Vaccine relief might save Barnsley’s small shops – Jayne Dowle

IT’S being heralded as the Christmas gift to beat them all. By this time next week, the approved Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine could be rolling out.

The news broke the very morning that the new tier system kicked in and non-essential shops re-opened, the ones still in a position to trade.

Without even taking into account the effect of the second national lockdown, a record number of major shops disappeared from high streets in the first half of 2020 as Covid-19 hammered the retail sector.

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The 6,001 chain store closures between January and June was a record high and doesn’t include all those smaller retailers which are now permanently shuttered.

High streets across Yorkshire and the country are preparing for Small Business Saturday.High streets across Yorkshire and the country are preparing for Small Business Saturday.
High streets across Yorkshire and the country are preparing for Small Business Saturday.

The vaccine is a breakthrough, for sure. However its arrival has come too late to save so many. It’s not just Sir Philip Green’s Arcadia Group which has gone to the wall, taking iconic brands such as Topshop with it, but thousands of others have been battered into going under by the pandemic. Sorry to pull on my Grinch hat yet again, but the celebrations should be muted.

The Government has ordered 40m doses of the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine so that mass inoculation can start, starting with care-home residents and staff, it is reported.

Forgive my cynicism, but when Health Secretary Matt Hancock promises faithfully that “help is on its way”, you tend to thank your lucky stars that you’re not floating on a lifeboat as the Titanic sinks beneath the waves.

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Of course, I hope that the vaccination programme goes to plan, that distribution is efficient and all potential issues and problems with efficacy and delivery have been ironed out.

Boris Johnson is preparing for the rolling out of the first Covid vaccine.Boris Johnson is preparing for the rolling out of the first Covid vaccine.
Boris Johnson is preparing for the rolling out of the first Covid vaccine.

It’s not, however, a panacea for all ills. I know there are plenty of people storming the shops this week as if their lives depended on stocking up on chocolate snowmen.

However, there are many more who won’t venture far until any vaccine has been proven to work and to have no worrying side-effects.

This includes my own parents, who are in their seventies. They are looking forward to going to town again – in their matching face-shields of course – but haven’t been to a shopping mall or supermarket since March.

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Regaining confidence will take months, if not years, for society in general. And we must accept that things won’t miraculously snap back to the way they were. Even at his most gung ho, the Prime Minister warns that social distancing measures of some degree are expected to stay in place until next summer at least.

Health and Social Care Secretary Matt Hancock still fails to command the confidence of columnist Jayne Dowle and others.Health and Social Care Secretary Matt Hancock still fails to command the confidence of columnist Jayne Dowle and others.
Health and Social Care Secretary Matt Hancock still fails to command the confidence of columnist Jayne Dowle and others.

This has consequences. It means we will all continue to re-think our learned behaviour; the ‘Great Pause’ of 2020 will be remembered as the biggest marker in the sand for a generation. It will also mean that most of us will be obliged to stay closer to home.

This is actually the best news ever for shopping local and cherishing our home-grown retailers. In another perfect example of serendipity, it’s Small Business Saturday on December 5, a timely reminder to stop before you order that Christmas present online or take a supermarket delivery slot from a vulnerable person because you can’t be bothered to go out in the cold.

I’ll give you an example. Consider for a moment the light-up rattan reindeer. There’s a national shortage, it seems. Please don’t tell me off. I know a light-up rattan reindeer is hardly an essential purchase, but I decided I wanted one to stand on our garage roof this year, a beacon of hope in a dark world. And as far as I know, there are no rules relating to reindeers, as yet.

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Could I find one? No, but I was clearly looking in the wrong place. As Amazon, eBay and online retailers rapidly ran out of this coveted item, I began to despair until I remembered a local garden centre with a fantastic gift shop.

One phone call later, and thanks to a very helpful customer assistant, we’d reserved the last artificial reindeer on earth, it seemed. He’s now standing proud and I’m quite proud too that a small local business could help us when online retail giants failed.

Buy local, says the Federation of Small Businesses (FSB), and by now we should all know this makes sense. It’s the way the wind is blowing; you only have to look at the success of neighbourhood apps such as Nextdoor and online community selling groups. I’ve estimated that at least one in three adults here in Barnsley belong to a borough-wide ‘Items for Sale’ group on Facebook.

And I’m glad to see that the FSB has thoroughly embraced social media to help spread the word. If we’re out and about on Saturday, we’re urged to tweet, post and Instagram photos of ourselves supporting local traders with the tag, #SmallBizSatUK.

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And whilst the vaccine rolls out – hopefully – we should also never forget that hyper-local is the future, and salvation, of retail.

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