Small shops suffer under chains and regulations

By Jes Salter

HIGH STREET shops in St Mary’s ward are being squeezed by council parking regulations and nearby supermarket chains, local businesses complained.

Russell Fulton, 52, owner of SX, a DIY shop on Essex Road, said the council has effectively forced him to close up shop.

“Since the council banned parking on the main road, I can’t even get delivery vans to stop because they’re scared they’ll get a ticket, never mind customers,” he said.

Marathon Sports, six premises down the road, has been forced to close and Mr Fulton said he will be quick to follow suit. He said: “I’d take an offer tomorrow.”

Essex Road has double red lines and Transport for London fines offenders £100 for stopping.

Only 100m away Alberto Ferrari’s Italian delicatessen cannot compete with the supermarket squeeze. After 36 years on Cross Street, he blamed the two Sainsbury’s supermarkets on Upper Street, along with Marks and Spencer, and many competing restaurants for deflecting customers’ interest from his shop.

Mr Ferrari, 74, used to form a parade with a greengrocers, butchers, bakery and fishmongers, but all have since turned into clothes shops.

He said: “In Italy, a tobacconist sells tobacco. In England the shop is a bazzar: they sell newspapers, sandwiches, butter, everything. In Sainsbury’s you can buy anything you like, but where is the distinction, where is the pride in your shop?”

Wilf Altman, ex-assistant to the chairman at Sainsbury’s, defended the rise of the chain shops.

He said: “The world has changed. More women work, they are time short.

“Would they really want to shop and face queues at the old-fashioned high street grocer, the wine merchant, the butchers, bakers and delicatessen?”

Lucy Kennedy, 22, an Islington resident, agreed with Altman. She said: “It’s a shame that businesses are being forced to close, but at the end of the day, when you get home from work, the last thing you need is queuing up in lots of different shops, and most of them aren’t open at 7pm anyway.”

Islington Council are due to publish the results of their small retailer survey by the end of the year. They asked shop owners their perceptions of council support, the accessibility of council services and what the council could do better.

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