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At the risk of sounding somewhat self centred, I’m going to tell you that I’m not like that. I’m going to tell you that I am one of that dying breed – the loyal customer. You see I value customer service and a good relationship over the saving of a few quid, and quite honestly, I think I’ve got the better deal than the price driven masses.

Rather than making the jump from greengrocers to computer and video game retailers, let me make a stop along the way and talk about bike shops. I’m a keen cyclist and spend a lot more money than I should on my mountain bikes. But despite being able to repair and maintain my bikes myself, I place great value on a good local bike shop. For years I frequented a local bike shop in Ealing where I lived, and Tony (the owner) and I got to be good mates.

As with most things, you can buy bike parts cheaper on the Internet than you can from your local shop, but that didn’t stop me going to Tony time and time again. OK, Tony charged me a bit more than an Internet retailer, but he would also fit any part I bought from him free of charge. He’d also give me a small discount off the retail price for being a regular customer. But the best thing about Tony’s shop was that I knew if I had any kind of problem with my bike I could just wheel it in and Tony would sort it out for me, usually free of charge. You won’t get that kind of service from a big corporate chain.

Unfortunately, despite my best efforts as a loyal customer Tony ended up having to close his shop. In fact, in the space of a few months, five independent bike shops around London all bit the dust, all due to a lack of customer support.

Now back to my friend with the video game shop. Just like Tony with his bike shop, my mate has no end of consumers walking in off the street asking for advice. They want to know what games will run on their PC, which PlayStation 2 title will be right for a 15 year old boy’s birthday, which console they should be getting their kid for Christmas – and once they’ve got the answer to their question, once they’ve received that invaluable advice that an independent retailer can give, they wander off to the local supermarket, big video game chain or online retailer and save themselves three pounds. Amazingly, some of us consumers even have the nerve to go into an independent specialist and ask for advice on a product bought elsewhere!

I understand that price is a big issue to all of us and that the convenience of being able to get everything we need under one roof makes our lives easier, but do we really want to live in a world where our high streets are all populated with identical big name chain stores? If you have a kid that loves computers, wouldn’t it be great if they could grow up and own their own computer shop rather than just working in PC World?

I love animals and I truly believe that we need to do everything we can to help endangered species like the tigers and giant pandas survive, but the independent retailer isn’t a species that we’re letting die, it’s one that we’re wilfully killing. If you’ve got a good independent computer specialist near you (or even a bike shop or chemist), make the most of it, even if it means paying a little more for your product – the help and service that you could get in return will be worth a lot more than that.

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