Online sales tax considered in bid to save the high street

[vanpeebles]

All day drinking and town centers are a bad mix too, hardly family friendly. Factor in poor treatment of motorists, the ones who drive in, spend money, fill their cars, the days of these places are numbered.

 

[KAR 120C]

Hi there.

about 18 months ago you posted a red top engine for sale. Do you still have it and if so do you still want to sell it?

Regards,
Michael

Exactly. If people don't want to use the high street, you won't tax them back to it.

I know that if it did come in, I'd stay with online shopping out if spite

 

[ttaskmaster]

I can't do it the same day. If I need a pair of Jeans for example i've got to wait until Saturday or Sunday to then go into town as everything here shuts at 5:30pm and unfortunately i'm stuck at work!. If I order it online I can have it here tomorrow and if it needs to go back sort it out tomorrow too after work, and any return postage is generally cheaper than driving into town & takes less time than messing about driving there, parking, walking to the store etc

So you go in on Saturday, find a pair that fits and walk out happy, without ever needing to send something back and wait a week or more for turnaround of another pair that also may or may not fit... Still far quicker than having to order online, and you don't need to sign up for anything or even give them your name, much less half a personal bio just to buy a pair of jeans.

It gets worse when there's a problem, as they can just lose your stuff, ignore your emails, reroute your call or just put you on hold until you hang up, and any number of things to avoid dealing with your issue. It's much harder for them to dodge the issue when you're face to face with a real human and can simply show them the very obvious product defect.

Then you look at when something breaks and you need parts or fittings urgently - Collect it from a shop direct, or go online and be at the mercy of their system and their chosen delivery service.... Incidentally, there are two of the big name couriers with local collection centres 1.5 miles away, but they always insist we have to use the one 15 miles away. For the cost of that and time taken, I could go to the shops three times!

 

[vanpeebles]

Hi there.

about 18 months ago you posted a red top engine for sale. Do you still have it and if so do you still want to sell it?

Regards,
Michael

Can you get engines imported into the village?

 

[Psycho Sonny]

Rates is the issue here, taxation will not help.

I'm a little out of touch but you pay more for shop per m/2 than warehouse etc

I can't remember the exact amount but on a 80 seater restaurant. You were talking several thousand a month.

Bare in mind you have wages, utilities, stock and all the stress too. You made good money whilst all the other shops around you were open. As soon as they started closing the domino effect wiped out profits to the point you made a loss for 2-3 months of the year. To the point you end up renting it out and let someone else deal with the hassle and collect your rent.

Water and waste charges also were ridiculous. Then you have the fact you have to pay to have any of your waste taken away by a private company.

So you are paying several thousand a month for absolutely nothing. At the very least they should take your bin bags away.

Its literally money for nothing.

 

[V F]

Sod the high street. Aside from needing to pay ever increasing car park charges there's nothing up our high street apart from charity shops, mobile phone shops, 99p shops and coffee shops. The world is a different place and changing all of the time, the day of the high street has gone. Take these empty shops, some with 2 or more floors of empty offices/storage above them and turn them into much needed affordable housing.

I always found the High Street never having what I wanted and if they could get it, I had to wait weeks for it. Even thinking back to getting computers built and or parts, the last I bought from a computer shop in my local High Street was 2002.

Even games, I had to order and put deposits down several towns away which was a 35 - 45 minute drive. That was again the last I went back in 2001.

Now, today as you said. I see nothing but garbage in my High Street. Pound shops, betting shops, I no longer see pawn shops anymore, tons of fast food shops. There is nothing in my High Street that makes me really want to spend. Apart from the odd thing like some AA/AAA batteries and bird seed but those are rare purchases.

 

[Greboth]

I can't believe that some people are suggesting the abolishment of minimum wage and employment/working rights as a solution to the collapse of the high street. Maybe we should go back to the pre industrial revolution era; think how many candlemakers we could have if we didn't have a few companies monopolising electricity or how many ostlers could be employed if we got rid of cars. Not to mention the number of undertakers that could be employed by the massive drop in life expectancy.

There's issues with a free market economy but it's the reality we live in. Consumer trends control which companies survive and which don't; should we impose a higher percentage tax on those that do better to help support those that struggle? You could argue for the monopolised sectors yes but where do you draw the line; who would decide which companies are supported and which aren't? Maybe the Government should have something like a business viability test to determine if people would shop there and close the ones that people won't shop in.

 

[Junglist]

The only benefit of the high street is that I can grab a coffee... dealing with people quickly makes that a moot point though.

I wont miss the high street though I do hate the internet (and I suppose this is partly OCUK's fault too!!) for one reason... When I was younger we'd have 'computer fairs' come to Bristol where they'd have hundreds of independent sellers who would set up tables and sell various bits of PC hardware. For a geeky kid it was honestly the best place I'd ever go and drool over the new Voodoo cards on elaborate gaming PCs at the time.

Online has literally killed those and while it's more convenient I do miss those experiences that I had as a kid. Probably wouldn't miss them much if we had a decent PC shop to visit down here... Just saying OCUK, if you want to open up another shop, Bristol is waiting!

