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West End Extra - LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
Published: 3 August 2007

Small shops can have edge

• IT was with great interest that I read the letter about the closing of the Poland Street Post Office which, of course, is very sad and disappointing. Soho is a busy community of both workers and inhabitants who need and used the post office. Alida Baxter goes on to talk about the decline of the independent outlets.
This is happening all over the country as Mrs Moggs’s Coffee shop struggles to keep Starbucks from offering the landlord a much higher rent on that vital corner plot. However, change does happen and the independents need to try and compete. Independently run shops need to look at their own strengths and unique selling points that beat the ‘big boys’. It’s just not true that small businesses cannot prevail – we work with hundreds of local shops that are holding their own and this is something to be proud of, and to take note of. We speak to Soho people and businesses every day and all too often businesses that have been around for a long time are not using marketing and promotion techniques such as the internet to keep their profile as strong as possible. The internet has created a platform where Mrs Moggs’s coffee shop can promote itself locally and much further afield. The opportunity today for the businesses in Soho is to take the game to the big boys: reconnect with your customers – use modern communications techniques. Stop moaning and fight for our right to stay.
JASON GALE
Managing Director
JustSoho
Oxford Street, W1

Send your letters to: The Letters Editor, West End Extra, 40 Camden Road, London, NW1 9DR or email to letters@westendextra.co.uk. The deadline for letters is midday Wednesday. The editor regrets that anonymous letters cannot be published, although names and addresses can be withheld. Please include a full name, postal address and telephone number.
Letters may be edited for reasons of space.

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