Article: Service with a smile

“My God! There’s nothing frightens you more than a furtive grocer.” So said Nurse Gladys Emmanuel in the classic BBC sitcom Open All Hours.

One of the things that I love so much about this TV show, especially the further we head away from its original airing back in the mid-1970s and 1980s, is that it presents a wonderful image of what I think is sadly a fast-disappearing entity here in the UK – the friendly, local, independent shopkeeper. With a particular good-natured gentleness, the series exuded a wonderfully timeless charm all of its own, inducing a sense of whimsy and nostalgia for ‘the good old days.’

Earlier this week, I posed a simple question on Twitter: Is the traditional British shopkeeper a dying breed? The responses I received clearly corroborate my own sentiments, with many people disheartened by the closure of vast numbers of their favourite local suppliers. Sure, this can now be put down partly to the recession, but certainly this isn’t the key factor here – it is simply a topical element. The reality is, sadly, a lot more corporate in its nature.

Over the last 10-15 years, via the portal that is one of my neighbouring small villages here in Hampshire, I’ve seen the increasing dominance of the larger national organisations over the ‘little man in the street.’ At one time, some years ago, you could get everything you needed right on your doorstep; this in itself had a sense of assurance about it, but by default it also created and enforced trust, brought people closer together, created healthy inter-village competition (thus fuelling the much-coveted vegetable-growing competitions!) and provided jobs for generations of families living there.

When the local Co-op decided to expand, it was only a matter of time before we said goodbye to the butcher, the grocer and the wine merchant. The Post Office was next to be affected, being incorporated into the back of the newly refitted convenience store (not to everyone’s delight, it has to be said). Give him his due, the newsagent did his best to keep up, forced to obtain a license to sell alcohol to make up for his losses on basic groceries (having stepped in, just about, to plug at least part of the gap left by the aforementioned grocer’s departure).

But let’s not focus on the doom and gloom – it’s not all bad news. My Twitter poll flagged up a number of examples where people have been reassured by the continued survival of their local champions of community. They have related tales of one-to-one assistance more often seen in days of old, acts of kindness and professionalism which you just don’t get when shopping in larger supermarkets and warehouse stores. A shoe repairer glued a boot for free, an electrical shop assistant opened up a sealed pack to check for instructions and offered a full refund if he was wrong… Such stories are somehow quite heart-warming, aren’t they?

As a business owner myself – and, of course, as a consumer – it is immediately clear in the character of Arkwright (played by Ronnie Barker) just how one could/should go about providing a service to one’s customers. He also beautifully demonstrates the wrong way to go about things! The fact is that people love people – treat your customers right and they’ll return to you again and again; upset or anger them in any way, even on seemingly trivial matters, and chances are you’ve lost them on the spot.

As the backbone of many a small country village, corner shops such as Arkwright’s have, along with the church and local ale house, been at the centre of communities up and down the land for as long as we can remember. They say that our lives are progressing, advancing for the better thanks to the wider choice, cheaper prices and greater convenience afforded by the likes of supermarkets - but is this really the case? I’m not so sure.

I think that the recession is an easy scapegoat for not parting with cash. At the end of the day, and in spite of tight purse strings, people are still happy to pay a premium if what they get in return is better produce, better value and better service. And quite rightly so.

Clearly, not everyone believes the hype (dare I say ‘propaganda’?) which saturates our televisions, radios and billboards. This is why we are seeing a backlash, a movement of support for local producers and providers here in the UK. Farmers’ markets, ‘grow your own’ initiatives, loyalty schemes and town incentives are all slowly winning people over to the kind of values which, in all honesty, they probably know have always lurked deep within them all along.

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If you would like to see what I get up to month-by-month, why not take a look at my Blog. And if you’re up to speed with Twitter, then please look me up and say hi. Social media, after all, is no different to our traditional forms of communication, other than it is hosted in a virtual space – so please feel free to comment on any posts, remarks, thoughts and ideas I may come out with along the way – the more the merrier!

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First published at BritishPages.org

Article: A train too far

In a recent post earlier this month, I told you about my new arrangement to write articles for a website called BritishPages.org.

As promised, here is my first offering (after an introductory preamble). It is something of a lighthearted rant, detailing a farcical train journey on the Southern UK rail network...

A Train Too Far

On occasions, I like to substitute my car for the train when travelling locally. Of course there are environmental benefits to this but, personally, it affords me the chance to take a break from rushing around and allows me to make the most of my travel time by getting some work done. The danger with this, of course, is that as a passenger, you are completely at the mercy of the transportation system itself (not to mention the staff and operators).

Leaves on the line, the wrong kind of weather, a fatality somewhere up ahead – we’ve all heard the excuses as to why trains can be delayed. But my fortunes at the hands of this method saw a new contender a couple of days ago.

