This is the question we keep getting asked and as we haven’t
had a proper rant for a while….here we go!
For a while, we have been losing trade to the internet. For
example, we have noticed that on deliveries we will ask a homeowner, as we
wheel in their purchase, where they got that lovely cupboard in the hall, or
that painting on the wall. The answer is never an actual shop, it’s always “oh,
we saw that on the internet”. We have no problem with this, but our footfall
has dropped and as a bricks and mortar business we have to pay the government
tax on everything – tax on air, shoe leather, talking to customers, not talking
to customers, sunshine, rain, ideas, dreams, random thoughts etc. It just goes
on and on.
However, the internet seems free of all these taxes, plus we
don’t need fire inspection; electrical safety compliance; insurance in case
someone sues us for getting dust on their skins. We don’t have to pay business
rates, we don’t need to have a licence to pay music for customers and we don’t
have to clean the shop or clean up sticky, sweety finger marks left by lovely
children.
Sadly, however much we love our shop and, if we could ban
the internet, raise the VAT barrier and make business rates realistic then we
would carry on trading at Burwash Manor. But we are where we are, so please
support our growing online shop and as a reward we will open our lovely old
workshop several times a year for general browsing, rummaging, poking and
fiddling – all the stuff that makes shopping interesting.
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