The state of independence

Oh Lewes, how visitors surge along your cobbled streets for a spot of recreational shopping. How those visitors delight at your independent shops. And yet...

And yet those independent shops are under increasing commercial pressures, with more and more 'big name' brands appearing where a sole trader was before. Eventually every other shop will be owned by a coffee chain and the rest will sell some kind of stylish clothing for an active lifestyle. Probably an active lifestyle that involves dropping those clothes off at the dry cleaners because otherwise they'd dissolve in your washing machine.

Here in Ringmer, we don't have those problems. Not at the moment, anyway.

Unlike Lewes, we are still a true haven for independent retailers. In a single parade of shops (equipped with a paved precinct and handy points for securing a dog/bicycle) we can offer you a greengrocer and florist, a bakery, a butcher, a vet, an Indian restaurant, a fish & chip shop, a hairdresser, an off-licence and a pet supplies shop. There's also an estate agent, a bank and a convenience shop with post office but they're all parts of larger organisations so I won't count them for now. That's before you search out the pubs (two or three, depending on where you draw village boundaries), the garage and the units on the trading estates elsewhere in the village.

But the pièce de résistance is Middletons. Or, to use its full name, Middletons of Ringmer. It's a haberdashery.

If you put Mrs Middleton and her wares in a little bay-windowed shop on Lewes High Street, you wouldn't be able to move for squealing tourists taking photos of buttons and ribbons.

Mind you, the shop sells more than just sewing kit. There's also a nice line in greetings cards, some children’s toys and an assortment of advertisements on postcards in the window. Kittens for sale, lawnmower servicing, that kind of thing.

You're going to tell me that Lewes has similar needlecraft shops. I know.

But they don't quite have the charm of our local haberdasher's shop. Or the slight incongruity. Well, it's not like every village really needs one.

If I was thinking of opening a shop, I'd be estimating footfall and looking for an unexploited niche. That's just one of the reasons I'd not make a good independent shopkeeper.

The trick, it seems, is a combination of caring passionately about what you do, trying to meet every customer's desire and not giving a stuff about what anyone else thinks.

And I reckon living in a village gives you an advantage. After all, you've already chosen to stay away from the crowds.

So, as I continue to demonstrate, Lewes is a great place to visit but Ringmer is the right place to live. It demonstrates true independence and has everything you could possibly need.

Well, almost everything. If there's anything else you want, you can always knit it. I know the perfect shop to buy some wool.

First published on vivalewes.com 26th July 2012: http://vivalewes.com/