Located in North Bristol and running through St Andrews, Bishopston and Horfield, Gloucester Road has been described as having the longest row of independent shops in Europe.
But to what extent has the ongoing economic situation and cost of living impacted traders at Gloucester Road?
We had the opportunity to talk with nine traders to see how the Christmas season had treated their business and the impacts of the cost of living crisis and high energy bills on their business.
Here’s what we found:
1. Harvest
At Harvest, Georgie said that Christmas had “been really good and very busy.” As for the impacts of the cost of living crisis, she said: “It’s quite hard to tell really. I don't know if it's impacted massively. I think it takes a while to see in the long run. Our footfall has been greater, so there's been more variety of customers, more customers, but maybe they're spending a bit less.” Her colleague Alex added: “I think we've both worked here for maybe ten years now and I would say that the Christmas just gone is one of the best Christmases we’ve had. Last summer we were lucky enough to be able to invest a bit of money into the place to try and encourage customers to come in. A lot of the customers want to buy the ingredients to make something themselves which is why we’ve got quite a lot of bulk stuff, which keeps the cost down as much as possible for the customer. Average spending is down, but footfall is up.”
2. _ustudioAt
_ustudio, manager Liana said: “I don’t feel the cost of living crisis impacted us at Christmas. As a whole, we are doing really well as a positive example of what an independent shopping street can achieve, and I hope that every trader on this road has benefited from that. Christmas was very good. It was very steady. All in all, we had a very good December so it’s been good for us.”
3. Cartridgeright
At Cartridgeright, manager Daniel said: “People are certainly more price conscious and quite a lot of the products that we have been buying for years are suddenly twice the price for us to buy in. But we’ve noticed that some things that did go up have come down.”
4. Grape and Grind
At wine shop Grape and Grind, owner Darren said: “It’s difficult to put an exact figure on the impact of the cost of living crisis. I think I expected last year to be a slightly bumpier road over the whole of the 12 months than it actually was. I think what you have to remember is that because of what we sell, I feel as though we don’t feel the impact that some other businesses do. But nonetheless, I think over the course of 12 months, we did a little bit, but it wasn't as difficult as I predicted it would be, say, 12 months before. I think this year might be more difficult than last. As for Christmas, it was just very narrowly our busiest month ever, so it was a busy season for us.”