Business is booming in Ramsey, so what is the town doing right?

When high streets around the world are struggling, how is Ramsey defying the odds?

The struggles of the high street, as we once knew it, have been long reported. 

I myself have written my fair share of articles about the challenges many local shops are facing when competing with online retailers, a cost of living crisis and changing shopper habits.

So in the run up to Christmas, I wanted to try and get an idea of what business was like across the Island.

My first stop was 'down north' in Ramsey, and on a sunny, wintry Tuesday morning, I took a stroll along Parliament Street.

I have to admit, I was expecting to hear more stories of doom, gloom and hardship from the retailers, but I was pleasantly surprised when the overwhelming majority of businesses I spoke to were incredibly positive.

I started at Oogies and Meti-Tech in St Paul's Square, which opened there earlier this year, and spoke to Lauren and Tim Metcalfe:

Despite being a new business, Lauren and Tim say they've been really busy in the run up to the holidays.

And they credit part of that success with their social media presence, and how that's helped to get their name out.

That was something echoed by some of the other businesses I spoke to. 

One shop owner told me she starts working at around 5.30am each morning so she can make sure she's posted to her channels before the shop opens.

When I asked why, she said it was 'essential', saying she really noticed a difference if she wasn't regularly posting.

It's another sign of the times we live in now that shop owners can't just be shop owners anymore, they also have to be content creators, marketing experts and comfortable with using various social media platforms.

But, she said that, for the most part, business had been steady recently.

However, what she says makes a big difference is things like weather warnings and closures of the Mountain Road.

She said as soon as there's a weather warning, people don't want to leave the house and therefore don't come into town.

Meanwhile another business owner told me their trade plummeted during October while the main route to the north of the Island was closed for roadworks. 

And that was something backed up by Claire Hewitson, who runs Shalee on Parliament Street.

Although she told me that overall, business this Christmas has been good:

When other places are really struggling to bring people to the high street, what is it that Ramsey is doing right?

Most of the people I spoke to believe it's down to the community that Ramsey has built.

The vast majority of the shops in the town are independent, which immediately gives a place more personality than your copy-and-pasted high street names that you can find in every town around the UK.

It's also easier to care about an individual than it is a big, anonymous chain store.

But it's not just that, it's the fact that the independent shop owners are all regularly speaking to each other, working together, and supporting each other.

As Claire said, most of the shops offer something different, so that also removes some of the element of competition between them.

What that means is that they are all then working to a common goal - trying to provide a service to their community to help it thrive.

So maybe that's Ramsey's secret? In a world that seems to revolve around convenience, Ramsey is taking a firm stance by not only creating its own identity, but proudly and defiantly standing by it.

And it seems to be working.