Don’t you just love Mary Portas’ TV programme Secret Shopper? She’s as cuddly as a piranha but she makes great television. She’s not always right but she believes that she is and she probably is most of the time, she has certainly got class and can really shake the complacency out of some of the UK’s lazy and introspective retailers. I would have loved to see her doing the same to all those giants of the fitted bedroom and home office furniture market that have constant half price sales.

Estate agents were a bit of a sitting target but she certainly hit the nail on the head with sofa retailers and it was fascinating to see all the big chains like DFS running for the hills and only the Johnnie-come-lately group FCS (what is it with sofa shops and initials?) prepared to take her on. I was delighted to see that the FCS managing director, who obviously runs a tight ship; as evidenced by his sales staff’s strict adherence to the annoyingly precise script when greeting visitors to the company’s stores, was prepared to listen and then to dispense with those 50% off lies that the mainstream retail furniture industry is infested with.

When I worked for the now defunct Times Furnishing chain we had two sales a year, one in January and the other in July, when we genuinely reduced the price of showroom stock, some of it tired or soiled, or just plain discontinued. Admittedly, we boosted the two week sale by buying in some specialy discounted lines that manufacturers would produce in a limited range of upholstery colours or in the case of bedroom wardrobes and chests of drawers in a cheaper wood veneers (foils, vinyls and laminates were rare or non-existant in those days) but these bought in sale lines were always billed as ’special purchase’. What we did not do was constantly insult the buying public’s intelligence with false claims of 50% discounts and special offers.

Mind you, I do sometimes wonder about the great British public’s collective intelligence; clearly chains like DFS, Furniture Village and Sharps Bedrooms, who persist in their mendacious claims are still highly profitable. Whilst interviewing shoppers  outside the now ingenuous FCS, and generally receiving plaudits, Mary heard one punter say: ‘I’m going over to DFS because they’ve got a sale on.

I sincerely hope that FCS prosper and I will certainly be paying them a visit the next time that I am in the market for a sofa.

I am very proud to be in the bespoke fitted furniture market and in spite of the fact that a lot of major competitors tell lies about their pricing policies, most of the independent companies serving this industry do play it straight and offer genuine value for money.

My wife and I recently ordered new bedroom curtains. Not for our house but for our beloved campervan. I say bedroom, and it does have what is known in campervan circles as a rock and roll bed (don’t ask), and a , sort of, rudimentary fitted wardrobe.

Anyway, we ordered the curtains from a small, home based business, hundreds of miles away, that specializes in bespoke curtains and loose covers for campervans. This is an excellent example of a niche market business that appears to be flourishing but would have struggled to find enough clients prior to the advent of the Internet. They are called Camper Comforts.

y wife, cautious lady that she is, was impressed by the massive range of fabrics on their simple, but very functional, website but refused to buy a pig-in-a-poke and insisted that we see some of Camper Comforts work and, if possible talk to one of their clients. I phoned the proprietor, Mel, who turned out to be a paragon of customer service, and she put me in touch with another VW fan living less than 10 miles from us. A visit was arranged, VW van fan lady was charmingly accomodating and we were duly impressed with the workmanship and service.

Fabric selected we sent off our old curtains as templates and they were returned with the new ones exactly within the promised time frame.The following weekend, Easter, in great excitement, we unpacked our new soft furnishings and proceeded to instal them in our travelling boudoir.

They looked great but, bitter blow, one of a matched pair of drapes had small perforation flaws in the fabric. I sent Mel an email and packed the faulty items to return by post immediately. This may have been a frustrating disappointment at the time but it was, for Camper Comforts, an opportunity to shine, and they did.

Mel confirmed receipt of my parcel on the Tuesday and on Thursday, a pristine new pair of curtains arrived by recorded delivery.

I may buy from Camper Comforts again and I may recommend them to a friend, or any one of the many fellow VW fans we meet on our travels. I always say that you get a free anorak with a VW camper and my wife mocks me mercilessly, but when chatting to campsite neighbours who share your passion you cannot help but laud the finer points of your own VW and pass on contacts and sources.

On the other hand, I may never get the opportunity or meet another ‘dubber’ (sorry but that’s what we call ourselves – from VeeDOUBleyew) who is the market for such mobile home improvements but I’ll lay you good odds that if Mel gives equal service to ten clients like us or VW van fan lady at least five of them will pay a part in generating new new business for Camper Comforts and that will feed into the exponential growth of a business that deserves to succeed.

Well done Mel, that’s the way to do it, and I will continue to apply the same principles to my bespoke fitted furniture business.

Now is the age when, thanks to the World Wide Web and Google, small independent businesses can go head to head with major players and often give a level of service and customer satisfaction that they will struggle to emulate.