Interview - David Goldie

Name:	David Goldie
Age:	56
Job:	Owner of the David Goldie shop
Date of interview:	1 Aug 2002

Do you live in Skipton?
Just around the corner, in Draughton.

Family here?
Yes, my wife and daughter both work here with me in the shop, it's very much a family business.

What school did you go to?
Embsay Village School, then I went away to Scarborough.

Do you have a favourite pub in Skipton?
The Woolly Sheep - I like the beer in there, I'm a Taylors fan.

What changes have you seen in the town over the years?
The town has lost a lot of character over the years, and a lot of shop fronts have changed for the worse. Nowadays there are too many charity shops, and too many of them are on the High Street. There are very high rents and rates nowadays. The market doesn't have the variety it used to have - I'm not convinced that it should have been arranged to run on 4 days a week, either.
Car parking is a major problem. There's no proper planning for a long-term solution to the problem of tourists/visitors and local residents parking in the town. Local people can't park outside their own houses at the moment. The council just keeps increasing the price to park, and that's not a solution, it's now more expensive to park in Skipton than in any other town around here. What we need is a multi-storey car park at the back of the Town Hall. With 2 or 3 decks, and with shops and a theatre on the top floor. A proper solution. The town really needs this resolving. That's the biggest issue that Skipton faces: adequate and competitive car parking. The answer should be attractive too, be an attractive addition to the town.

	It's good to have competition. It helps maintain your edge, gives you a drive to improve your business, your service. If you don't have competition, you can easily stagnate.

Describe your job in 5 words
Selling of quality outdoor clothing.

Do you love your job?
Yes. Absolutely.

How long have you been doing it?
I started up in business, alone, 25 years ago. I'd previously been working for other people in the same business. Originally we sold childrens clothing and schoolwear, from a rented shop in the Unicorn Building, opposite the bus station. When I decided to buy my own shop it took over two years to find and organise buying and moving to this location, at the top of the High Street. We've been here 18 years now. Of course we specialise now in quality outdoor clothing.

What's your typical working day like?
I get here an hour early, at 8am. That first hour before we open is very important to me, and gives me time to arrange and plan the day, open mail, make up job sheets, that kind of thing. A lot of my time through the day is spent serving customers, dealing with problems with suppliers, that kind of thing. There will be meetings with reps and longer term weekly planning to do. I always bring my own lunch in, and eat in my office. I have half an hour to myself to read the paper and switch off, that's very important. Then there's more work. Checking stock levels, checking displays and always more customers to serve. The shop closes at 5.30pm, but I'll usually be here till 7pm, clearing the decks for the next day. I only live 3 miles away, so I can be home and back really quickly. I enjoy meeting people. The customer is your business. Being independent, we have the advantage of being more flexible, for example we can order items for customers and give a service that other shops can't match.

What's the best thing about you job?
When a customer comes back and tells me they're really pleased with something they bought from us. Often they've spent more than they planned to, but are really happy with the quality.

What's the worst thing about your job?
Conflict within the business. It's most important that we work together as a team.

What's the most outrageous thing that's happened to you in this job?
A customer wanting to change in my shop a pair of Marks & Spencer trousers which were the wrong size, as it was more convenient for her than going to Keighley!

What do you see happening in the future, in your business?
Of course there are less and less independent businesses on the High Street as time goes on. We stopped doing schoolwear when we found multiples were competing with us and taking our business, but that was a long time ago. We've specialised more, and now we deal in country and outdoor clothing with performance and style. That's the future - specialise more. It's good to have competition. It helps maintain your edge, gives you a drive to improve your business, your service. If you don't have competition, you can easily stagnate. Also, competition makes you specialise and make the most of your advantages. Personally, the more shops there are in Skipton selling outdoor clothing, the happier I am. That brings more people into the town, and each of us does very well in our own way.

What effect does the internet have on you at the moment?
We've had our own website for three years now, and we're very happy with it. My daughter Clare deals with that side of the business more than myself. It's very useful - people can use our website from their homes and get information and details about our products. There are big opportunities in mail order too.

How do you see this changing in the future?
The website is about three years old, and initially the orders from it seemed quite slow, but it has picked up a lot since last year. We are a stockist of Barbour, and we now have a link from their site to ours - I think that made a big difference. A customer from Pisa, Italy e-mailed us recently and asked us to order something that was out of production, we contacted Barbour, got the item delivered to him, and he was so pleased with our service he sent us back some souvenirs of Pisa. The internet is more personal than you'd think. Our on-line customers will ask us how the family is, that kind of thing. We have more and more on-line customers now, and I see great potential for more business in that direction in the future. We'll be keeping clients up to date with what we're doing and of course with new products.

Do you have a favourite website?
Ryanair - www.ryanair.com It's easy to use, it's great value, and I've bought tickets on there and been very impressed with the whole operation.

What are your hobbies? How do you relax?
Walking, Cycling, I try to get out twice a week - it's great to get away from everything. Skiing too, I try to get a weeks skiing every year. Windsurfing, but I don't get much opportunity to do that. I'm also interested in motorsport.

What issues are close to your heart?
Peoples attitudes to other people. Too many people only think about what they can get for themselves. People don't contribute - they complain, but they won't don't do anything about the problem. People nowadays are aggressively selfish, when they should just be helping each other. People are more insular than they used to be. People don't communicate enough, so they're not aware of others problems.

If we gave you £5 million right now what would you do with it?
Pay off the business overdraft, and the mortgage. I would definitely keep the business and develop it further. I believe in what we are doing here. I'd give money to my family, and a bonus to my staff. I'd pay for the Skipton Christmas lights for this year, then I wouldn't have to worry about organising fundraising for it!

Do you have anything you want to plug / publicise?
Our website is www.davidgoldie.co.uk/
I'd also like to publicise the Skipton Christmas Lights Group - we raise money for the town lights. On August Bank holiday (the 26th) we are organising a duck race and a bric a brac stall to raise money. Anyone who can give us any books, toys, crockery etc will be much appreciated, please contact either myself (david@davidgoldie.co.uk ) or Peter Ritsen at Bizzie Lizzies.