Is the High Street ever going to recover?

Just an example- we have Starbucks, Costa and Nero- but I will always make sure I go to one of the many independents, with home-made cakes and biscuits, and who will serve coffee how I like it

It's not my job to 'support' shops, where on earth have we got this idea from. It's up to them to provide me with a service I want/need.

' Shops are in the business of selling, and if people aren't buying, or are buying online, they will close and something else will open.'

up to us then, to make sure we support them. Go to independent shops, for food and oether stuff- instead of moaning, If we become aware that out shopping/coffee/etc habits are destroying our town centres, we CAN REVERSE the trend.

MawtheMerrier, the high streets were slowly dying/changing long before the pandemic. People here moan about the loss of 'useful' local shops - but they buy nearly everything from supermarkets!

LovelyLady

So sad many have forsaken their high street.
I’d not be proud to say my Christmas was bought on line. We need community and that’s not on line.

I can't imagine being proud of my shopping habits, whether online or in shops - I don't even understand how that would work. Is shopping meant to be a chore in order to be 'worthy' or something?

I think there is a far better chance of a community in a High Street of coffee bars and leisure activities, or of Arts venues and gathering places than in retail environments where the focus is on spending.

Somehow, nailbars, eyebrow salons, coffee and fast food outlets seem to be thriving. Have we got our priorities in the right order?
I guess it depends on whose priorities matter? I don't use nail bars or eyebrow salons, but enough people must want them for them to be popular, and that means that they are a higher priorities for them than whatever Peter and Jane bought. How can one person's priorities be 'right' and another's 'wrong'? Shops are in the business of selling, and if people aren't buying, or are buying online, they will close and something else will open.

In what way is it community to drive 20 miles and go to house of Fraser for example.

No need to give up or forsake- we can do it!

So sad many have forsaken their high street.
I’d not be proud to say my Christmas was bought on line. We need community and that’s not on line.

Did Peter and Jane need a train to the High Street? The only time I would use a train for shopping would be to a city. Somehow, nailbars, eyebrow salons, coffee and fast food outlets seem to be thriving. Have we got our priorities in the right order?

Our small town has individual butchers shops, bakeries and a fish shop. Everything we buy from these shops tastes far better than anything from supermarkets and can often be cheaper. If only more people realised this. The main problem, I find, is carrying the shopping home. I think this is part of the reason that a lot of greengrocers have sadly disappeared.

grandetante ''I don't think any government anywhere in the world will have the guts to limit shopping hours in the interest of the environment ''

perhaps you are not aware that most European countries do- and mainly due to pressure from Unions about workers' rights, and traditions. The UK tends to follow on from the USA, and increasingly so.

Joseanne

Going off track a bit here, but I remember in the series Mr. Selfridge they said that once they put the perfumes and beauty products near the front doors, everyone came streaming in.
Talking of soul and originality, there's a department store in Paris that is a work of art. (Can't remember the name, but it is truly breathtaking.)

I think you mean Lafayette with it's amazing architecture and beautiful detail.

Where I live , every shop which closes down becomes a takeaway or cafe Banks become discount shops. I suppose it is a reflection of the times that we need so many discount shops. How the takeaways survive I don't know as I never see any customers in them, We now have three ice cream shops, several nail bars and hair dressers and a lovely dress shop but only one bank left. We have to travel quite a distance to find a good High street.

Saggi I don’t bemoan all those cold, wet queues waiting to pay for stuff…and struggling with bags of shopping every week.

No thanks….I live in the future not the past, with help of my kids and now two tech savvy grandkids….they keep me on my toes

Indeed. The internet made shopping easy. I was never one to shop High Street and like to select items from the comfort of home.

