Jock

Although I cannot speak to Paul's specific example, we find it here in the more rural or less populated areas where there may be only one shop that carries a particular genre of attire or equipment, and it is known as the "rural monopoly"---basically 3 factors in play:
first, since they are further out in the boonies than their urban competitors shipping costs may be higher both in and out of their locale; second, since they are not urban their overall customer traffic flow is not high enough (i.e. few random walk-ins) so their overall volume of sales numbers are lower, which means they need to make more profit per customer interaction; and third, as stated they are a monopoly, so they can fix their prices at what they feel the local market will bear for their wares, meaning they can charge higher because the only other options are for the customer to drive to another town to get the items, or now, order online but sight unseen, a risky business as we all know. Plus since a lot of their work is likely bespoke, being local they can do the precise measurements that are harder to get correct over the internet. But it can be a very tenuous existence living at thin margins as so many do.

jeff