 

[Kenai]

So you go in on Saturday, find a pair that fits and walk out happy, without ever needing to send something back and wait a week or more for turnaround of another pair that also may or may not fit... Still far quicker than having to order online, and you don't need to sign up for anything or even give them your name, much less half a personal bio just to buy a pair of jeans.

My experience is the opposite.

It's more like go in on Saturday, try to find a pair in my size only to find they have 32" waist and 36" waist but ran out of 34" waist yesterday. I go to a different shop and they have 34" waist but only in extra short leg version with fashionable holes all over them, meanwhile 3 overly enthusiastic helpers have asked if I need any help with finding something they don't have any of. I'm already fed up by now and wanting to go home. I try a third shop and have to stand waiting for 10 minutes to try on the pair I miraculously found in my size, only to find the cut is weird and I don't like them. Go home disappointed, having wasted a few hours of my weekend driving into town and walking around, along with being charged a fiver for the privilege of parking my car for 2 hours. Resign myself to trying again next week.

Or I could go on Levis.com, order 5 or 6 pairs that I might like, receive them a day or two later, try them on at my leisure, send back any I don't like in the pre-paid returns material they give you by dropping it off at the Collect+ locker that's a 2 minute walk from my house, as I when I have a spare 5 minutes to do so in the next 90 days of their returns window. (But, given I know which Levis I like and which fit from last time I bought some, I can skip the entire 'buy loads and send back the ones I don't like stage entirely in this particular case)

I find shopping online massively preferable to shopping in person for most stuff - less of my free time is wasted trekking around shops that may or may not have what I want and as long as you pick your retailers sensibly, enough have reasonable returns policies.

Different things suit different people but the very fact this is even a proposal would suggest far more people are finding they'd rather do everything from the convenience of their own home these days than visiting their nearest high street.

 

[Hedge]

The high Street should be made into smaller shops that are affordable to allow small start ups. They should all be forced to maintain a particular style / quality and offer a nice experience.

Large department stores are dead. Let smalls indies take the high Street

 

[Surveyor]

Let's say you have one property. You can be employing 30 people all paying ni and paye. You then also have all the customers coming into that property paying Rates are far too high for small businesses. In fact they should be abolished. It makes the barrier to entry far too high.

Many small businesses pay no rates.

I can't remember the exact amount but on a 80 seater restaurant. You were talking several thousand a month.

That's going to vary enormously.

A high-end Indian/Bangladeshi restaurant I've occassionally frequented has 150 covers. The rates payable are circa £4,000/year.

 

[Greebo]

Why do we need to save the high street? If people are happy buying online let the high street die.

I can't remember the last time I went high street shopping, its just not a pleasant experience. Traffic, expensive parking, no idea if anything you want will be available, general riff-raff everywhere - no thanks.

Online makes sense to me, it's cheaper, more reliable, nore flexible and I'm sure the multidrop delivery system is probably more ecologically friendly too.

I suppose the question then arises as to what alternative employment there is for the 3 million people employed in the high street. 3 million people cost a lot to keep on benefits

 

[Greebo]

Many small businesses pay no rates.



That's going to vary enormously.

A high-end Indian/Bangladeshi restaurant I've occassionally frequented has 150 covers. The rates payable are circa £4,000/year.

Thats mega cheap. We own a small retail shop in N Yorkshire and our rates are £15k per annum. And its not even on the high street but on a side road going out of the village.

My local pub has to pay £3k per month in rates and only does 60 covers (its mainly a food pub not a drinking one)

 

[V F]

My experience is the opposite.

It's more like go in on Saturday, try to find a pair in my size only to find they have 32" waist and 36" waist but ran out of 34" waist yesterday. I go to a different shop and they have 34" waist but only in extra short leg version with fashionable holes all over them, meanwhile 3 overly enthusiastic helpers have asked if I need any help with finding something they don't have any of. I'm already fed up by now and wanting to go home. I try a third shop and have to stand waiting for 10 minutes to try on the pair I miraculously found in my size, only to find the cut is weird and I don't like them. Go home disappointed, having wasted a few hours of my weekend driving into town and walking around, along with being charged a fiver for the privilege of parking my car for 2 hours. Resign myself to trying again next week.

Or I could go on Levis.com, order 5 or 6 pairs that I might like, receive them a day or two later, try them on at my leisure, send back any I don't like in the pre-paid returns material they give you by dropping it off at the Collect+ locker that's a 2 minute walk from my house, as I when I have a spare 5 minutes to do so in the next 90 days of their returns window. (But, given I know which Levis I like and which fit from last time I bought some, I can skip the entire 'buy loads and send back the ones I don't like stage entirely in this particular case)

I find shopping online massively preferable to shopping in person for most stuff - less of my free time is wasted trekking around shops that may or may not have what I want and as long as you pick your retailers sensibly, enough have reasonable returns policies.

Different things suit different people but the very fact this is even a proposal would suggest far more people are finding they'd rather do everything from the convenience of their own home these days than visiting their nearest high street.