I live alone …have crippling arthritis … and no car! I( with help of my kids) learnt to use the internet for online shopping and doctor communications… and Xmas present buying. All my bills paid by DD and I do is tap in a few numbers and can check my banking! Modernity is a boon to me….and fighting progress is just damn silly when you’re in position I’m in…And with an older generation, there’s just gonna be more of us who need modernity. I don’t bemoan all those cold , wet queues waiting to pay for stuff …and struggling with bags of shopping every week. No thanks….I live in the future not the past , with help of my kids and now two tech savvy grandkids….they keep me on my toes …

Quite honestly the high or main streets with lots of shops have been in a decline since it became fashionable to have large shopping centres,

Then internet shopping started which is fine for buying a brand that you know and like. Not so good to my mind when buying household linen. You can't judge the quality of sheets online!

In 2011 when I re-visited Paisley for the first time in forty years, I was shocked to see that the High St I had remembered as simply packed with good shops contained hardly anything except charity shops.

A shopping centre had syphoned off trade, so all the small shops and the branches of chain stores had had to close.

I honestly doubt there is anything we can do about it now.

Unless fuel prices rocket so much that driving to the shops is no longer an option, or in the interests of the environment and saving energy shops are once more no longer allowed to be opened to all hours and seven days a week, no small shop will be able to exist.

I don't think any government anywhere in the world will have the guts to limit shopping hours in the interest of the environment or bring back the car-free Sundays of the 1970s.

Thanks grandMattie, it could have been GL though I've just stumbled across Samaritaine while looking up Paris department stores, maybe it was that. Anyway, you're right, it's the shopping experience that counts and I just don't feel it any more these days.
This thread is bad, it has encouraged me to now spend the afternoon watching Emily in Paris!

Galeries Lafayette, joseanne?
The trouble is that all town centres have a JL, M&S, etc. it is delightful to go to independent department stores and shops. They are now clones of each other.
I rarely shop, hardly use the internet and certainly not Amazon, so I’m not the ideal candidate to comment….

Ah ha,Terribull We may be loosing our buses but the car parking is free! It does feel like the wrong way round though.

Going off track a bit here, but I remember in the series Mr. Selfridge they said that once they put the perfumes and beauty products near the front doors, everyone came streaming in.
Talking of soul and originality, there's a department store in Paris that is a work of art. (Can't remember the name, but it is truly breathtaking.)

I do believer those few towns that will invest, support and prioretise town centres will eventually reap the success. I do hope mine will be one of them. Or we will all flock to the Continent in a wave of nostalgia.

The busiest area by far in our local House of Fraser is the coffee shop which serves food and is usually really busy. The rest of the store is often deserted. Shopping centres have an overheated and claustrophobic atmosphere and rarely have any interesting shops. Some people may like this but it all lacks soul and originality for me. A high street with independent shops is preferable but small businesses are often unable to afford to continue trading with high rents etc.

Our last Department store has become a Hôtel.

As for so many things- in short-

use it, or lose it. Our choice.

I also hate "The Shopping Mall" as opposed to the high street, I remember being in the States and wanting to have a sustained big shop at such places in order to bag a bargain and after a short period just waning to get the hell out of there, nowadays my worst nightmare would be a day out at say "Westfields" for me that would be akin to descending into Hades

Where I live now, a good sized market town, the high street seems to be alive and kicking and it does have some independents. Sadly I think, unlike mainland Europe, we have emulated the US too much in that our high streets are full of the same nationals and multi nationals, it's rare to find individual butchers/greengrocers these days although delicatessens and cheese shops can still be found in certain towns. Starbucks and the like I avoid like the plague, I like to try out independents when I can

The cost of car parking is extortionate although if I use Sainsburys or John Lewis/Waitrose car parking is free for a couple of hours when spending a tenner so I tend to do that.

Pubs and restaurants have taken a bashing firstly with Covid and now with the ever rising cost of fuel, the closure of those and loss of jobs is a tragedy and I'd hate to think if of any more closures we get hit hard once again with the variant that is presently causing havoc in China!

I did Selfridges, Oxford Street, one year on Boxing Day Urmstongran. The mad rush went straight for the handbags, and the counters were decimated by lunchtime!