As much as I love the internet and do plenty of online shopping (including my weekly supermarket shop) I am really trying to make sure that I use my local shops too. If you don’t use them then I figure that you’ve no right to complain if they then close.
As I’ve mentioned on here many times before I am fortunate enough to have a wonderful local toyshop in St Albans in the form of Cuthberts Toys. When a friend was asking on Facebook if anyone knew where to get hold of some specific Octonauts toys that she’d promised her daughter as a reward for having to take some particularly nasty medicine I knew exactly where to ask. A quick tweet to the shop and I discovered a batch of toys were due to be delivered in two days time. They sent me a tweet to tell me they were in and I was able to pop into the shop and get the toys my friend needs. As long as Royal Mail do their job correctly overnight there should be a very happy little girl at the end of her course of medicine. All organised via Twitter and Facebook, but the role of a local independent shop here was the key thing.
With Amazon offering free p&p these days it can be hard to drag yourself away from one-click ordering, but a weekend trip to Oxford and the delights of their huge Waterstone and Blackwells branches made me realise just how much I was missing spending time browsing in bookshops. Sadly St Albans only has one real bookshop left in the form of Waterstones but bearing in mind that if it wasn’t used by people we might lose it I headed in there on Monday having promised Little Miss C a new book as a reward for something. As soon as we reached the children’s setion LMC was beside herself with excitement. She loves books and seeing so many in one place meant she didn’t know which one to pick up first. The addition of a fish tank at the right height for her and we could have spent all day in there!
Whilst there I decided to see if they had the final two Louisa May Alcott books from the Little Women series. I’d looked online for them, but only seemed to find Kindle versions that were readily available and I’m someone who hasn’t yet embraced the non-paper book. I couldn’t find them on the shelves, but found a very helpful young man who looked the books up on their computer system, ordered me copies and took my phone number so they could let me know when they came in. This was 11.30 on Monday morning. Just 24 hours later I received a text saying that my order was in store and that afternoon I collected the books. With their standard free delivery Amazon couldn’t have got them to me that quickly.
Just goes to show that good customer service is so valuable and many local shops can provide a level of service that you don’t always get from big online retailers. Make sure you use your local shops before it’s too late!
I was in there myself today!! As an Amazon addict (sorry), it’s been a while since I’ve been in, but you really can’t beat a good bookstore – I could have stayed for hours and found presents for all family and friends if I’d had the time! I agree Cuthberts is fab and have frequented them a few times. Let’s hope they’ve got staying power.
I’m glad to say that here in Ireland there is still a big tradition of shopping local. This has waned a bit over the years but people still support independent retailers. The personal service you receive makes all the difference.