Is the High Street ever going to recover?

Our last Department store has become a Hôtel.

As for so many things- in short-

use it, or lose it. Our choice.

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.

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.

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.)

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

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….

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!

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.

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 …

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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?

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.

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

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

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.

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!

' 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.

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.

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

Who said it is 'your job' ? But if you want your local centre to thrive, go to them and let them provide that great service.

I specifically shop in the supermarket in my local town centre because of the other shopping I can do at the same time. I can visit the bank, chemist, Superdrug, newsagent, and several chains that deliberately choose to have branches in small town centres.