Market Drayton’s independent retailers have been celebrating this week after experts declared the town among the best in Britain for a good shopping experience.
Market Drayton outshone big cities and towns such as Nottingham and Cheltenham to come fourth in the nationwide survey, which is based on the findings of mystery shoppers who secretly visited 25 town shops in December.
The panel of retail gurus, who normally run the rule over Britain’s biggest supermarkets and chain stores, quizzed dozens of shoppers about their retail experience.
The best performing shop in Market Drayton was Clayton’s Picture Framing on Stafford Street, which scored an almost perfect 98.9 per cent.
This was closely followed by The Ivy Suite (97.1 per cent) and Blooming Tails (95.1 per cent), both on Cheshire Street.
David Clayton, boss at Clayton’s, said: “I’m delighted because I’m a one man band and my business philosophy all along has been to offer a high level of customer service.
“It’s good news for my shop and for our town in general because many market towns are struggling at the moment and this shows that if we position ourselves on customer service we can thrive.”
The town scored highly for its customer service, range of shops, amenities, ease of access and cleanliness. It achieved a score of 88.7 per cent - the fourth highest score out of about 80 towns assessed so far.
All but three of the 25 shops surveyed, recorded individual scores above 80 per cent and just over half had their customer service rated as good or very good.
Jonathan King from Skillsmart Retail, who carried out the survey, said: “To receive such a high score is brilliant. Market Drayton has shown it has a very good retail community with excellent shops and retailers who know their products.
“The town was found to be clean, tidy, aesthetically pleasing and safe. Market Drayton is a very nice town and the retailers can be very proud of themselves.”
The mayor of Market Drayton, Councillor Roy Aldcroft, said: “This is a fantastic result.
“To have an independent group come in and assess the town and to then be ranked fourth out of 75 towns from across the UK is a wonderful achievement.
“It is a credit to the independent retailers who through their hard work compete against the big chains and achieve so much.
“It underlines the importance of local support for local shops.”
