this used to be one of essex's oldest department stores here in southend, until it shut last year.iful building, with all of the original fixtures and fittings. it's still a family—owned business, but they're now selling only online, from the top floor. sign of the times. nearly one in every £5 we spend is now online, meaning the economics of running this once proud store no longer made any sense. an example of this incredible shift in our shopping habits over the last decade. i think it's accelerating, and i think that's inevitable change that isn't going to reverse at any point. and that's because customers demand more, they want access to more different products, they want more speed. and therefore, that's making traditional retailers have to re—evaluate how they go to market. and in my view, the opportunity comes in for smaller businesses to come in and take advantage of that. they are more agile, they're more creative, they can do things faster, they can create unique products. and here's one of them. this young company's doing just great, with sales of £4 million a year. so t