www.net-cymru.co.uk
Eich Gwefan Chi / YOUR Site on the Internet
Comments on the Local Economy
Local Business
One of the key objectives of this site is to promote the welfare of the
local community through promoting the local economy.
The urgency of this task is not difficult to see. The area where I
live, the Rhondda Fawr, is one of a number of valleys in the mountains
just to the north of Cardiff. Development is mainly along the valley floor
with a few branches into smaller valleys. The main centres are Porth,
Tonypandy, Treorchy and Treherbert.
At one time, the valley was full of thriving shops, each serving a local
clientele, whom they usually knew by name. One feature of shops in earlier
times is that they usually had a chair for customers. Shopping was not just
a job to be completed in the shortest time possible. It was a social
activity.
Now most of the shops are confined to the four main centres. Elsewhere there
are a few fast food outlets and convenience stores scattered about. Some
people can be several miles from anything but an emergency outlet.
The Switch from Local to Chain Shopping
What has happened? Clearly shopping habits have changed. Car ownership has
greatly increased and now many people use the few supermarkets in the valley
or go even further afield to major shoping centres. One interesting feature
is the number of people who travel to supermarkets by taxi.
The main attraction is lower prices. But there are other factors as well.
The development of bypass roads makes shopping away from town centres
more convenient for a lot of people with cars. There are also the perceptions
of a constant and reliable product and response to the organisation's image,
groomed through strategies such as TV advertising.
Most shopping activity is habitual and retail organisations are keen to make
your habits their business. Recent years has seen a boom in the use of
loyalty cards as a way of getting customers to keep coming back to them.
Big Business as a Benefactor
Public relations is very important to large companies and they are eager to
be seen in the role of benefactors to the local community. Almost every
week in local newspapers you will see details of sponsored schemes,
particularly in local schools. Schools welcome these opportunities both
because they are strapped for cash and because they are under pressure to
show that they are building links to business.
What are the effects on shopping behaviour? Let's take one example. A major
supermarket chain offers its shoppers credit toward purchasing computers for
their local school. Schools are under pressure to keep up to date with their
IT equipment but are not generously funded to do so. By participating in
the computer sponsorship scheme parents and friends of the school can feel
that they are showing loyalty to their school. But of course they are also
shopping in a supermarket.
What does Small Business need to do to survive?
The tide is clearly flowing away from small, local businesses and toward
major national and even international organisations. Is there anything
which small business can do to reverse the trend?
Just as big business is (in subtle ways) educating a generation to think
in ways favourable to them, it is important that small business has something
of an educational role to undertake if it is to survive. People need to be
made aware that when they chose where to shop they are exercising an influence
similar to voting in an election. They can't expect shops that they don't
support with their custom to survive. How many people who shop almost
exclusively in supermarkets mourn the loss of the corner store that was very
convenient for the odd item that they had forgotten?
People need to be educated into thinking that if they want their local high
street to survive, they have to shop there.
What does Small Business have to offer?
The most obvious thing that small businesses can offer is a personal service.
The customer is not just an anonymous individual filling a shopping trolley,
but someone with a name, a neighbour, a friend.
Whist this may see inconsequential to someone having to squeeze shopping in
between making money and a hurried home life, there are other people for
whom this service is absolutely vital.
Particularly elderly people need the support of small businesses. They are
less likely to be able to drive (both by reason of health and a result of
having to cope on a reduced income). They may have special needs which
can be delivered by a shopkeeper flexible enough to order specially for
them. They may occasionally be ill and need to have deliveries made to
their house.
Above all they may need the psychological support from feeling that they
are someone who matters - not just an anonymous customer to be discarded the
moment they become unprofitable.
Friendly advice is another valuable feature of small businesses. When I
lived in London my local hardware store was a warehouse, with vast shelves
full of goods and hardly any staff. Things like nuts and bolts came in
plastic packets, leaving you to guess whether they were the right size and
leaving you with a lot left over in any case. In my local shop in the Rhondda
I can explain the problem and allowed to buy only the items I need - but for
how long?
How can Small Business put its case?
People need to be encouraged to think beyond themselves and beyond the
immediate future. Do they have any disabled or elderly relatives dependent
on the services of local shops? Can they imagine a time when they are unable
to drive to the shopping centre and load up the boot?
And of course there's only one alternative to growing old!
People need to be reminded if they want to keep their local businesses they
need to patronise them. But it's easier said than done !
Can Net-Cymru help?
Putting this article on the Internet is a first step! It has been placed with
convenient links from the Home Page, so there is a good chance it will be
seen by visitors.
It is certainly not intended to be the last word and if people running
small businesses wish to add their comments or articles, then they are most
welcome.
A second plank of the local business strategy is the
.
Under the scheme 10% of revenue raised by local advertising will be
earmarked for books for local schools. Schools can apply for funds and
I have a relatively open mind about what schools should be expected to
do in return. High on my list of priorities would be projects to
increase awareness amongst schoolchildren of the services that small
businesses render to their community.
There is very little that small businesses can do individually to compete
with the public relations initiatives by major companies undertaken in
schools. if small businesses can act in concert then they
The Government are very keen to get people to go into business for
themselves. This is more to do with the declining opportunities as
major organisations are becoming increasingly less labour-intensive.
Is it reasonable for young people to be thinking in terms of a future in
business for themselves when their own consumer behaviour is centred
entirely around major retail outlets and well-known brands?
