No small businesses, no town!

Standing outside of the McDonald’s in the centre of Ashton on a Monday afternoon you’d wonder why any businesses around here struggle.

With hundreds of college kids all flocking to Ashton looking to get something for lunch, you can tell the McDonald’s is the most popular place with no seats left inside and teens huddled in the aisle waiting for their order to be shouted.

It made me think about how much these kids are spending to keep this multi-billion-pound chain open, when if they walked about two minutes extra, they could get a freshly cooked full English for just £3 more than a double sausage and egg McMuffin meal from one of the many independent cafes around Ashton.

Small businesses struggle enough without a cost-of-living crisis. As prices rise everywhere businesses are having to pay more for their materials and stock. A PayPal study found that 78% of small business owners fear the rising cost of living will be the biggest threat to their business over the next year.

One in ten of the 1,000 business owners surveyed by PayPal said they do not expect to be in business within the year.

I wanted to find out how the cost-of-living crisis is affecting the small businesses in Ashton-Under-Lyne.

Surprisingly, the number of store closures on UK high streets has dropped to the lowest level in seven years reports PWC UK with only 14% of shops being vacant research from the Institute of Place Management (IPM) shows.

Ashton is located 5 miles east of Manchester City Centre. The town centre thrives on its local businesses. With a busy indoor market open Monday to Saturday where there’s butchers, bakeries and fruit stalls and the Sunday tabletop sale on the outdoor market, there are many small businesses in Ashton.

The cost-of-living crisis affects those who own local businesses as people may change their spending habits and shop less it leaves the owners with less income.

Kath Ingram is one of the shop owners that’s business has felt the weight of the cost-of-living crisis. Her business, Happy Daze Fancy Dress on George Street is being forced to close her store after 37 years of business: “I am closing business in one week due to lack of shoppers and business has got worse since the pandemic and the cost-of-living crisis”.

The Office for National Statistics found that in January 2022 the proportion of sales online in the UK was just below 30%. With companies such as Amazon on the rise people find it easier, quicker and cheaper to shop online rather than go out to a shop, this could be contributing to the reason businesses such as Kath’s are being forced to closed.

However, over the past couple of years people have begun to discover more of their local high streets especially within lockdowns when going on walks was the only time you’d get out of the house.

Spending time on these walks made people realise how many different businesses they have in their local town centre.

The team at the Institute of Place Management (IPM) found that small independent businesses have driven the reinvention of the high street and that last year over 800 more independent businesses opened than closed.

Jenny’s business; Cameron’s Tea and Coffee shop on Market St is one of those 800 independent businesses. She opened the shop just over six months ago.

Jenny told me that: “Set up had problems, trying to get energy companies to take on a new business that is a limited company, that was a big pain”.

However, they’ve has had no problems in getting customers into the shop: “We have never advertised but word of mouth has worked for us, most days we are now full, and sales figures are growing continually.”

Steve Gibson owns Gibson Music Store on Stamford Street Central; he thinks that shopping locally “keeps the town ticking over.

“Many small independents rely on the local shoppers to keep money and support coming in, to hold the town in place and keep a strong community relationship.”

Small businesses are not only there for a service as Amanda Sidebottom from Spec-Tackle, a glasses shop on Bow Street told me: “We also offer a much more personal service, people can just pop in for advice or just a chat. We’ve been here for over 30 years and are very lucky to have a loyal customer base.”

Councillor Dan Costello told me what the council is doing to help promote shopping locally: “In terms of promoting shopping locally, the Council does a number of things, for example partnering with other bodies to put on events to encourage people into our town centres (e.g. Ashton Artisan Market, which previously ran monthly and Stalybridge Street Feast, also a monthly event). The council also works to promote other initiatives such as Totally Locally's "Fiver Fest" which usually runs a couple of times a year.

"The council also had a big role in making sure our town centres are attractive places to shop, and there is much bigger, structural investment into this through things like the Levelling Up Fund, £20 million for Ashton Town Centre from central government.”

Cllr Costello also told me the importance of shopping locally: "Shopping locally is important firstly because it puts money into local businesses which, in turn, generates revenue for the council which can then be spent on developing and improving the area further. So supporting local businesses and the local economy benefits everyone and is vital if we want to be able to fund the investment in our towns that we'd all like to see."

Walking down Stamford Street and the streets joining it I can see that a lot of local businesses really thrive in Ashton.

These streets are filled with independent cafes and coffee shops like Lilly’s Patisserie and Bistro, jeweler's such as Grade A and gift shops like Sincerely Yours.

Cutting down Warrington Street and across Bow Street I get to the indoor market where I think you could buy anything you’d ever need. There’s fabric stalls, clothes shops, newsagents and sweet stalls. You name it Ashtons indoor market probably has it.

To help promote shopping locally in Ashton organisations such as Totally Locally. Totally Locally is a group that help promote shopping locally through events like the fiver fest which help make towns stronger and more vibrant and resilient.

The fiver fest events are where businesses have offers on so that you can purchase an item or a bundle from their store for just a fiver.

Totally Locally for Ashton found that if every adult in Ashton-Under-Lyne spent £5 each week in local independent shops £9.4 million per year would go directly into our local economy.

Many of the businesses in Ashton get involved in the fiver fest multiple times a year. Lee Brown Hair is one of these businesses. The latest offer Lee had was £5.00 off all products.

Lee Brown takes part in the fiver fest, he said: "Smaller businesses are more agile and can adapt much quicker to situations than huge multi-national corporations, therefore usually have solutions quicker for their customers. The fiver fest really helps to push this ideology out to the wider community, some of which have never thought about trying to shop local either out of convenience or just simply, they didn't know what was available in their local towns."

As I walk back down the high street of Ashton filled with independent shops and a few derelict buildings I think back to all the teenagers in the McDonald’s that lunchtime and how much money would’ve gone into Ashton if even just a few of them went to a café or bakery instead.

I was just as bad, instead of sitting down to enjoy a full English breakfast at Food and Thorn, or a pumpkin spiced latte and a cake from Wendy and Mandy’s, or even pancakes and an ultimate hot chocolate from Cameron’s Tea and Coffee shop, I got a McDonald’s.