A Nation of Shopkeepers

Napoleon famously dismissed the English as “a nation of shopkeepers”. It’s a criticism that holds more than a grain of truth… but in the last three months, any non-essential shopkeepers were shut down as part of UK-wide COVID-19 lockdown plans. Those lockdown requirements were loosened on Monday 15 June. We spoke to some of that shopkeeper nation in the audio sector to see what happened next.

It’s worth bearing in mind that although the UK’s lockdown has begun to lift, restrictions are still fairly rigid. Non-essential retailers in Scotland and Wales are still closed. Currently people are advised to keep 2m apart, handwashing and/or cleaning stations are to be provided, some facilities (like public toilets) are restricted or limited and there are strict limits on how many shoppers are able to enter a store. These have resulted in images of huge queues with shoppers waiting hours in line to enter a store. While it’s hoped these restrictions will reduce over time, they are also dependent on the reproduction rate (the ‘R₀’) of the disease… fewer people with the disease, we get closer to how things were in 2019; too many people getting infected and the lockdowns come back.

But for now, at least, the stores are reopening, and a few days in, here’s what many have to say about throwing their doors open again. OK, so the two-hour snaking line to pick up a pair of underpants from Primark are not commonplace in audio retail stores, but neither have stores opened to stony silence…

Brian Morris and Trevor Liddle from Brian and Trevors

Brian Morris: “We’re open. During lockdown our business hardly suffered, and we’re already filled up with appointments. But we’ve been appointment based since we started, so in a way the social distancing aspect for us is easy. However, other dealers are going to have to change to an appointment-based model to keep numbers manageable at least until COVID-19 goes away. Which is why we changed our mission statement recently to read ‘stay alert, make an appointment with us and play safe’!”

Trevor Liddle: “We didn’t technically close, but demonstrations dried up completely because people weren’t able to visit. However, we were able to collect and deliver. Now, we have sanitisers and masks available, but no one has taken up the offer of masks yet. We’re not offering tea and coffee at the moment, but that’s it. There have been a couple who said, ‘let’s wait’ at the start of the lockdown, but many are getting back in touch now. We don’t have a queue outside the door because we’d never work like that anyway.”

Alain Abensur, Choice Hi-Fi 

“I may be bucking the trend, but I did the same turnover in the first six months of the year as I did for all of last year. I could barely keep up with sales. So… “lockdown, what lockdown?” The further we got into the lockdown period the more people upgraded their equipment, possibly as a little treat to themselves. Couriers didn’t stop and everything was by mail order, of course. A lot of people thought this might have a size or weight limit, but I don’t think size or weight had much to do with anything; invariably there was always a way around the issue.

“I have a number of landmark products that people have come to hear – like the Avalon PM3 – and since lockdown has eased, people are keener to make appointments. Paradoxically, whole the interest is still there, sales have slowed since the lockdowns eased… perhaps they are thinking more about returning to work and planning holidays. Or maybe they are taking a little longer to evaluate now.”

Simon Griffin, Decent Audio

“It’s got off to a reasonable start. We have demonstrations booked in for the next 10 days. And a lot of people just wanted to come in and talk, again. We’re a bit relieved, although we’ve been very lucky during the lockdown because of our second hand and mail-order, vinyl cleaning etc. As a result, we’ve managed to keep 70% of our business going. And in fairness, if you were known as having an online presence beforehand, you’ve probably also done well. But much of that business was smaller and more entry level equipment; few people have been buying 100kg amplifiers when there’s no-one allowed to help install them!” 

John Roberts, Midland Audio xChange

“I think the big thing was not to treat that time away from the store as ‘time off’. Social media has long been a big thing for me, but the interaction and the constant posting of new things online kept people’s attention during the lockdown. And I spent a lot of money on a new website, which makes a huge difference. People can now move quickly from seeing a product to our eBay store, and there’s a sense of trust through PayPal that’s hard to get from simply leaving credit card details on a website. 

“As a result, we doubled our mail order business year-on-year in May, and the first day we opened, we took a huge amount of business: I did two demonstrations on Monday, three on Tuesday, and so on. Naturally, we had and continue to have everything professionally cleaned to be COVID-19 compliant. We have cleaning stations, and offer masks should people need them, but most bring their own anyway.”

Rob Wilson, Sonata Hi-Fi

“During the lockdown, we did a lot of work in social media, and Evie sent out several newsletters to keep people engaged. We also did a lot of home demonstrations where we did non-contact drop-offs and told people to quarantine the boxes for a day, etc. But we’re lucky in that we work from home, so our overheads are low anyway. Now we’re back open, we’ve had lots of enquiries about home demos and they’re starting to happen for us again. Demonstrations that we had lined up can now take place, our phone is ringing and there is a bit of momentum now. As we’re appointment only, social distancing is quite easy: It’s not like we have to worry about two or three people at a time.

“We have created a pathway to the listening room that allows for 2m distancing, we have sanitisers and masks, and it’s fairly easy to show how something works and remain distanced. I think people have been twiddling their thumbs at home during the lockdown and have been craving good music; if the home is to double up as workplace, entertainment centre, school and holiday destination for the appreciable future, just as you might want more than basic cable TV, so you might want more than basic audio. The new normal is going to be different; we all need to adapt!” 

Not every store has opened its doors, however. Stephen Harper, of The Audio Consultants, explains:

“We’re not a high street store and operate by appointment. We’re kicking home dems down the line until its safe for all us. We have been doing mail order, home trials, etc. That has resulted in reasonable business; in fact, we’ve coped better than expected under the circumstances. We’re going to continue that for a least another month and then see whether or not to reopen or wait even longer. When we do, it will be one person at a time with all the precautions.”