Death of the high street

dave28 said:
Depends where you live I guess. I live well out in rural farming area, the entire local high street is a 8 minute walk and filled with charity shops and mostly very small indi businesses who seem to do well enough to keep themself going. Some shops are closed but only maybe a few percent at most.

Car park is free on Monday to Wed until 2pm but that makes no difference to me because I can always get a free parking spot near the high street because the population is so low that there is no fighting for free spots.

I do shop there for some things, i use the local butcher and newsagents, garden centre, Spar and a couple of others.

Certainly not high street death happening but there was not much there to start with.
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Yeah our high street is fairly small.

There's about 8 spaces spread about in various paid car parks for cars to park free, for a maximum of 30 mins which is handy if you just need to pickup something quickly.
 
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Cheaper elswhere, people don't care about the high street stores anymore, only cost and convenience.
 
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!bluetonic! said:
Bin bags, screen wash, falafel, lube.
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That's a hell of a night in :D

Went to Swindon 5 or so years ago (pre-covid) and the centre looked derelict, most shops boarded up, only a couple of bars open.
Was there at the weekend and it was looking a little better with recent investment, albeit unfinished at the moment (cabby said it had only opened up again in the last few weeks). Old town is still ok.

Our high street is very different to what it was, but seems to be doing ok, as others have said it's mainly social places like restaurants and bars that are surviving.... and a multitude of suspiciously empty barbers
 
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I do actually miss going shopping when the high street was good. Just felt like a different atmosphere back in the early naughties. It was sometimes more of a "let's browse" and see what we see. These days it's just not a thing most people do. Again I think this is down to disposable income. Everything is calculated and we all want need to spend as little as possible even on luxuries, so we gravitate to online.
 
My town has one Turkish barber per 1000 men and boys, oddly they also look empty when passing. 3 of them are owned by the same guy. Have no idea what all that’s about...

Ignoring that and a couple of customerless vape shops the rest of the shops are actually quite decent, varied and doing well other than the local council trying kill everything off with ending free parking charges recently. I think this Xmas will be make or break for many.

Aberdeen is still a sorry state. They’ve made a big thing of getting Trinty full of shops again but it’s all just Temu versions of chains like Stirbucks and Arbos.
 
We've got our token vape shops and Turkish barbers but honestly our high street is bloody fantastic. Really nice shops, saturday market, loads of stuff on in Summer.
 
in an ideal world yea it's sad and something should be done but ultimately for i and most others i imagine, the 'high street' or shopping local isn't a high priority. i buy what i want and need at the best price i can find. invariably that's online. if it were locally, then brilliant. but the truth is that bricks and mortar shops for the most part can't compete with online pricing so that's where consumers shop. especially with the cost of living going through the roof in recent years.

i'm lucky enough (or unlucky depending how you view it) to have grown up in the 80's & 90's even 00's which meant a lot of experience of shopping on the high street - and yes, while it was an experience i do not remember it with rose tinted glasses.

physical clothes shops i get, buying a pair of jeans online is always going to be a bit of a game of chance when you can't try them on - and in that instance i'd be happy enough to pay a bit extra to a physical store so i can try that product on and make sure it fits. but something like a book? why the **** would I traipse to a high street store to pay more and have to go through so much more faff - i'll just order it online for delivery, cheaper than the physical store.
 
!bluetonic! said:
A Swindonian here. I've helped kill the High Street. I just love Amazon shopping too much.

I remember the disappointment of going from shop to shop, retail park to retail park to find a <insert weird object here>. And there it is on Amazon, next day delivery. Weird shaped watch batteries, obscure USB cables, thingy for car, it's all there.

I tend to food shop in store with the self-service, zappy bar code gun having rejected social interactions with the till staff. I know where everything is in West Swindon Asda. Bin bags, screen wash, falafel, lube.

I do get my hair trimmed at a Turkish barber in Royal Wootton Bassett High Street (cash only).
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How dare you? You've single-handedly killed our high street :p
 
Thekwango said:
why the **** would I traipse to a high street store to pay more and have to go through so much more faff - i'll just order it online for delivery, cheaper than the physical store.
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Yeah, though if I find a book that the local indie bookshop has in stock, then the trip down to buy it from them to support them is worth it. However, if the book is only available at the big chains like Waterstones, then I'd likely just order it online.

Though, you quite often have to visit the indie ones first to see if see they have any you're wanting to buy, as most won't have an online presence, so even that alone might be a faff for some people.
 
I get my hair cut at OAP rates in a traditional barbers, £8 at least three times a year but never between October to March inclusive. Drives my wife mad, the shaggy dog look.

I suppose i don't support their turnover very much but the shop is always full.
 
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WHSmith can do one!
The last time I went there, they wanted £5.99 for 1 roll of parcel tape, when I paid £8.99 delivered for 12 of the same size!
They've always been a rip off - it wouldn't surprise me if they tried to hike the price up of magazines versus the printed price on them :cry:
Then add the faff of parking and the parking fee's, no thanks!
 
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deviation said:
WHSmith can **** off
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Technically they sort of have :cry: rebranded to TG Jones. They're probably not much better either.

Though I read that WHSmith are still in airports, motorway services, etc., as they're able to jack up their prices even more at those locations.
 
Nabinium said:
Technically they sort of have :cry: rebranded to TG Jones. They're probably not much better either.

Though I read that WHSmith are still in airports, motorway services, etc., as they're able to jack up their prices even more at those locations.
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Good, I hope they burn in hell! I needed that parcel tape! :cry:

Zefan said:
This is Swindon town centre. It used to have a certain energy, but now it's a wretched hive of scum and villainy.
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Shadowness said:
I live less than an hour from Swindon, and pretty much have done for 38 years. Never been there lol
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swindon.png
 
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I'm sure a lot of the vape shops are fronts for money laundering.

Not many useful shops, all a lot more expensive than online. Many places which looks like independent shops, you can find the same tat on Amazon or Alibaba...
 
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Nabinium said:
Though I read that WHSmith are still in airports, motorway services, etc., as they're able to jack up their prices even more at those locations.
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can confirm - edinburgh airport, 3.99 for a bottle of full fat 500ml coke. we're it not going on a business card it would have been left sitting at the beepy beep beep scanner. thieving ********
 
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