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ESKILSTUNA. “New nightmare figures for Swedish operators,” TT announced yesterday morning.
But Bernt Skoog, one of the last Swedish tailors, 50 years in the industry, does not need to read the newspaper to update himself on the situation.
Get a men’s haircut in Eskilstuna. Sales fell 80 percent in the spring and had only just begun to recover decently when the Sörmland region last week struggled with new restrictions and, among other things, asked people not to visit stores.
– I had already budgeted with sales cut in half in November and December. We spent the year, but then?
The wasteland next to Fristadskyrkan is messy, windy and fenced off. Maybe something sensible should be built.
It’s morning in a medium-sized Swedish city and three weeks ago wages and life seem as bleak as the gray November weather.
A point of sale in Kungsgatan attracts with total sales and a 75 percent discount. Burger King has struck again. “The rent was 170,000 a month,” sighs a man in the store next door.
Photo: Magnus Wennman
Bernt Skoog performs a men’s haircut in Eskilstuna.
Nothing was sold
Master Skoog, the store has existed since 1981, now it is closed on Mondays, you have to save money, but the tailor lives nearby and comes in and opens.
– In this industry, you buy products six months in advance. So I did big purchases last summer. Then the crown came in March and nothing was sold.
Light blue shirt, suspenders, polka dot scarf. Bernt Skoog is dressed as I imagine a 71-year-old tailor should wear.
The 90-square-meter store is packed. Costumes, jackets, shirts. The women’s department invests in wedding dresses.
– My daughter has worked here for 20 years. I want her to take over. But I am also a father. Do I want my child to try to run a business at a loss?
Photo: Magnus Wennman
The death of the store takes its toll on the city center
Some young people scream outside the window. The old aunts sway at a leisurely pace. Stadium, one of all these chains, is closing soon. 20 percent off everything.
Shopping out of town, e-commerce. The last thing Swedish urban centers needed was a pandemic and politicians here and epidemiologists there to admonish, restrict and issue recommendations.
Göran Persson intervened
Now we face Black Friday and Christmas shopping. Two of the most important events of the year. In this situation, the spread of the infection is accelerating again, and region after region, people are being asked to stay home.
Skoog has climbed onto the counter next to the cash register. Sitting in the position of a tailor. It started in a factory, but a friend applied for a training focused on sewing and got hooked.
It was 1969. Erlander would resign a few months later as Prime Minister. Palme, young, impatient, hungry, waiting to take over.
Three years later, Bernt Skoog had a complementary letter and a medal in his hand.
– Maybe there are ten master tailors left in Sweden. The cemetery is full of irreplaceable people, I have no illusions that I am so important, but I think something will be missing when we have disappeared.
You have clients traveling from Stockholm. Once Göran Persson came in and asked for a tailored suit. “We were schoolmates in Vingåker.”
Two employees. One of them became pregnant and has disappeared on maternity leave.
– It was lucky for us. I have my pension and I don’t need a lot of money, but a lower salary was a significant saving.
Bernt Skoog speaks quickly and intensely. Sigh that it has mundirarre. It doesn’t matter, some are easier to interview than others.
– Politicians could have helped our industry with subsidized rent. As it is now, we are left to the goodwill of the hosts.
The property owner has agreed to defer the rent. But sooner or later you have to pay for it.
The city’s second men’s repair collapsed last year. According to a survey by the lively local newspaper Eskilstuna-Kuriren, 40 stores are empty in the center.
The press loves to swing with dramatic words. “Shop death” is one of them. Perhaps it is a term that describes well what we are witnessing.
Seen more than in Stockholm
Perhaps what is happening is a remodel and adjustment and something new that is about to be born and possibly the center of Eskilstuna and other cities after the seizures and pain will once again have a center with life and energy.
Stockholm is actually the worst hit by the pandemic. 23 percent of the population, 40 percent of bankruptcies this year are numbers that tell most of what we need to know.
Photo: Magnus Wennman
It is deserted in the center of Eskilstuna.
Photo: Magnus Wennman
The pedestrian street rings empty.
But the capital is large and all these closures and tragedies are not noticed on the street scene. In Eskilstuna, we don’t have to walk many meters to find a business that has collapsed.
– For every store that closes in Kungsgatan, the number of people who come here decreases. It affects me too, sighs the tailor.
– And it took two years to rebuild and fix the street. Two years! There we lost even more.
Niklas Edmark, commercial director in Eskilstuna, young, energetic, a new generation, works from home today.
Residential area in the neighboring town of Strängnäs. The closest neighbors are some emigrated stockholmers.
– I think we’ll see more in the future. It only takes half an hour by train to Stockholm, he says with an optimism I recognize from myself as AIK leads with two goals in the 85th minute.
Swish and wealth
It’s drizzle. Salute the crown with your elbow.
– One thing the municipality can do is build houses centrally. That we also do. Few people live there.
I point out that it took forever to rebuild Kungsgatan. And now Drottninggatan will fix itself.
– There are certainly lessons to be learned.
Photo: Magnus Wennman
There were more severe restrictions during the day. Stores will make it even more difficult.
The cell phone beeps. Stefan Löfven, five other ministers and the Secretary General of the Swedish Public Health Agency will give a press conference. New and strong restrictions on the road.
The car radio plays Benjamin Ingrosso and says that Trump accuses any company of electoral fraud.
And Hedbergs Dam on the corner of Kungsgatan attracts in the window with Black Week, 30 percent on select coats and a modern-type book, that is, something as strange as a book that sells.
“My Winning Path: Get Rich With Stocks”.
It costs 200 SEK, cash or swish.
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