it comes to tracking and tapping into customer’s pockets and phone wallets, when you need to pay the business rates along with All The Overheads, has made IRL Retailing hard.
And then alongs comes Social with its mates and goes and makes local shops and local retail a celebrity. I feel like I should add three exclamation marks here. But I’ll resist.
In the vanguard of this trend (ok, I know, it’s not a trend yet. But I’m calling it) is the now instaFamous Binley Mega Chippy. Also so available now on Minecraft, yay! whatever that is.
Yesterday TikTok lighting struck again and the spotlight swung onto Wakey Wines (seems this resurgence is North(ish) of England thing. Maybe a Northern Powerhouse unintended consequence?), now the go-to for some kind of super-hard-to-get drink in a plastic bottle.
Hard not to see the fun in this, the chaotic randomness of the event and spectacle - and a visual-spectacle that’s a hallmark of the local shop aesthetic. So much plastic, so bright signs, so many messages and all genuine. Actually properly authentic, not your stick-on post-ironic kind. A celebration of happy-brightness fuelled by energy drinks.
This set me to wondering if maybe this is the 2022 version of the flash-mob - a joy-full celebration of local business? A means to help revitalise long-suffering high streets. Maybe it’s time to step up and take your next retail design direction from the local sign painter and rather than forcing in an artwork or cookie-cutter design and planning, channel the local shop aesthetic. You might even make it into a meme.
The independent retailer, local-shop aesthetic. It’s going to be massive. MiniMart-core. You can have that. I’m here all week, etc.