Let me give you a bit of background info. It was coming towards the end of the day, around 5pm, and I had had a lovely day out with my Dad in Chichester – a local city steeped in history, folklore and vast trade connections spanning back to Roman times and beyond. It is well connected, transport-wise, thanks to a wide network of rail and road routes, and in my experience this remains problem-free roughly 90% of the time. Any delays tend to be relatively short-lived.

Not so, the day in question.

With my Dad’s train due to depart at 5:16pm, mine was conveniently scheduled to arrive at the other platform five minutes earlier. As is turns out, his arrived a little early, and we said cheerio so he could sit in the warm and I could head over to the other side of the track. This is where it all started to go wrong.

I saw the light on the front of my train a little way up the line. The only trouble was it didn’t appear to be getting any closer. Fair enough, I thought, it was probably just waiting at a signal, to let another pass by.

Ten minutes came and went. And then another five… at which point a voice crackled over the PA system, announcing that the 5:11pm train was delayed a little way up the line ‘due to a mechanical fault’. No explanation given (of course, that would be asking too much). Now, I’m no expert, but even a rapidly-cooling member of the public like me could hazard a guess that this was a fair assumption!

I should point out that there was no snow or ice in the area at the time. This would at least have presented something of an argument, as in recent weeks (see picture above), but the severity of the weather was limited to light rain which had fallen earlier in the day.

We (the freezing passenger brigade) did get a further update after about another half an hour; the cause was – and I quote our friendly announcer here – “The brakes have locked up.” Marvellous.

I’ll save you the interim details, but suffice it to say that after 2 hours of waiting (with no other services able to come along the line), I’d had enough. My feet were bitterly cold, my hands were fast catching up, I was tired, hungry, and I still had a load of work to do, having been out of the office all day.

This was the point at which I took it upon myself to tackle the station guard to ask just what they (the all-powerful southern rail network) were planning to do, to rescue myself and the other 50+ passengers from a potentially long and dismal evening with not so much as a complimentary cup of tea between us. The answer to my question came somewhat hesitantly (as I was passed the default complaint/claim paperwork) in the form of “Um… we’re laying on a replacement bus service”. When will this be arriving? I asked. “Um… not sure.”

Brilliant.

Luckily, there is a large bus station/depot just around the corner from the train station, so I headed off, determined not find myself ultimately emailing clients upon a return home at around 11pm.

Thankfully, one of the drivers had by now been tipped off about the situation, and he was extremely friendly and polite; it was a welcome sight to see him handle his passengers’ concerns with complete professionalism. Within 5 minutes, I was on the road and, due in no small part to his clearly ‘bending the rules’ of the speed limit, I finally got home at about 7:45pm (after picking up a connection at another train station).

This whole sorry state of affairs begs the question: Is it any wonder the government gets frustrated that we don’t use public transport more?! Reliability issues are one thing, but surely they must realise that these, combined with poor communication and a lack of respect for one’s paying customers, will only lead to despondency and ill feeling.

I’d be interested to hear your thoughts and your situation, wherever you might be.

Incidentally, if any of you would like to see what I get up to month-by-month, why not take a look at my Blog. And if you’re up to speed with Twitter, then please look me up and say hi! I am a big fan of social media and the way it brings us together, so please feel free to comment on any posts, remarks, thoughts and ideas I may come out with along the way – the more the merrier!

Note: I wrote this piece on another train bound for London yesterday. As I was approaching Woking in Surrey, yet another shaky voice appeared over the in-train PA, announcing that due to “technical difficulties” which the train guard did not “know the nature of”, I would shortly have to disembark onto another train which, it was hoped, would get me to my destination on time. Two days in a row – do I get a prize?!

Writing for BritishPages.org

As many of you know, my time is not spent purely as a photographer; I am also a writer, primarily putting together articles for the outdoor and photography markets.

Well, following discussions with a fellow Twitter user, I am pleased to announce that I will now be writing regularly for BritishPages.org - a place for discussion on all manner of things quintessentially British. My articles - posted under 'Blogs > Babbington Blog' - will fit in with the site's already well-established theme of cultural topics such as tourism, news, entertainment, expatriates, business, food, fashion and more besides. My is essentially text based, but you never know, I might just throw in some audio and video footage along the way!

I'll also be re-posting these same articles here on the GBP Blog, along with a link to their location on BritishPages.org - so either way, you shouldn't have any trouble keeping up to date.

To kick things off, then, here's the link to the post 'Introducing the Babbington Blog'. As ever, I'm warmly welcoming readers' thoughts and comments. So don't be shy - enjoy and enter into the debates!