It would seem that the local area has become the location of an unwelcome first event. Extremely popular discount clothes retailer Primark is closing a store for the very first time. No other Primark store has ever been discontinued in the past, and the Irish-based retailer has had a very successful time expanding its operation throughout the UK. Unfortunately for local shoppers, the branch of Primark in Dartford High Street is closing permanently. The official reason for this is that the building that houses the shop is in urgent need of major repairs and refurbishment, and that the store has had to move out as a direct consequence of this. To me, this seems to be a very convenient excuse for what I now believe to be a loss making location for Primark. This will be only the latest of a number of retailers who have pulled out of Dartford town centre over the last few years. In a conversation, some time ago, one local resident complained that Dartford was becoming a ghost town. I think this is down to a number of main reasons. Firstly, shop rents have increased far above the level of inflation, making it very difficult for retailers to return a profit after all of their overheads and expenses, including the increased minimum wage and National Insurance contributions for their employees. Secondly, the fact that most, if not all of the car parks in and around Dartford are either run by private companies or by Dartford Borough Council, all of which charge drivers for the privilege of parking their vehicle. Thirdly, and perhaps most importantly, is the close proximity of the giant Bluewater shopping centre with its huge number of retail outlets, restaurants, bars and leisure facilities. It is also pertinent that car parking at Bluewater is free. Lastly, as I have mentioned in the recent past, there is a drastic change in the way that shoppers now operate. Many now prefer to buy goods online, and have them delivered directly to their homes rather than go out and shop in a traditional manner. I think all of these factors have some bearing on the apparent demise of not only the centre of Dartford, but many other towns around the country. Thanks to long - time reader and occasional contributor Gary for bringing this story to my attention.
As regular readers may well be aware, each weekly edition of the blog gets written over the preceding week in small sections, which are then edited together prior to publication on Sunday mornings. I do not sit down and write the whole thing on a Sunday as some readers previously thought. This means that developments over the week may occur, and I need to revise something already put in digital print by myself. This has been the case over the past couple of days. The story relates quite heavily towards the previous one concerning the closure of High Street shops, and this one has had a direct effect on myself as I was a customer of this particular retail outlet. I have very large feet which are also extremely wide. I find it very difficult to buy comfortable shoes in standard High Street shoe shops. Even the more expensive retailers such as Clarks do not cater for my particular requirements, and I have for many years been a customer of the excellent Wide Shoe Shop in Welling. I discovered only a few days ago that this excellent specialist shoe supplier has recently closed down permanently - at the time of writing, their website is still up, but I am not sure if they are still taking orders to sell off their remaining stock. This was quite a shock, as I had been going there for well over a decade. In fact, many NHS foot specialists recommend their patients became customers of the shop due to their understanding of the special requirements for people with ankle and foot problems, as well as unusually large or wide feet. The Wide Shoe Shop offered a very high quality, individual service in a shop which was a bit of a throwback to the early 1970s. The decor inside was wood panelled, and had not changed in at least half a century, which in my opinion added to the charm of the place. The owner Steve and his staff were extremely helpful and considerate, and there were several occasions when I visited the shop where I was asked if I was in a hurry. When I said no they offer me a cup of tea and a chat, which was extremely pleasant. It was more than just a shop. It was part of the local community, and will now be sorely missed. I understand that the owners have decided to retire. I'm quite surprised that they did not sell the shop as an ongoing business, although it would be very difficult for a newcomer to pick up the reins as the knowledge accumulated by the owner and staff would have taken decades to gain. Whilst it is possible to buy wide and specialist shoes online. It is not possible to try them on before they are delivered, which is something The Wide Shoe Shop excelled at. I think this is yet another example of the potential death of the High Street, and something I personally regret. Comments and feedback to me at hugh.neal@gmail.com.
I have frequently bemoaned social networks like Facebook, and how some people seem to publish all sorts of intimate and what one would have thought were private details about themselves. If that were not bad enough, the professional social networking site LinkedIn is now the target for organised cyber criminals. LinkedIn, which has over 800 million users globally, is a prime target for scammers looking to connect with professionals across a variety of industries, including information security and oil and gas - extremely pertinent with the current illegal Russian invasion of Ukraine. Scammers copy information from real LinkedIn profiles to pose as recruiters and attract new connections. Security analyst Symantec have been investigating the situation. They found that most of these fake accounts followed a specific pattern. They bill themselves as recruiters for fake firms or are supposedly self-employed and primarily use photos of women pulled from stock image sites or of real professionals. The primary goal of these fake LinkedIn accounts is to map out the networks of business professionals. Using these fake LinkedIn accounts, scammers are able to establish a sense of credibility among professionals in order to initiate further connections. In addition to mapping connections, scammers can also scrape contact information from their connections, including personal and professional email addresses as well as phone numbers. Symantec said LinkedIn users should be very sceptical of who they add to their network. “If you’ve never met the person before, don’t just add them. We weren’t surprised to learn that these fake LinkedIn accounts received endorsements from real users”. I would add to this by recommending that if you are a LinkedIn user, and you receive a request from someone that you don’t know, do a Google search on the person to see what you can find out about them – and if they actually exist at all. As always, be careful; once something is online about you, it is impossible to remove it. Publishing anything online is very much a one – way process.
Very occasionally I will come across a story whilst I am doing my research into the articles for inclusion in the Maggot Sandwich which makes me stop and smile. A while ago I had such a moment. Whilst reading through “A History of Erith” by John A. Pritchard (the seminal historical text on the town), I discovered that Erith was the first town in the UK to have a dedicated mobile library van. Whilst the much larger and better funded city of Manchester had converted an old truck into a mobile library before, Erith was the first town to have a purpose built, dedicated vehicle, staff and remit. The Travelling Library Service was started on the 24th April 1935. The idea was widely copied both at home and abroad, and the mobile library concept is still in use today – back then it visited Northumberland Heath, Upper Belvedere, Lower Belvedere, Barnehurst and Bexleyheath, in addition to its’ home territory in Erith. The Travelling Library Service was commandeered in the autumn of 1938 as a way to distribute gas masks to the civilian population prior to the widely expected war. At the end of the conflict, the vehicle was used as a travelling war damage compensation enquiry bureau. After World War II, the library van continued in service until it was replaced with a second, more modern, dedicated van which continued to be used until the early 1980s when it was decommissioned. The original dedicated library van was donated to The Science Museum where it currently resides, although it is not on public view. It is stored off-site in one of their dedicated warehouses outside of London.
