Vintage shop owner says 'things have slowed down' in Chichester high street
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00:00 Hello, I'm Steve. I'm the owner of Vintro Vintage and Retro on South Street in Chichester.
00:04 So we sell a range of vintage and retro clothes for men, women, teenagers, adults and everyone else.
00:10 I think at the moment it'd be very hard to deny that things haven't slowed down significantly.
00:18 I mean, I'm on one of the main four streets in Chichester and the spending footfall certainly
00:24 has declined considerably in recent months and I think a lot of people who have shops around here
00:31 say the same thing. I know in my store in particular you need to spend some time in here
00:36 and be comfortable in here, try clothes on, have a good rummage, all the rest of it. It's regularly
00:42 the case where someone's looking at something but hasn't got time to stop and try it on because
00:46 they're conscious that their parking's going to run out. It's mentioned a lot by customers,
00:53 you know, and also if guys come and work for me as well it costs them a lot of money to park up
00:57 and work here which then obviously I've got to consider what I'm paying people, all the rest of
01:01 it. So there's lots of ways that parking could be improved and that would definitely help businesses.
01:05 You know, in a city centre car park within walking distance of the main shops I think
01:09 that'd have a massive difference. So rent and rates is a challenge in a town like Chichester.
01:14 There's no two ways about it given the actual, you know, the spending footfall that we have.
01:20 As a start-up business I was quite lucky to have a deal with my landlord but it was very dependent
01:24 on the 75% discounted rate scheme that is in existence at the moment but that only rolls,
01:32 that is only guaranteed for 12 months so I can't plan ahead and for me 75% discount on a set
01:39 taxation scheme means it's too high so I think that really means looking at, I can't, as you said,
01:44 future-proof my business if I don't know if it's going to exist as it stands in six months time.
01:50 I think your business rates are based on your rateable value which is what someone thinks
01:56 your property is worth which seems to be a much inflated number and much more than the rents that
02:01 we're actually paying. Again I can speak for myself personally, I certainly wouldn't be open
02:06 here on South Street if the business rates went back up to full price, no way. I loved to see that
02:12 the Chichester Bid did run an indie campaign, it is on the foremost of their social media,
02:18 I see lots of bits and pieces so it's good from a marketing point of view they're starting to
02:22 do things, obviously more can be done and we'd love to see that continue because independents
02:26 are the lifeblood of the high street, the big chains aren't coming here anymore,
02:29 we need to look after the independents. So again we're back to helping us with our costs,
02:36 our rising costs because they are squeezing us and it's going to get to the point where
02:42 we're all going to have to leave the city centre.
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