Never bought one thing off her, never will. If I wanted Liverpool themed gifts I’d go to the shop at the Albert Dock that’s been there for decades or Liverpool Museum. I wouldn’t venture that side of town and most definitely not down that side street that is nothing short of moody at the best of times.
Her whole rant that she’s published irks me massively - it shifts some blame onto the consumer and yes, it is absolutely a horrendous time for businesses (I also have my own), but it’s also even more horrendous for the average consumer. Some people have no choice but to ‘nip into the Asda’ for a Valentine’s Day card. Fuck, some people won’t even be able to add that extra cost onto their shop. Thing is, it’s not as black and white as ‘shopping local’, it’s getting to the shop itself or paying for postage and packaging. If you don’t drive, it’s a bus or train ticket on top and if you do drive, it’s parking fees as well as petrol costs to shop local and that all adds up. Going into town for most isn’t a necessity - they visit when they have money to spend whereas going to the Asda for a weekly shop is a necessity. What she’s not getting is, whilst people are empathetic and understand the shit position that businesses are in, a lot just physically don’t have the cash to shop local, which is sadly viewed as a luxury these days.The blame for small business failure doesn’t lie with the consumer opting to go to the Asda or Aldi, it lies with the government and bleating on about people shopping local won’t change that - it’ll just make people realise just how fucking skint they are even more. If you want people to shop local, introduce local incentives - ditch the delivery fee and deliver yourself for example and offer it free to the consumer. Yes, you’ll have to pay for it, but it’s a well known marketing fact that if someone is getting something for free, they will part with more cash if they can afford it. On balance, it would work out better in terms of sales for the sake of a days time and a tank of petrol. Local business is a two way street and to be local, you have to be part of the local community or you’re just another shop on the high street, whether you have scouse in the shop title or not. Shopping local is about the consumer investing in your brand but equally, you have to invest in the consumer and where they live. She won’t do that, she will just want the money. She markets herself as a scouse brand but doesn’t do anything that is meaningful to scousers - not once has she attended a hillsborough memorial service and she wouldn’t be seen dead at a soup kitchen. She’s not part of our patchwork as a city, she just wants to make money off the brand that scousers have created for themselves over decades of time. She’s even shown a snobbish attitude to less well off areas of the city, constantly going on about living in Crosby which to be honest, is nice but average?! Yet she then expects a wider audience to buy into this scouse bird shop facade and part with their cash on the back of being underhandedly told that they’re not as good as her cos they don’t live in fucking Crosby. Her business inexperience shows massively and her downfall will not be down to people not shopping locally.
thanks for coming to my ted talk.