Large and small shops may seem to exist in the same retailing world but in fact they’re galaxies apart.

This was brought home to me recently when I was talking to the manager of a major store. I should have known from my days at one of the biggest theatres in the country that large scale is more than simply having a bigger turnover, it’s the freedom of flexibility, time and spare cash. In a small scale business, everything is cash constrained, everyone has to pitch in and every paperclip counts.

Take late night opening. For most shops, those extra couple of hours are not as lucrative as the traditional opening times but a small percentage of a massive turnover is still worthwhile for a big shop. Not necessarily so for the small trader.

To provide proper security and service, we have to employ a minimum of two staff to run the Your Life Your Style shop in Winchester, even if we take only a few pounds. Yet the same two staff can cope with all but our most busy times. My friend managing her big shop has no concept of what life is like for the small independent. Her normal day requires many staff (let’s say 40) whereas a quiet evening may need less than 10. For us, it’s the same two, so our costs for a late night are much higher in relative terms.

It’s no wonder that, when a small shop adds extra hours for late night opening, as we will be in the run up to Christmas, the owner (in our case, my wife and I) is likely to cover them herself or himself. Even if we were to pay for extra staff hours, we don’t have extra managers so we’ll still have to be there. A big shop on the other hand will have two, three or more duty managers.

Still, at least a small trader like me can look forward to the two day break for Christmas Day and Boxing Day. Or I could until my manager friend reminded me that Boxing Day’s just another trading day this year because it’s on a Sunday. She’ll still get her two days off though. As I say, it’s a different world.

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