I remember how magical the High Street was back in the late 80s early to mid 90s. TV shops/or were electrical shops. Hi-Fis etc, lots and lots of top notch clothes shops, tons of DIY. Newsagents were massive, they had everything you could have wanted. Rock shops which was like a newsagent but had food, drinks, ice cream, slushpuppies you name it they had it. Now everything is gone.

I'm lucky if I see any store last 6 months in the town and what there is most are waiting on customers except the fast food and coffee shops. There aint no TV/Hi-Fi shops at all. Even the Ironmonger has stock sitting for months and years.

It is what it is though. Demand isn't in the High Street no more. Even the fish and chip shops can be pretty empty compared to what I remember of the 90s.

 

[Hagar]

2% tax is neither here nor there for the buyer so I say do it as long as the administration cost is reasonable.

 

[pepp77]

I rarely visit the high street because parking is not great, and whilst I have no issues with walking there, that then limits what I might buy as I also dont mind walking home but not with bags of shopping, therefore I drive to Bluewater or Ashford, or make do with the little retail parks that have Sainsburys, B&Ms, Lidl, Dunelm etc in them.

 

[V F]

Nobody will come to the High Street when the council sees less shops, up goes higher rates from less shops and so it goes on.

 

[Psycho Sonny]

The high Street should be made into smaller shops that are affordable to allow small start ups. They should all be forced to maintain a particular style / quality and offer a nice experience.

Large department stores are dead. Let smalls indies take the high Street

Problem with that is if you are that small you have zero buying power and cannot compete.

 

[ttaskmaster]

It's more like go in on Saturday, try to find a pair in my size only to find they have 32" waist and 36" waist but ran out of 34" waist yesterday. I go to a different shop and they have 34" waist but only in extra short leg version with fashionable holes all over them, meanwhile 3 overly enthusiastic helpers have asked if I need any help with finding something they don't have any of. I'm already fed up by now and wanting to go home. I try a third shop and have to stand waiting for 10 minutes to try on the pair I miraculously found in my size, only to find the cut is weird and I don't like them. Go home disappointed, having wasted a few hours of my weekend driving into town and walking around, along with being charged a fiver for the privilege of parking my car for 2 hours. Resign myself to trying again next week.

I've had that same experience online - Out of stock in my size, same with the next shop, same with the ones after that... But now imagine having to order each pair of those jeans one at a time, wait 3-4 days for delivery, send each one back when they don't fit and wait another week or so for each of the subsequent ones to arrive, all the while paying for return postage every time and whatever else they can come up with... And since all the branded drop-off points are in the town centre, right next to the shops you'd normally buy from anyway, or actually inside shops that are only open during normal shopping/post office hours, it makes absolutely zero difference.

Or I could go on Levis.com, order 5 or 6 pairs that I might like, receive them a day or two later, try them on at my leisure, send back any I don't like in the pre-paid returns material they give you by dropping it off at the Collect+ locker that's a 2 minute walk from my house, as I when I have a spare 5 minutes to do so in the next 90 days of their returns window.

Huh... If I could afford to buy six pairs of Levis at a time, even the cheaper ones, I'd be having some bespoke ones hand-made by a tailor!!!

Different things suit different people but the very fact this is even a proposal would suggest far more people are finding they'd rather do everything from the convenience of their own home these days than visiting their nearest high street.

I wonder how much of that is just because large monopolies like Amazon leave little choice...

 

[Kenai]

I've had that same experience online - Out of stock in my size, same with the next shop, same with the ones after that... But now imagine having to order each pair of those jeans one at a time, wait 3-4 days for delivery, send each one back when they don't fit and wait another week or so for each of the subsequent ones to arrive, all the while paying for return postage every time and whatever else they can come up with... And since all the branded drop-off points are in the town centre, right next to the shops you'd normally buy from anyway, or actually inside shops that are only open during normal shopping/post office hours, it makes absolutely zero difference.


Huh... If I could afford to buy six pairs of Levis at a time, even the cheaper ones, I'd be having some bespoke ones hand-made by a tailor!!!

I suppose if you only have the cashflow that permits buying one item at a time and you need to wait for a refund before you can order another pair to try, then it could be time consuming. I'll consider myself very lucky that I can afford to buy a few pairs of jeans at once and then just send back the ones I don't want, rather than doing it on the week long rotation, one pair at a time, as you seemingly have to do.

I don't need to be able to afford to keep six pairs of Levis, I might only want 1 or 2, so as long as I can cover off the cashflow for the week or so i'd be waiting for the refund to procees, i'm fine. TBH I haven't tried/checked but I suspect if I did it via credit card, it'd probably be refunded before I had to pay the credit card balance anyway, so it would never actually be out of my own pocket/account.

Around here, drop off points are all over the place, corner shops, libraries, petrol stations etc. so they're extremely convenient for dealing with returns - again if you have to go to your local town centre to find such a place, this obviously isn't convenient for you.

As I said, different things suit different people, decrying online shopping as crap because you have to do weekly rotations of a single pair of jeans though, I would suggest is not especially reflective of most people's experience with online shopping.