Online sales tax considered in bid to save the high street

Problem is the high street is great for clothes, shoes, new sofa etc but lets be honest who is selling a the latest monitors, graphics cards etc. Not just that but with the likes of Maplins etc all going by the way of the DOdo it's very hard to find a lot of every day stuff it takes 2 seconds to find online.

There is just such a huge difference on the products you find online as there is in the high street so we would all be paying a penalty for using online shopping as most stuff we buy now is not on the high street.
 
Blackjack Davy said:
I havn't been near the main shopping streets in this town for 20 years no cars allowed ridiculous parking charges everywhere (won't bother cutting the verges or looking after the roads but they'll charge you up to the hilt to leave a car) buses only, utter lunacy.



In a word, taxes. For local councils its their biggest moneyspinner if you think your council tax bill is high its nothing compared to the business rates shops pay not to mention ground rent etc. They don't want it to die because they want the money why do you think the high street is more expensive? All the overheads wages, buildings maintenence, heating, etc etc. But mostly they want the taxes.
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Correct., We own a small retail shop and the rent is £30k per annum and the rates are £15k so thats £45k before we even pay for staff or stock or electric or insurance.
 
I'm sure at some point you can eventually just replace the staff with holograms and just automate restocking.

Of course that's not really the realm of a small retail shop to innovate in such a manner without consequently going bust in the process... But then what government would ever invest in less jobs?
 
It going feel really strange if all the shops in the high street close as that mean we will not have a town and as it will just change to houses & flats and be the same as everywhere else
 
I don't see the problem with getting people back living in the city centre, the lack of community is a problem that needs resolving and it'd be good start to actually have a community in the first place.

Also, i'm pretty sure that the high street is the same everywhere else anyway... I don't find having the same betting shops, charity shops and fast food places in ever city/town as whatsoever culturally interesting, so what loss is it really?

At least turning irrelevant commercial buildings into residential developments would also go some way into solving our housing problem.
 
The high street doesnt need saving it needs killing off and getting people to live in the centers and stop the scumbag deep fried crap kebab shops every 2 doors as well.
 
Greebo said:
Correct., We own a small retail shop and the rent is £30k per annum and the rates are £15k so thats £45k before we even pay for staff or stock or electric or insurance.
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Well actually if you are a small retail shop, anything with a retail value of 12k or less you don't pay rates, between 12k and 15k you get big discounts. There are tens of thousands of shops who fit this category.
Granted they are normally in the quieter parts of the big towns but if you are in the busy part your business model should be producing the profits to cover rates anyway.
For small towns very few of the smaller retail shops pay rates.
 
Anyone seen what there doing in Jeresy to tried help the local businesses

https://www.gov.je/News/2020/Pages/DCMSpeech.aspx
In early September we will begin to distribute, via Jersey Post, the £100 Spend Local Cards to every adult and child on the Island.


These will be in the form of a prepaid Mastercard for those aged 16 and above, and prepaid card for those aged under 16.

You’ll get instructions with the cards on


However you decide to spend your £100 please continue to support our Island businesses and the jobs and livelihoods they provide in these most challenging of times.
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chaparral said:
It going feel really strange if all the shops in the high street close as that mean we will not have a town and as it will just change to houses & flats and be the same as everywhere else
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But functionally, what do you need a high-street for? Sorry, for what do you need a high-street?

Maybe it's time for a change. I'm not saying turn it into houses and flats (and I'm not saying *dont* do that :p)

But maybe there are better uses for these spaces than the same old shops from which few people are buying these days.
 
They need to build shops 100x bigger than they are now. Imagine a shop that stocked everything that amazon sold. People would go. We've had supermarkets, then malls, then retail parks. We need the next thing.
 
FoxEye said:
But functionally, what do you need a high-street for? Sorry, for what do you need a high-street?

Maybe it's time for a change. I'm not saying turn it into houses and flats (and I'm not saying *dont* do that :p)

But maybe there are better uses for these spaces than the same old shops from which few people are buying these days.
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Loads of are small out of town shops over here that have closed down have been changed to houses or flats

Mainly because they can get crazy high prices for them that way..
 
Eurofighter said:
They need to build shops 100x bigger than they are now. Imagine a shop that stocked everything that amazon sold. People would go. We've had supermarkets, then malls, then retail parks. We need the next thing.
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I don't think they would, after the initial novelty wore off.

Firstly, they couldn't match online store prices (without govt interference). So a lot of people would simply view them as "try before you buy (online)" affairs.

Second, having lots of vast stores is hugely inefficient and pretty terrible waste of resources and land.

The convenience and efficiency of online is just very, very hard to beat. The enduring retail stores also have an online presence through necessity. I still buy from Argos, for example, but online.
 
Eurofighter said:
They need to build shops 100x bigger than they are now. Imagine a shop that stocked everything that amazon sold. People would go. We've had supermarkets, then malls, then retail parks. We need the next thing.
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Surely this is effectively what Argos is and to a slightly lesser extent John Lewis?

The big difference is Amazon is full of cheap Chinese tat too rather than solely costly brands but importantly, it's not marketed like a pound shop for example, so people can buy cheap without feeling like they're being cheap.
 
Eurofighter said:
They need to build shops 100x bigger than they are now. Imagine a shop that stocked everything that amazon sold. People would go. We've had supermarkets, then malls, then retail parks. We need the next thing.
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It'd be horribly inefficient to work with that model, vast amounts of unused stock sitting in each store. Amazon works because its centralised with a vast distribution network meaning nothing has to be held locally.
 
Does it matter, it is local councils charging parking fees, or congestion charge that stops people from entering central London, including the lack of parking.
 
ttaskmaster said:
That's pretty much Harrods, innit - Omnia Omnibus Unique....
I believe they even used to sell cocaine!
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Up until 1916 Harrods would sell you a bump of cocaine. I think it was legal still then.

And in 1919 they started selling planes as well.

And lions, tigers, panthers, camels, alligators, and even elephants up to 1976. There was those famous two guys who had a lion in their Chelsea flat but it out grew the flat and was then released in Kenya,. A year later they went to visit and the lion remembered them!

 
With Sainsbury's immediately closing for good ~120 still temporary closed Argos high street stores with 80% of the rest to go - that is a further blow to the high street.
 
Rroff said:
With Sainsbury's immediately closing for good ~120 still temporary closed Argos high street stores with 80% of the rest to go - that is a further blow to the high street.
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Closing about 400 standalone stores and opening about 200 inside sainsburys stores.

Won't be the same kind, more along the lines of a counter with very limited stock where you generally pick up your online orders.
 
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