The last of the old corner shops are slowly disappearing from the nation’s streets. But one Barnard Castle businessman is still hanging tight thanks to his old-fashioned approach. Alex Metcalfe went along
ALLEN Jenkins isn’t one for mod-cons. Social media, LED screens and flashy websites are not his bag – what matters to him is a good chat and “getting the job done”.
He says: “I was in a shop when the till went down and the person there could not take £5.10 from £10 – it made me think ‘are we going in the right direction?’.
“If you cannot do that something definitely isn’t working.”
Mr Jenkins has sold soft furnishings to generations of dale folk from his corner shop at the end of Montalbo Road, in Barnard Castle.
Barney born and bred, Mr Jenkins served his time as a decorator under T Metcalfe and Sons in Darlington.
An “old fashioned company which trained people properly”, he adds.
With a five-year apprenticeship under his belt, he took to the job himself before he spotted a vacant corner shop in the town.
Thirty years later he’s still there.
“You have got to not try to do too much,” he says.
“What I’ve got over the years is a fantastic set of customers – they realise you can still compete with the big boys. I’ve got a good regular base of clientele.”
It shows as well. The firm’s landline phone, a Bakelite designed edition with an old bell, rings out three times during our chat.
A man trying to sell net curtains pops his head around the door but doesn’t get too far.
“There is no technology out here – no email, no fax – it’s all done by people coming into the shop and just talking,” he says.
“In email and things like that – things get lost. If you talk to somebody you get their name and get back to them.
“That’s my job – if there’s anything not right it comes back to me personally and I see that the job is done.”
Two fitters install his carpets and a “curtain girl” looks after that side of things.
“We have quite a big waiting lists,” says Mr Jenkins.
He concedes if he had his time again, modern technology would have been part and parcel of his business life but the old methods still work for him.
Orders are still handwritten and meticulously stored away.
The only morsel of visible 21st century gadgetry is his small Nokia mobile phone for when he’s out of the shop.
“It’s a bit like Open All Hours,” he says.
“I close on Saturday at 4pm now but I do a lot of hours at night measuring up – that’s just me.
“You are getting me from start to finish on the job – that’s why I think I’m still here.
“You go to large stores and you get a salesman, you’ll go back and get a different one – here it’s me.” The cumulative effect of decades of graft and chats mean Mr Jenkins can rely on a steady stream of loyal dale folk for custom.
“Without them I wouldn’t be here,” he says.
He still classes the Decor and Carpet Centre as a corner shop and his personal service is something he says helps him compete with the “big boys”.
One slight worry for the carpet industry has been the perceived generational divide with millennials deemed to be less keen than older folk to buy a good shag pile.
But it’s not something which keeps Mr Jenkins up at night.
“I have got quite a few young ones – I cannot say I’ve not,” he says.
“There is a good mixture of people who use my shop.
“What happens is young people talk to each other to say go to try this shop.
“People think because you are small you are expensive but I cater for anybody – from starter homes right through.”
A keen sportsman, Mr Jenkins was a member of Teesdale Athletic Club and still plays racquetball on a Monday.
A five time marathon runner, he completed the last of his four London 26.2 milers aged 60 to “go out on a
high”.
Most people Mr Jenkins’s age are a few years deep into pulling their state pension.
His friends tell him he’s retired every year for the past ten but he tells me he’s not packing in just yet.
“I have loved it – every minute of it,” he says.
“That’s why I’m still here.”
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