Retailers must work together to save UK high street, Bird tells BA conference

Booksellers must pull together with other retailers in their community to increase footfall and save the British high street, the Booksellers Association conference heard on Sunday (9th September). 

In a rousing speech, Big Issue founder Lord John Bird said the only way to save the high street was through footfall - “get the buggers in” - to loud applause from booksellers at the conference in Birmingham. 

Promoting his new quarterly literary magazine, Chapter Catcher, Bird outlined a new “social subscription” model to increase reading and footfall, which will see subscribers pick up the magazine from their local bookshop “so the blighters have to pick it up, so it creates a social echo”. 

He added shops must work together in their communities to ensure the future of the high street. “In my opinion, there’s only one way to save our high streets. Bookshops and libraries and ladies hairdressers, the lot, we all need to get together,” said Bird as he hailed a “new social revolution to put bookshops and libraries at the intellectual epicentre of every community”. 

Bird’s comments echoed those of retail consultant and Mark Pilkington, author of Retail Therapy: Why The Retail Industry Is Broken – And What Can Be Done To Fix It (Bloomsbury) who told indies on Sunday afternoon that rallying their communities was key in the fight against online retailers as he added booksellers were performing well compared to other retailers on the high street. 

He highlighted Edinburgh as a shining example of a community where all retailers work together and said bookshops have a special part to play.

Pilkington said: “There’s no question that a high street can’t live or die by any individual retailer. The community as a whole can act, whether it’s a mall like in the US or a high street. A lot of regeneration activities that have taken place very successfully have been multiple independent retailers working together to try and create a vibrant overall high street or town.”

He added bookstores can play a “unique role” in regeneration projects to build up high streets through schemes such as Business Improvement Districts. 

As the political landscape both in the US and the UK moves away from free trade towards protectionism, Pilkington said there was “no doubt” Brexit and tariffs in the US are having a “negative effect on retailing” and suggested booksellers think of themselves and their businesses as brands rather than shopkeepers with a focus on interactive screens showcasing their brands in front of house and moving lower selling stock off the shopfloor and onto bookshop websites instead in a bid to attract younger millenials. 

BA president Nic Bottomley countered: "I believe the future lies not in internet showrooms but viable passionate bookshops pumping life back into our communities."

The BA conference continues today (Monday 10th September) with sessions on town centre management, green bookselling and diversity as well as a talk from American Booksellers Association c.e.o. Oren Teicher.