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Over The Counter
Choosing Opportunity Independent card and gift retailer, David Robertson, co-owner of JP Pozzi in Scotland, discusses grasping opportunities
As I write this column it is the week of the big decision - not if you give Dad socks or sweeties for Father’s Day - but whether you are in or out of the EU? Well by the time you read this the decision will be made and we as businesses will have to deal with the fall out regardless. Either way the decision will be an opportunity to move forward... and, as always, we will have to. If you live in Scotland this would have been your fourth big vote in two years and to be honest we are getting numb to the whole experience. In fact many of us are at that point where we simply have lost interest (or perhaps taste) in the political situation. Our cousins Stateside are also gearing up for their own big vote on November 8. This Presidential race is one that has also been based on tub thumping and fear. Trump is talking about being greedy for America and grab, grab grabbing so much money! I went to New York eight years ago to be there when Obama first swept to power on a sea of hope and social media. He galvanised the masses and made people believe their vote counted. I can clearly remember at 5am watching an African American in her 80s queuing to vote for the first time in her life - it was inspiring. However, I believe the political system in America has hampered Obama in terms of what he has tried to achieve. Again, this past week, gun control was brought into sharp focus with the terrible mass shootings of 50 people killed in Orlando, yet still the gun lobby wins the argument that Americans have the right to bear arms. If things are bad just now then the fear is that Trump may well pull off the biggest upset since a certain Wild West 26
PROGRESSIVE GREETINGS WORLDWIDE
actor won as President of the States. What is fascinating to me is why Trump has connected with huge chunks of the American public. The straight talking, chest beating, ‘send them home’ message would carry him so far, but the reason I believe he is really making inroads is that he is selling them the American Dream. A dream that many in middle America believe they have lost. The fact that Trump is a billionaire who is totally disconnected with normal life is neither here nor there. The American dream of buying your own home, running your own business and buying great products made right here in the U.S of A in many people’s opinions has been eroded. Trump is looking directly at and talking to a middle America who feels their opportunities and ambitions are not being met or supported. I believe they call this the disengaged/disenfranchised middle. I call it a growing majority. In our small country I am beginning to feel there is a groundswell like this as well. Big businesses seem only to be getting bigger. Bankruptcy is used as a way out and
Above: This has been a year of big decisions for the UK, and will be later in the year for the USA. Below: Donald Trump seems to be promising the comeback of the American Dream in his Presidential campaign.
a fresh start. Situations of HMRC negotiating with companies to agree payments does not hide the fact that these companies have avoided paying their dues through clever accountancy over a number of years. I am sick of reading about companies being asset stripped/management buy-outs... and then simply put down like some kind of suffering animal. We hear constantly about how new businesses/small businesses are being supported and nurtured, which is great, but what about you and me? What about us? The small to medium enterprises - the ones who continue to grow, creating work both directly and indirectly; who pay their 20% corporation tax ever year and their VAT on time. Often we are the ones who suffer. Retail as a category is facing huge challenges, perhaps more than any other sector, but we are forced to adapt or die. The Centre of Retail Research published a report in 2013 detailing where it thought retail would be in the next five years. It predicted a