JUST before Christmas, a London-based "think tank" which tracks changes in the retail industry produced a damning report saying that Britain was falling under the influence of a new "feudalism."

And the new robber barons, said the New Economics Foundation, were the nationwide superstore chains which were turning the country's high streets into ghost towns.

Now, while I agree with many of this organisation's findings, perhaps they should know the long and strange story of my video recorder - and a small but bustling family business which has been fighting to keep Skipton's High Street alive and well for some 80 years.

Slater's, the electrical and household goods appliances shop between the Black Horse and the Herald office, was founded in 1923 when radio was just becoming part of a normal household.

The Slater brothers built up a business delivering heavy, acid-filled accumulator batteries to power those early sets over a large area of the Dales. The batteries had to be re-charged once a week and the service cost just 6p - two-and-a-half pence in today's money.

Times and gadgets change and it was the saga of my video recorder which first brought me into contact with Geoff Bewes, a cheerful Slater's stalwart.

Some 20 years ago, we moved house and decided to treat ourselves to a bunch of new appliances. We went to one of the then-growing chain of national mega stores and spent a lot of money.

A lot of the stuff we bought didn't work properly but - and this is what sent us running to Geoff - after-sales service was virtually non-existent.

So when the time came to buy what was then the latest "in" gadget - the aforesaid video recorder - we went to Slater's and met Geoff for the first time. The machine broke down eight years later and I made a deal: if it can be repaired reasonably cheaply, I would put all my trade Slater's way in future.

That was 10 years ago and the machine is still going strong and virtually every gadget in our house has come from Slater's.

The video has become a standing joke between Geoff and I (he can't wait to replace it with a DVD player), but behind the smile there is serious intent: "It is very difficult for a small family business like ours to compete on simple price terms with the national chains - they buy their stock from the manufacturers by the tens of millions of pounds and get huge discounts.

"We do, however, cut the margins as fine as we can and the premium we offer is good service. We can't please all the people all the time - no-one can - but we have lots of customers who have been coming here all their adult lives because their parents, and even their grandparents, shopped here."

Geoff, the son of an engine driver, was born in Skipton in 1945. He went to the parish church primary school and then to Aireville, which was only two years old - "I just loved it there."

He took a job as an apprentice painter and decorator, but the business hit financial problems and - "as a stop-gap" - he took a job as a sales assistant with Frearson's in Water Street, one of the many hardware stores the town once supported.

He found he loved the retail trade because he liked talking to the customers:

"You get to meet a lot of characters in this business. If you can spare a few minutes for a chat, it makes the day go faster and puts the customer at ease. I'm not saying that it makes them spend more - but if they have enjoyed shopping with you, they are much more likely to come back again in future."

Try to have a chat like that in one of the chain stores!

Geoff joined Slater's 31 years ago and was made manager "sometime in the early 1990s - I'm not quite sure when." He and his wife, Lesley, have two grown-up sons.

In those three decades, the shop has expanded backwards off the High Street and built a new workshop and service centre off Granville Street. The business employs 12 people - not an insignificant number in a small market town.

The staff are proud of the contribution they make to keeping the High Street alive and well, a challenge which so many locally owned shops have conspicuously failed to meet in recent years. But if I have painted a picture of cosy self-congratulation, you have got me wrong.

"This has been one of the worst Christmases for the retail trade for many years," says Geoff. "People are sensing that the economy is beginning to go wrong, that their mortgages might start going up soon.

"There is a lot of caution in the air and some of the big national chains have been close to panic. Many were holding the traditional January sales well before Christmas, so desperate were they to get rid of stock.

"That makes it even more difficult for a small business like ours to compete - but we managed OK. We have our loyal customers to thank for that - and we make sure we look after them."

I should hope so too. After all, in 18 years' time, I might need to replace that video of mine with one of those new-fangled DVDs.