HomeMy WebLinkAboutNews Article: To Be a 'Clone Town,' or Not: That Is the Question!VL ~1 ~ U;..~ ~~.~u:~ 11~ 1 C~YY'rN~ IVl~fti~ 111U1VUAY, NUV~MBER 1,
I Stratford-upon-Avon Journal
~ To Be a`Clone Town,' orNot: That Is the Question
By I.IZETTE ALVAREZ
STRATFORD-UPOfV-AVON, Eng-
land - To survive the approach to
the home where William Shake-
speare was born, a striking timber-
frame house in the center of this bus-
tling town, it would be wise to bid
adieu to all bucolic notions of quaint
old England and ready oneself for
the onslaught of globalization.
A visitor must march past Country
Casuals, Boots pharmacy, Next, and
Marks & Spencer, and pass Acces-
sorize, HMV, Whittard and of course,
the dueling coffee shops, Starbucks
and Costa Coffee. If it were not for
Shakespeare's dwelling and a few no-
table old houses, this town - with
row upon row of British chain stores
- would scarcely be different from
ar-y other in Sritain these days. Most
butcher shops and hardware stores
have closed. So have 1he family
clothing shops, tt~e fishmongers and
a long list of other independent busi-
nesses.
"If someone blindfolded you, put
you in a helicopter and set you down
in a town somewhere in England, you
wouldn't be able to tell where yoti a~•e
anymore," said Jim Hyslop, 55, who
lives just outside Stratford. The
chain stores, he said, "change the
character of a place."
In the past five years, chain stores
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DO NOT FORGET THE NEEDIEST!
owned by corporations and out-of-
town megastores similar to Wal-
Mart (one of them, Asda, is, in fact,
owned by Wal-Mar[), have come to
dominate many British towns and
cities, creating a palpable sense of
homogeneity from Kent all the way
to Cumbria, and drawing striking
parallels to America.
Many of the main shopping thor-
oughfares, so-called "high streets,"
now traffic in sameness: ubiquitous
cellphone shops (Orange, Vodafone,
02) ; the familiar coffee chains
(Starbucks, Caffe Nero and Costa
Coffee) ; the typical clothing stores
(Gap, Nex[, Warehouse) ; and the
cookie-cutter restaurants (Cafe
Rouge, ASK, Pizza Express). Neigh-
borhood greengrocers are also on the
way out, replaced by chain minisu-
permarkets, -nost notably Tesco, a
company ihat has become one of the
world's top retailers. ,
"In the case of Britain, and espe-
cially England, there is a huge sense
of identity investment in the image of
towns and cities, and the notion that
this sort o( bland, gradual efface-
ment of character is taking place has
taxed people at a deep level," said
Andrew Simms, policy director for
the New Economic Foundation, an
independent economic research or-
ganization tha[ published a report in
August called "Clone Town Britain."
"It makes life boring," Mr. Simms
added. "It makes our communities
boring places to be. That is one thing
that has touched people deeply. Peo-
ple don't want to live in towns that
look all the same. It's dull."
In i[s report, the foundation visited
.a series of towns and cities and
counted both chain shops and inde-
pendent businesses. It also contends
that the spread of chains and sprawl-
ing Tesco-style stores winds up hurt-
ing local economies, because less
money is pumped back into the area,
and people are deprived of choice. A
previous report in 2002 found that
specialty stores like butchers and
bakers were closing at a rate of 50 a
week, along wi[h 20 traditional pubs
a month.
The reasons independent business-
es are vanishing here are familiar to
Americans: high rents; customer
demand for cheaper goods ; and cor-
porate muscle. It is just that in the
past few years their disappearance
has become increasingly visible and
particularly striking in a part of the
world that once took such pride in its
community shops.
"It's happening because of the con-
sumer," said Nick Gladding, senior
David Haywaid runs Lacey's, an
independent hardware store in
Stratford-upon-Avon that has it-
self become a tourist draw.
analyst at Verdict Research, a group
that specializes in retail. "They are
becoming more demanding.
"And people increasingly like fa-
miliarity," he added, noting that
there are generational differences in
shopping trends. "People like to
know what to expect when they go
into a shop or restaurant." •
Lacey's, an ironmonger, or hard-
• ware store, in Stratford-upon-Avon,
has been in town for generations. It is
run by David Haywaid, 53, as it was
by his father and grandfather before
him. Mr. Haywaid said the town had
changed markedly in recent years as
independents had been driven to
close because of high rents. "The
only shops that can make moi~ey ar
the clothing shops, with their horrei
dous markups," he said.
His own shop is so old-fashioned
that it is now a draw in i[self, luring
nostaigic out-of-towners who pine fi
"something different," said Mr. Ha;
waid, who owns the building his stoi
occupies. Around the corner, at Ba~
ry the Butcher, Stewart Ashfield, tl~
deputy manager, agrees. Not too
lon~ ago, there were 12 butcher
shops in town ; now there are 2..
"Stratford has changed out of all re
ognition," he said. "We've been darr
aged by these chains, and the out-of
town shopping stores where people
shop for everything under one roof ~
in America. WhaYs been lost is the
personal touch."
"Clone towns," though, as the re-
port calis them, are beginning to en
counter resistance as people ques-
tion whether Britain should emulat~
America or follow Continental Eu-
rope, which is trying hard to pre-
serve its uniqueness. In F'rance at~d
Poland, for example, local nuthori-
ties can veto the construction of
large supermarkets.
Local governments here are star
ing to push for economic incentives
to guarantee a greater variety of
shops. One town, I.udlow, has joinec
an Italian movement called Citta-
slow, which embraces the "slow
rown" concept and promotes tite
benefits of eating locally grown
produce.
A few powerful landtords have al~
taken stands against chain stores.
The Mercers' Company, one of Lon-
don's biggest landlords, is trying to
a~tract independent shops Uy offer-
ing them discounts on the streets
around Covent Garden, a popular
tourist spot. Howard de Walden Es-
tates, the hereditary landlord of
much of Marylebone Village in Lon•
don, has rejected a nuaiber of chau~
on its high street in order to preserti
a unique, and quite popular, rnix of
shops. The company's chief execu-
tive has been critical of local goveri
ments, saying they are taking a
short-term view of planning by al-
ways going with the highest bidder.
The question is: Is it too late to
stem the tide?
"Tliey talk aUout a tipping point,
where you suddenly see independer
retailers wiped out in cer[ain areas
said David Bishop, a spokesman fo~
the Federation of Small Businesse:
"Unless you take some constructiv~
action now it will resemble the U.S.
We're a long way from that, but it i:
a real danger."
Chain stores proiiferate in Stratford-upon-Avon, where one of the few
sites distinguisl~ing the town from many others in England is the house
where Shakespeare was born, above. But resistance to cookie-cutt
towns is rising, with some landlords rejecting chain-store tenants.