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I went to Stevenage to attempt to do the Park Run course on my own to make up for missing Saturday, but I only managed 20% of the course before I accepted that I am not quite well enough yet. It’s amazing how much being part of a group pushes you onwards and speeds you up.
I decided to have a look round the shops instead and drove to the Roaring Meg Retail and Leisure Park. Which is a more depressing place than I had remembered. It felt a little bit like visiting a tourist attraction dedicated to how we used to live. Imagine it. Going to shops. How quaint.
I’d just heard Steve Wright and his ageing posse discussing shops and brands that had folded and that we miss, so perhaps the precarious nature of retail was already on my mind, but it was hard not to conclude that a proportion of the shops here were not far from joining Freeman, Hardy and Willis, Borders and Maplins in the shops we knew and loved, but that have subsequently died. Will Debenhams, Currys and the Harvester chain still be with us in 10 years time? It’s hard to keep your business relevant and vibrant - it’s something that I am aware of within the podcast market place too - and some places make no attempt to keep up, whilst sometimes the attempts to stay relevant look a bit desperate and sad. Currys are now selling kitchen gadgets amongst the electrical items. I mean part of me thinks good on them and part of me thinks it’s like Ian Curry kneeling in front of you saying “What do you want? We’ll get you anything you need? Please don’t go to Amazon.”
There was an empty store and a sign up saying something along the lines of imagining the possibilities of opening a business in this space. I just imagined how I’d be sitting in a much too big shop with very little to sell beyond some old kickstarter T shirts and realising that the rates and rental were costing me way more than I could ever hope to make. It was a horrible thing to imagine. Why did they make me imagine it?
There were loads of cars there, but hardly any people, which makes me suspect that it’s being used as a free place to leave your car when you get a train into town. I didn’t feel sad that the old way of doing things was changing - in some ways it’s hard to understand that this was once not only the way we did things, but a sort of day out. And some shops will survive and prosper (my wife and daughter had gone into London today to spend some of Phoebe’s birthday money on toys and to get her some new clothes and she came back excited by the grown-up jaunt), if they manage to adapt to the new circumstances.
This ebb and flow happened even before the internet. Big businesses rested on their laurels and assumed they’d be there forever. Change has always been the way, but my little step back in time left me feeling a little empty and mourning for something that wasn’t quite dead.
I think maybe if this wasn't all in Stevenage, which is a depressing place to start with, then it might not have battered my soul in the same way.
Anyway, my own business continues and hopefully will grow rather than stagnate. We've got an exciting gig coming up in the O2. That's right, RHLSTP is going to be at the actual O2. It's the small room, but it still counts. It's for O2 customers only (though will still go out on the usual podcast feeds) and is FREE. If you're a Priority Customer then check out your app or follow this link to have a chance to win a pair of free tickets. The guest is only bloody James Acaster, so I think this will be a great night. Good luck in the draw.
And there's another guest announcement for RHLSTP at the Leicester Square Theatre. Nish Kumar will be the other guest on the already nearly sold out March 16th Leicester Square Theatre podcast. Book here.
