Apr 13, 2009

Small independent stores counting on the personal touchBy Emma McKinneyBirminghamPost.net

With pens costing as much as £1,200, it would be easy to assume that business was struggling at The Pen Shop in Birmingham’s Great Western Arcade as the recession bites.

But manager David Hardy remains upbeat.

“Fortunately we are a specialist shop and you don’t get much specialists around like us these days,” he says. “We are situated in an ideal location, right by Snow Hill train station and near many businesses such as architects and law firms, which employ workers on incomes that can afford luxuries like nice pens.

“We’ve had pen collectors pay over £6,000 for a pen. I think people come here because they get the personal service and specialist knowledge they wouldn’t at a big high street store.”

But the recession is having some affect, he adds.

“There are empty shops in the Great Western Arcade, which does worry me a bit, and since they shut the Marks & Spencer food hall nearby we’ve lost a lot of lunchtime trade we used to get.

“I think landlords get greedy and rent goes up, which isn’t going to attract more retailers in when times are tough.

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