MARTEL MAXWELL: The internet is great – but charm of shops should be cherished

Spending money has never been so easy.

Whether using cash, Apple Pay on phones, chip and pin, contactless or one click on Amazon, you can easily lose track of what you’ve spent or bought – and never more than in the run-up to Christmas.

While it’s simple and effortless, it’s also lacking a little in romance – you can have a basket full of goodies on a website, with no actual basket or pleasantries exchanged with anyone.

I’ve extolled the virtues of our city centre High Street stores, as well as the local community shopping hubs in the West End, the Ferry and Lochee, on this page before – something I feel passionately about.

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This week, I found a new run of independent shops in an area rarely praised for its offerings… Stobswell.

More recently, headlines about that area of Dundee have not lifted the spirits – particularly that it is the capital of the city’s drugs dealing and there’s no doubt there are large pockets of the area with problems.

Every week, however, I go to work in the area as the radio station Wave FM is based there (Martel on Saturday, 11am, if you fancy listening) and lately I’ve made a point of having a wander.

Venture towards the Morgan – not quite as far as the institution that is Nicholson’s Cycle Shop which has served families for generations – and there are some entirely unexpected stores.

Previously, I’d thought we were lucky enough to have one shop dedicated to balloons – the magical Party Time in the Ferry – but Albert Street boasts its own, Balloons Made For You.

Call me easy to please, but it tickles me that someone had the foresight and sense of fun to open a shop for balloons. It just does.

Then there’s a soon-to-open Stobswell cafe which seems to specialise in milkshakes and sweets, specialist shops like one for clothes alterations, close to the familiar sight of a community post office.

As a wee girl, I lived in the area – opposite Baxter Park (one of the best parks not only in Dundee but anywhere) on Ellengowan Drive.

Those white houses will soon be demolished, with many already now piles of rubble.

Times change and places come and go, whether homes or businesses.

Globalisation means internet shopping is ubiquitous and hands up, I use it and love it.

But the charm of shops is to be cherished.

We need to get out and walk around this city to buy – well, whatever blows your hair back – whether it’s balloons, bikes or banana milkshakes, to make sure they thrive.