Death of the high street

[Hagar]

I must be about the only person who never uses Amazon. Well, like literally a few times a year. Most of the stuff on it is worse tat than Temu.

No, I never use Amazon on principle. It is one of the reasons that if you want to buy hardware or wallpaper for example there are so few shops to choose from. They also build big ugly distribution centres spoiling the views as well as many other sins environmental and cultural.
If is generally cheap tat anyway. I only buy Chinese if there is truly no alternative ie processors or some other computer parts.

**** 'em.

 

[413x]

I live in a small village that has nothing much on its high-street other than a few hairdressers, a dentist, and a couple of restaurants. My nearest main town is Reading and I can count on 1 finger the amount of times I've been there in the last 12 months and the only reason for that was I'd promised my son I would take him to Osaka for sushi if he aced his SATS.
I remember being stung for £6 for parking.

Wow. That sounds like a big village to me!

 

[beachBOYken]

Romford has been ruined in recent years, well past 10-15 years at least. All the once good shops have closed down, and over time gradually filled with fast food shops, or cheap crap discount stores, phone shops. The town centre is still very busy though on certain days and does have some good shops still, just not many.
It makes me sad looking back at when we had decent shops or at least well known popular stores like Woolworths, Debenhams, BHS, Beatties (model shop).
The fact so many still visit the town makes me think its more about poor decision making on who they let occupy vacant shop spaces.
If anyone has visited lately just look at what Debenhams has turned into, Aklu Plaza that lasted about a year, then cheap **** pots and pans, constantly shutting down and reopening a week later with a different name.
Oh what once was.

 

[jaybee]

On WHSmith stores mentioned above a fair bit, what's with their lighting nowadays? It's dingier than a medieval brothel.

I peer in in the middle of the day sometimes and feel like they've got the overnight "we're shut but let's light it a tiny bit with eco saving lights to put off burglars" lighting on.

 

[Bumhug]

Wow. That sounds like a big village to me!

Sounds bigger than a Norfolk town. These days round here lucky if a village has a bus stop

 

[Em3bbs]

I live in a small village that has nothing much on its high-street other than a few hairdressers, a dentist, and a couple of restaurants. My nearest main town is Reading and I can count on 1 finger the amount of times I've been there in the last 12 months and the only reason for that was I'd promised my son I would take him to Osaka for sushi if he aced his SATS.
I remember being stung for £6 for parking.

I go to a couple of car meets near you! The Bird in Hand, The Shire Horse and White Waltham.

Funnily enough I ran into Jonny69 in Runnymede the other week. Knew who he was from the Anglia with the big 69 on the side

 

[Nutty667]

I think the death of high-streets is largely a council inflicted problem. Not an ounce of business sense between them.

Instead of thinking, "How can we maximise footfall, so shops do well?", it's "How can we extract as much money from drivers and shops as possible?"

In my home town up-north, the council got rid of the carpark in town and replaced it with a ginormous bus-station. Result: Shops going out of business within months as all the commuter shoppers had no-where to park going or coming from work.

Waterlooville where I live now. There was a carpark next to Waitrose. Council kept jacking the prices up. Waitrose left, high-street on life support. Now they've made the carpark free to try and get people back. Should have done it before Waitrose left.

There's a reason why supermarket carparks are usually always free. They know what they're doing.
There is zero reason why council owned carparks have to charge money at all. Make it free for say 1 or 2 hours, and people will nip in and out and use it. I'm not going to pay 3 quid parking when I can get free delivery online.

Edit:
There's also the problem of range.
I went to next to look for some jeans the other day. Had nothing in store in the size/fit I wanted. Until shops start holding more range of things, they'll struggle to compete with online.

 

[413x]

Sounds bigger than a Norfolk town. These days round here lucky if a village has a bus stop

The village I grew up in (Suffolk) had less than 150 people. No post office. No shop. Only a letter box. Earliest bus to town was 10am and latest one back was 3pm.

When you hit 17...you learnt to drive!

 

[413x]

I think the death of high-streets is largely a council inflicted problem. Not an ounce of business sense between them.

Instead of thinking, "How can we maximise footfall, so shops do well?", it's "How can we extract as much money from drivers and shops as possible?"

In my home town up-north, the council got rid of the carpark in town and replaced it with a ginormous bus-station. Result: Shops going out of business within months as all the commuter shoppers had no-where to park going or coming from work.

Waterlooville where I live now. There was a carpark next to Waitrose. Council kept jacking the prices up. Waitrose left, high-street on life support. Now they've made the carpark free to try and get people back. Should have done it before Waitrose left.

There's a reason why supermarket carparks are usually always free. They know what they're doing.
There is zero reason why council owned carparks have to charge money at all. Make it free for say 1 or 2 hours, and people will nip in and out and use it. I'm not going to pay 3 quid parking when I can get free delivery online.

Edit:
There's also the problem of range.
I went to next to look for some jeans the other day. Had nothing in store in the size/fit I wanted. Until shops start holding more range of things, they'll struggle to compete with online.

The red dragon centre could charge. As long as you use the shop you can validate your ticket for a few hours. So going to the cinema gets you free parking. It's great for out of town people. And it's a big draw as it saves 5-10 pounds vs going to town.

