Bye Bye, Ethel

Check out the rears of buses and the insides of timetables. Increasingly thereon, you’ll see images of real people. These tend to be young, attractive twenty-something women carrying a collection of bags from anywhere but Tesco. All smiles after a successful day’s designer shopping. It would be nice to think that our passengers can often afford this luxury. Or that the wealthier demographic of ladies who lunch frequently chose the bus to shop, though we know from this week’s FT that Brian Souter dreams of this day.

The reality is sometimes different. Our bread and butter customers probably tend to shop in places that are a more prosaic and a little less highbrow. It’s difficult, for example, to see Ray Stenning building a campaign around Ethel Austin. Yet it’s Ethel’s that would tend to appeal to bus users, rather Howie’s or Muji.

Ethel Austin’s Boscombe branch

And herein lies the problem. Those 300 Ethel Austin stores having survived administration in 2008 are due to close in 2010. Ethel’s immediate problem was the Big Freeze when no one went shopping (and imagine the effect this had on *our* industry).

Ethel Austin’s closures bring with it yet another decline in our town centres. We’re seeing market forces at work that have a considerable impact on the bus industry. In truth, many of our town central business districts (CBDs) have been declining for 40 years. It’s only recently that the pace has quickened.

Buses best serve town centres. True, operators have long realised they must serve out of centre locations as well. Good examples are Cribbs Causeway near Bristol and Castlepoint near Bournemouth. But buses tend to radiate to all points from a town centre. Each suburb and dormitory village usually has direct access to its CBD. You can’t say the same for out of town facilities.

High profile closures such as Ethel’s and Woolworth’s before it not only weaken our town centres, they weaken our bus services. Lower paid shop workers are more likely to commute to such shops, by bus. The lack of ordinary CBD shopping becomes a deterrent to bus use. One problem reinforces another. Conversely, shoppers and workers tend to travel by car to out of town locations. What other choice is there, so they perceive. Lower paid shop workers who perhaps can ill afford a car have no option. Once they have their mobility, they use it even where the bus offers a better alternative.

And then there’s the closure along with Woolworth’s of Our Price, Virgin Records/Zavvi, Borders and MVC. If you want DVDs or CDs, you’re now limited to HMV or larger branches of W H Smith. Such a lack of choice reinforces what young people already do—buying entertainment online. No need to hop on a bus for that. Those twenty something, designer bag carrying girls may be disappearing, fast.