Approaching Storm of Death – Trade & Business
Posted: Tuesday, December 20, 2011
by MKDS
Storm Multi-Media Technologies Ltd
It has been one of the longest arguments and most talked about issues since the decision to open Wetherby’s residential homes for rent to those outside the town. Now, as Wetherby awaits its fate of the “Oncoming Storm of Death” for its Traders and other Businesses, more people are beginning to jump on the band wagon to stop such Supermarket chains as ASDA, Tesco and Sainsbury from setting up on its doorstep – but is it too late?
The Greed of Traders
Attending a few appointments with Wetherby’s Estate/Commercial Agents, including Dacre & Son’s and Rental & Parr, we were faced with what could only be referred to as ‘Greedy’ Proprietors. One example was the Antiques Shop in Wetherby Town Centre, where the then present Shop Owner actually changed the pricing that Renton and Parr showed on their brochure. Adding Legal Fees, Insurances and other amenity bills to the cost, we walked away with shame at such a town that was becoming filled with empty shops and low visits.
Eighteen months was enough time to visit the Town every day and create a rapor with some, if not many of the Traders there, who told us that they were planning to shut up shop and “Get out while the going was good”. Of course the reasons behind this was all down to the rising ‘Rents’ and ‘Rates’ which Wetherby Town Council were introducing, and for this reason many businesses were thinking of relocating to other parts of the area where it wasn’t as much on their overheads.
Too Good To Be True
A shop had been offered to us (our Company) for £9,000 per year in Harrogate, North Yorkshire, and with the Premium Insurance being only an extra £2,400 per year; it would have been the perfect locale for Storm Multi-Media Technologies to trade. What Wetherby offered was far more, and as it was far more, the difference was not seen as a business advantage. Other shops were offered to us, but they, too, were considered not just ‘too high’, but also ‘too risky’ for a Start-Up Family Business.
Finally, after eight months of messing about trying to get Dacre & Son’s’ Daniel Brumfit to sort out the Harrogate location, we abandoned the Estate Agents and decided on a more local site at Thorp Arch, which was only a stone’s throw away from Walton. Here we leased a unit for one year and ran the company online only, which after the first three months became one of the best decisions to make. More products were being bought outside the UK, as the company was International and not just national, where we found better outside buyers than local buyers.
S.M.M.T’s Secret
The secret of Storm Multi-Media Technologies was that we only added 30% maximum to our Products, with more than 80% of the products being sold with just 10% on top of the Wholesale price. We WERE and ARE the cheapest Multimedia and Technology Company in Leeds, if not the UK. And, compared to Wetherby where Technology is at the best of times shunned or kept at bay from being allowed into the town, we were told by many Traders in Wetherby that business would be slow – if not none existent from the local’s – as there was a Computer Shop already in the Town that was doing very little business.
The Trade Wars
Through the fourteen months that it has taken for Storm Multi-Media Technologies to become established as a reputable Online Company, in the background there has been the interest in following the fate of Wetherby’s Traders in the Town, whether this has been through the media or through listening to the many Trader’s themselves who have been forced to pay extortionate (our opinion) high rates, rents, leases or prices in which to keep their businesses running on a weekly basis.
Then there came the Supermarket threat, as in Harrogate and Collingham, as well as other smaller outer-city locations came under plans for Supermarkets. The Mighty Tesco had latched onto many rural towns and decided that they needed more stores to make more profit, but in their wake they destroyed many – if not all family and local business trade – companies. Small Family run businesses were defeated by the ‘Cheapness’ of Tesco’s prices, because, as a Company Director, I know that they buy in ‘Mass Bulk’ the products that these smaller businesses buy and so, they can afford to sell much cheaper.
The emphasis twelve months ago in Wetherby was on Sainsbury’s, who wanted a larger store on the edge of the town. Of course this was met with many objections and petitions. Then, more up to date plans were unveiled that not only did Sainsbury’s have their eye on Wetherby, but so did Tesco and ASDA, but not for the one single site of ‘The Ramada Hotel’, but to join Sainsbury’s and Morrison’s within the easy reach area of the town.
Inevitable Through Design
The whole design of structuring a Town comes from the Local Council itself, not just the bullying tactics of Superstores like the Mighty Tesco Entity, which so happens to be owned by Government – research the facts and find to your disbelief that the rise of Tesco’s has been the growth of MP’s, Councillors and Central Government investments – which has become the ‘Enemy Within. So, no matter how much the locals oppose the moves, the chances are they have already been given the green light to proceed.
It has to be said also, that the warnings were given to Wetherby and its people a long time ago, when visitors and tourists came to the town and found many of the prices from Traders expensive. When the sharp hike in prices from the shops, including most ‘Charity Shops’ that charged the Earth for items that they received for FREE, from those local people clearing their cupboards and houses out. A great example was the three piece suit which was being sold for £499, where in the catalogue you could have put £50 to buying a brand new one with less tears, cup stains and all of its cushions, too.
S.M.M.T’s Conclusion’s
Storm Multi-Media Technologies it would seem, as much as the Wetherby Traders hate or loathe the result will last longer than the businesses in Wetherby, while all through the past fourteen months it has been said that S.M.M.T would not last six months – well, it has – for which it is now established and about to grow Internationally. The Trade War will rage for at least six months after the first Supermarket opens and after that, well, it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to work out the math. Wetherby will fall to the Mighty Tesco, ASDA and Sainsbury’s. What can stop them, I must add at this point, is a United Front, but only by the Wetherby Town Council joining the fight and by placing a Veto on these stores opening or even building on the soil of Wetherby, can the war be won. There is also a slim chance that if Tesco’s, ASDA and Sainsbury’s goes bankrupt overnight, then the people of Wetherby will sleep better in their beds knowing that there is no longer a threat.
Are you surprised at S.M.M.T’s statement? Well, considering that this company has had no help from the Government – local or otherwise – and that the people of Wetherby have remained firm on their ways of life; Money makes the world go round and our lives too, high prices on Rents, Rates and Leases, money gives power and joint team influences keep the ‘Riff-Raff’ away (Which they really do need to remember, not everyone who moves to Wetherby are ‘Riff’Raff’or the enemy). It is high time that this town felt exactly what others are feeling everyday outside a world that was once ‘Untouchable’.
© Marcus De Storm 2011
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