 

[Nabinium]

The village I grew up in (Suffolk) had less than 150 people. No post office. No shop. Only a letter box. Earliest bus to town was 10am and latest one back was 3pm.

When you hit 17...you learnt to drive!

Yep, driving is basically the only option we have in my village too if you want to get to other towns easily. The buses just aren't regular enough, and the last one is in the afternoon.

 

[Zatoichi.uK]

There was a pair of shorts I wanted last year and could have bought online but made a point of getting them from a small independent retailer in a town near me. I had to negotiate the price down a little to make it comparable, obviously drove there so had to pay a little petrol money, no big deal. On the way out I came back to a parking ticket as the council had changed a parking space that used to be fine to restricted with very minimal signage. My own fault but all I could do was laugh in end.

Tried to support local and got stitched up for it. Annoying.

 

[mid_gen]

I think the death of high-streets is largely a council inflicted problem. Not an ounce of business sense between them.

Instead of thinking, "How can we maximise footfall, so shops do well?", it's "How can we extract as much money from drivers and shops as possible?"

In my home town up-north, the council got rid of the carpark in town and replaced it with a ginormous bus-station. Result: Shops going out of business within months as all the commuter shoppers had no-where to park going or coming from work.

Waterlooville where I live now. There was a carpark next to Waitrose. Council kept jacking the prices up. Waitrose left, high-street on life support. Now they've made the carpark free to try and get people back. Should have done it before Waitrose left.

There's a reason why supermarket carparks are usually always free. They know what they're doing.
There is zero reason why council owned carparks have to charge money at all. Make it free for say 1 or 2 hours, and people will nip in and out and use it. I'm not going to pay 3 quid parking when I can get free delivery online.

Edit:
There's also the problem of range.
I went to next to look for some jeans the other day. Had nothing in store in the size/fit I wanted. Until shops start holding more range of things, they'll struggle to compete with online.

The council problems stem from the decision to slash central government funding over the past 10-15 years. Councils are now far more dependent on direct fund-raising, which is why your council tax keeps going up and they have to attempt to claw in money from parking and anything else that brings in revenue, in order to try and even maintain services, let alone improve them.

If councils decide to make parking free, great, now where do they make up that budget shortfall? Jack up business rates? The money has to come from somewhere.

 

[413x]

The council problems stem from the decision to slash central government funding over the past 10-15 years. Councils are now far more dependent on direct fund-raising, which is why your council tax keeps going up and they have to attempt to claw in money from parking and anything else that brings in revenue, in order to try and even maintain services, let alone improve them.

If councils decide to make parking free, great, now where do they make up that budget shortfall? Jack up business rates? The money has to come from somewhere.

On flip side if they charge parking and put people off and businesses die as a consequence they've lost there too.

No idea which is better. And I'm not sure if councils do either! If the car park is full, I guess it works. And it's a no brainier. But if it causes the car park to be less utilised, it's not an easy thing to assess.

 

[deviation]

How ironic, this just got posted, and it made me think of this thread haha!
I have @Diddums to thank for this YT channel

 

[dirtychinchilla]

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.

Yeah, so nice. I was in Godalming a couple of weeks ago and I really rate it. Woking isn't great these days, but I do enjoy going to M&S and getting a coffee. Same for Guildford - it's not amazing, but I always enjoy going there if coffee is involved...

 

[Nabinium]

Woking isn't great these days, but I do enjoy going to M&S and getting a coffee. Same for Guildford - it's not amazing, but I always enjoy going there if coffee is involved...

Was in Guildford a couple weekends ago - hadn't been there for many years. It's still alright, but I can tell the life of the high street has been slowly sucked away. Lots and lots of shops closing down or having closed down too.

On the other hand though, the G Live theatre is fantastic. We went there to see a comedy show.

 

[Nutty667]

The council problems stem from the decision to slash central government funding over the past 10-15 years. Councils are now far more dependent on direct fund-raising, which is why your council tax keeps going up and they have to attempt to claw in money from parking and anything else that brings in revenue, in order to try and even maintain services, let alone improve them.

If councils decide to make parking free, great, now where do they make up that budget shortfall? Jack up business rates? The money has to come from somewhere.

I disagree. The decimation of my home town was 30 years ago, not recent. Labour run council of course.

There is only a shortfall of money if you believe the council were right to charge for parking in the 1st place.
Business rates should be % of profits, which would incentivise councils to make better decisions for shops and businesses.

 

[Dis86]

I disagree. The decimation of my home town was 30 years ago, not recent. Labour run council of course.

There is only a shortfall of money if you believe the council were right to charge for parking in the 1st place.
Business rates should be % of profits, which would incentivise councils to make better decisions for shops and businesses.

I definitely remember the decline starting more than 15 years ago too.

The only issue with business rates being a %age of profits is councils will prioritise more profitable and not necessarily socially responsible businesses as a result. Albeit this is no different to what's happening now.

 

[Rai200]

Just been to my local town (hadn't been in a year...)

Well there's the issue.

Online is usually easier, cheaper, quicker and has more choice.

The only reason I've gone into town in recent years is because we had an Ikea open up. Half the stuff you had to order online anyway as they didn't stock much more than small items, being able to see it in person was good but honestly not worth the hassle.