I am certain that this question would make an interesting point of departure
for useful discussion between representatives of Small Business,
Government and education.
The Internet - Opportunity or threat for Small Businesses?
The Internet has arrived. It will become a significant factor in the
lives of many of us - whether we like it or not.
There is no doubt that the Government believe that we should all embrace
this new technology. The First Secretary's new policy document
Better Wales
contains frequent references to information technology, the internet and
(to give it the fully hyped-up name) the "Information Superhighway". One
could be forgiven for thinking is ready to perform wonders for us - if
we only let it.
The Internet does put into the hands of ordinary people the opportunties
that were hitherto available only to major organisations - the opportunity
to share vast amounts of information with anybody anywhere in the world.
Your internet site is like your personal wall which you use as you like -
to fill with disgusting graffiti, pages of your own thoughts or as an
advertising space for your business. At first sight it seems like a level
playing field.
Getting Noticed
Of course before you can attract visitors people have to know about your
site. This is where the level playing field ends. Large businesses use
conventional advertising to get their URL (internet address) in front of
as many people's eyes as possible and as frequently as possible. An easy
to remember URL is a big help - and the competition to buy them is such
that it is a common practice to buy URL addresses ("domain names")
speculatively - to sell on, or just to stop them from getting into the hands
of a competitor.
Another way of getting noticed is through the use of
.
Different search engines have different policies about what they put on
but without exception they need to make money. That means either charging
site owners or adveritising - or both.
Search engines are the transit points of the internet - places where visitors
pass though on the way from one site to another, rather like train and
undergound stations. Even more than their terrestrial equivalent, the search
engines are loaded with advertising.
Much of the internet is beginning to look like an American billboard jungle.
The threat to small businesses is clear. Whereas the cost of conventional
advertising makes it difficult for small businesses to transmit their
advertising, the internet makes it cheap to upload your messages but
still expensive to get them seen.
The threat becomes even greater when you consider "e-commerce" (buying and
selling over the Internet). This permits conventional retail chains to be
avoided completely. It is already an established way of ordering books
and the list of things that can be bought over the internet is growing all
the time.
Unfortunately the threat is there - whether you embrace the technology or
not.
Is there an alternative?
To me, one of the big disappointments of the internet at least to date,
is the limited extent to which information gets filtered. Just like
a conventional market, it is a cacophony of sellers all trying to get
their message heard.
There is very little that individual sellers can do - particularly if they
are competing against each other - to alter this situation.
The internet does provide ways of allowing visitors to get to the
information they are seeking without being overwhelmed by the total
volume of information posted.
On the Net-Cymru site this is achieved by tables giving the type of service
and the location. A glance at the number of providers of a particular
service in a particular area can be seen. A single mouse click brings up
the list, then if the individual service providers have supplied more
information you can read that with a further mouse click. You will not be
distracted by services you don't want in areas that you don't want.
I believe that it is very important that there should be public debate -
not about WHETHER we use this new technology, but HOW we use it. The
benefits of the new technology will not come automatically.
Information Technology - Is it really the solution to the jobs crisis?
In the wake of the decline of traditional industries, the government are
under pressure to come up with an alternative. It is tempting to put up
Informatin Technology as that alternative. IT requires minimal infrastructure
and has the image of being "modern".
In response IT is becoming the cornerstone of virtually all retraining -
in fact more than the cornerstone, it is becoming a replacement for almost
all other skills. It must be stressed that the IT skills presented on these
courses are very basic - word processing, data bases and spreadsheets.
Perhaps some desk top publishing and internet skills.
But where are the jobs? Do we see adverts like "IT person
wanted" in Job Centres? Very few. People earning a living as IT professionals
have different skills such as programming or being able to troubleshoot
networks.
Quite apart from being a gateway to a job, it is more the case that lacking
IT skills are excluded from any job. I have yet to see an analysis of what
employers require. I would suspect that in many cases employers; IT
requirements are too specific for any general course and can be learnt on the
job by employees with the OTHER relevant skills.
Something must be said about the software used for training. Two things are
important: (1) the software is constantly being upgraded and (2) it comes
almost exclusively from one source, namely Microsoft.
The first has the consequence that any specific IT skills learnt during
retraining are likely to have a very short lifetime. It is clear that
Microsoft are intending to upgrade their systems every two to three years.
It is easy to see people being caught in the retraining treadmill, finding
that their skills are out of date almost as soon as they have aquired them.
It is perhaps cinical (but to a certain extent true) that IT training does
solve the employment problems for one group of people - namely the trainers.
The secont point has serious consequences for the economy of Wales., namely
dependence on foreign software under foreign control. All IT training,
whether it leads to jobs or not, means money lost from the Welsh economy to
buy the ever-changing software. The argument is that you have to upgrade to
keep pace with industry. Industry is also facing the pressure to upgrade in
order to have systems that people coming onto the job market understand.
Every upgrade in every office and every training office is a victory for
Microsoft. The fact that it is being pushed along with Government money
and Government hype must be a godsend for Microsoft.
It is useful to think about what else could be done with the money if it
weren't being spent this way.
This is not intended to be an argument completely against IT, but rather it
needs to be brought under more democratic control and the wealth generated
from its production needs to be spread more evenly. This is why it is
important that future development should be based on
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. Unofortunately this is very little understood in Britain, although
(thank goodness!) Microsoft is being taken to court for anticompetetive
practices in the United States. It may be a case of too little too late.