Diary of a Shopkeeper, 18th September
Strictly Libby and the dancing wine duo.
Autumn brings lots of things. It brings quieter streets and shops. It brings the leaves down from our courtyard oak tree. And it brings the sound of gunfire back to the killing fields of the West Mainland, where men are men and geese are scared.
Autumn also brings the return of Kirkwall BID events. Now that the summer visitors have gone, it’s time for shops and other businesses to take a deep breath, reorient themselves, and show our loyal local customers what we can do. And what we’ll be doing this Saturday is the foxtrot, the paso doble, the tango and the quickstep. Get your sparkly dresses and your tap shoes ready: this weekend BID brings you Strictly Come Shopping! The BBC’s colourful, dramatic, exuberant dance show is a popular as ever. After a fortnight of funereal black and sombre music, coming episodes are likely to provide a welcome uplift for many: a reminder that life is to be celebrated and enjoyed as well as mourned when it ends.
Kirkwall’s town centre is to be celebrated and enjoyed too. When it won the award for being Scotland’s Most Beautiful High Street late in 2019, it seemed like the town was on an unbreakable upward path. It had never looked better. There were, for most of that year, no empty shopfronts along the street – probably the only town in the country that could make that claim. Several exciting new businesses had opened, and established ones were expanding and renewing themselves. None of us could have known that Covid was just around the corner, with all the trauma and economic devastation that brought to both individuals and businesses.
2020 was a challenge for all, and a threat to the very existence of many in the hospitality and tourism sector. 2021 started to see recovery, but it was a stuttering, stop-start process. 2022 has finally seen a return to something like the levels of busyness of 2018 and 2019. There are some scars along the street, but not too many casualties. Kirkwall survived.
So now it’s time to celebrate. Over the course of this week, you’ll see shops, cafes and other businesses decorate their windows and announce special offers and attractions. On Saturday there will be dance lessons and demonstrations (see BID’s social media for details.) There are also two prize draws. Pick your favourite dance-themed window and let BID know, and you could win a £50 gift card. Or, let BID know your favourite Strictly-themed shop window.. All nominations will be entered into a prize draw, with the winner getting a weekend in the town-centre self-catering property of their choice. Most importantly, BID hope that anyone coming out to enjoy the day will get into the Strictly spirit with suitably sensational clothing. Maybe not sequinned ballgowns, but something colourful and fun.
Colour and fun are BID’s speciality. Over recent years it’s managed to keep the events coming, despite the difficulties imposed by Covid. Who can forget the marvellous Victorian carousel in the winter of 2019. Or the phenomenally successful skating rink and giant snow globe in 2021. Or the event that provided an alternative to the cancelled County Show that summer, Costa del Kirkwall, featuring the Broad Street Sands and crazy golf on the Kirk Green. Halloween will see the return of BID’s popular ghoulish parade, led by the Kirkwall City Pipe Band. And in the run up to Christmas, Kirkwall will be turned into Whoville, with the appearance of none other than The Grinch himself. More details will be released in due course, and I daresay they’ll feature in a column or two.
Meanwhile, if you’re a BID member business, please come along to our AGM at the Albert Hotel on Monday 26th September, where you’ll hear about our plans for the next five years following the forthcoming reballot. No sequined ballgowns required!
This diary appeared in The Orcadian on 20th September 2022. A new one appears weekly. I post them in this blog a few days after each newspaper appearance, with added illustrations., and occasional small corrections or additions.