“Print is dead. The high street is on its knees. No one leaves the house anymore. We all hate each other,” led yesterday's (17 October) tweet.

“Or maybe as a small counter narrative – shop is blue, shop is open, shop is here for everyone.”

The post – one of many such wry tweets announcing the shop opening for the day – is part of the shop’s playful online presence, according to Holly Carter, who runs Rare Mags with her partner Martin Wilson.

She told Printweek: “We don’t take it very seriously – and I doubt we got any sales off the back of [that particular post].”

Rare Mags has been in business five and a half years on Lower Hillgate, a Stockport street that has become a bustling centre for small businesses.

“It’s a small street. There aren’t any chains on it, and we like it that way,” Carter said.

“It’s still partially derelict, knackered in some ways, but we all support each other’s businesses, and it’s a really nice atmosphere.”

Rare Mags represents print on the street, with a mixture of imported titles like Barcelona’s interiors magazine Apartamento and home-grown indie titles like the London-based examination of urban life, The Human Perspective.

Carter said: “Personally, the thing I love about printed magazines is that you can just find articles about things you have no idea about.

“You can open up a magazine and read something about how the demilitarised zone in Korea is now a nature reserve, then an interview with Chaka Khan, then about sculpture in Wakefield.

“It’s the vastness of that possibility of learning, and there’s no pop-ups, no stupid ‘accept cookies’ button, there’s just the contents of the magazine.”

The shop’s celebration of printed media has attracted a loyal community, who attend events thrown by Carter and Wilson at the shop.

In the next week alone, the shop is hosting a community cinema night and an author’s talk from influential fashion journalist and author Charlie Porter.