Thursday 24th October 2013
Danny Howell writes ~
You know trade is slow in Warminster when you walk into a shop, as I did at lunchtime, and find it only lit by daylight because the light bulbs are turned off. The shopkeeper then turned the lights on, openly telling me and two other customers: “I only put the lights on when people come in and I turn them off when the customers leave.” This had nothing to do with being energy friendly for the planet or the environment. The shopkeeper said: “Things have been bad and have been getting worse since car parking charges were introduced in Warminster and the pavements were widened which did away with much of the on-street parking. Turning the lights off saves the cost of running a shop where the number of items sold is getting less, thanks to less customers, thanks to no-one wanting to pay to park. My customers are not interested in the parking scheme. They would rather drive to another town.”