Is the High Street ever going to recover?

I have no views on my local centre surviving or not. We have a village Facebook page that frequently exorts people to use the local petrol station, it's a Jet

What an extraordinary statement- sad.

Why would I have views about whether a Spar or a Jet petrol station would survive. Are you concerned about whether Etsy or Not on the high street survive.

Galaxy

Why would I have views about whether a Spar or a Jet petrol station would survive. Are you concerned about whether Etsy or Not on the high street survive.

I believe Spar is Dutch and Jet is American.

We should support British and local businesses

Galaxy

Why would I have views about whether a Spar or a Jet petrol station would survive. Are you concerned about whether Etsy or Not on the high street survive.

Because we are not talking about petrol stations here, but our town centres.

These are the services in my village centre. The services in my nearby small town consist of Iceland Tesco Gregg's etc.

I must be lucky then, as plenty of small towns near me that are always busy and have loads of good shops, many of which are independents.
Two towns have free parking and others parking for a reasonable price.I shop in all of them as well as Internet buys.

Galaxy

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.

Exactly.

Unless we want to support shops as the main focus of High Streets, (which I don't, particularly) then where does the obligation to do so come from? If we all consume how we like, in the ways that suit us best, then High Streets will evolve in the way that we want. It is 'up to us' to do that, really, which is what I already do. Day to day things, like groceries, most clothes and household items are bought online, and I go to shops for 'leisure' shopping, eg browsing gift shops etc on holiday.

There is still a need for shops to buy things like furniture, though. Obviously it's not something people buy regularly, but when I do I want to sit on it, and look as carefully possible at the colour and finish etc. It is increasingly difficult to do so unless you want to go to a retail park with lots of chains. Getting a fabric sample from a website is not the same, really, and although I haven't done it, I can believe that returning a sofa would be a massive pain. There will be other things that really need to be seen before buying, but on the whole I see no need for a rallying cry to persuade people to Save Our Shops.

Thesedays you can get everything you want in the surburbs so I rarely go to the city where it is hard and expensive to park and the trains are a risk with Covid still around. Our esteemed state leader has caused a lot of the problem with his neurotically harsh lockdowns and the city has not yet recovered. We have huge shopping malls that all seem to be doing very nicely but there are also a lot of high street shops, mainly cafes these days, admittedly. I like sitting outside with a coffee watching the world go by. One good thing is that the local councils relaxed their rules about pavement dining so now all the cafes have it plus gas heaters for the cold weather ( not in use just now of course). I also notice that some are copying the Scandinavians and offering blankets for outside diners.

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

The high street has had its day now. We use online shopping as it would be hard to find what we want in the shops.
Life moves on and adaptations have to be made.

I heard in the radio yesterday that online shopping has reduced greatly since the end of lockdown. In person shopping has the biggest share now. Must be at retail parks and malls rather than High Streets.

A lot of that is to do with an over-reliance on cars. People seem to want to take cars everywhere but expect free parking, which rules out many High Streets because they grew up before cars. If we want decent air quality we need better public transport and the will to use it. Here, the public transport service is rubbish (and expensive), parking spaces are thin on the ground and there is a lot of building on the outskirts of town, forcing people to drive to the High Street. I guess people think that when they are in the car and going to be charged to park they may as well drive a bit further and go to a mall or city centre. It’s all a bit chicken and egg; but so many people expect to take the car to get a loaf of bread, and wouldn’t dream of using a bus. This discourages investment in public transport but increases pressure on parking and causes pollution. Building on the outskirts of towns exacerbates the problem, but also forces more people to bring cars into town centres and worsens parking problems. It’s a viscous circle.

AussieGran59

Same here in NSW nanna8. We have a new little shopping centre just opened nearby and it has a supermarket, pharmacy, newsagents plus several lovely cafes and a medical centre. I never go into Sydney for the same reasons as you mention. We also have a huge shopping mall but I avoid it.
I prefer grocery shopping in person so I can pick the freshest products.
I buy all clothing online as I know my size and buy from the same companies. Very rarely have I returned things.
Aren’t we lucky that parking is free at the shops in Australia. Even in the big shopping centres the first 3 hrs are always free.

We too have free parking in large malls/retail parks but with 66m + people on a tiny island, were all fighting for space everywhere we go!! The local carparks are funded by local councils so they make well needed funds from the fees but it's also the thing killing footfall! Catch 22 for the modern age?!

It's our job to save what we expect to use . As you say it's symbiosis of sorts. If we want to have bare main streets filled with offices and betting shops(see some fallen angels of town centres!) Then ok carry on buying everything from superstores. My prediction of us buying only what the huge retailers want to sell us is almost fulfilled, we don't do choice/browsing/comparison/ saving up for that something special any more, good I guess but limits choice to rub ish imported while our heritage of craftsmanship service and true customer service has all but been slaughtered on the altar of buy it/break it/trash it/ buy it........ Oh for the childhood thrill of city centre shopping with hoards of shoppers and shop window delights!........

Online shopping doesn't have to mean buying from superstores, though. There is a massive range of available items online, from tiny cottage industries on the likes of Etsy through to Amazon (and even then, the platform is often used by small independent sellers as a shop front, rather than as a 'superstore'. I'm not even sure what a superstore is, really - it used to be a name for giant supermarkets that also sold household goods and clothing basics, but I don't think they were ever places where people could buy everything.

In the end, people will individually shop in the way that's best for them, and collectively the result will be whatever the market will stand. It may be that we settle on a hybrid model with some shops and some online outlets. As has been said though, we can't turn the clock back, and personally I don't want to.

There did use to be places where you could buy anything and everything - they were called department stores. There were some brilliant ones. One used to advertise that they could provide anything from a nib to an elephant! Long gone of course

Aren’t we lucky that parking is free at the shops in Australia. Even in the big shopping centres the first 3 hrs are always free.

Yes, it's very sensible.

If people go to out-of-town shopping malls here in the UK, parking is free. However, in most towns parking near the High Streets has to be paid for, even the first two hours.
Business rates and rents are high too.

So people go to the Mall, where retail shops are together under cover, small local businesses fail, then the Council loses out on both rates and on car parking charges.

Aveline

There did use to be places where you could buy anything and everything - they were called department stores. There were some brilliant ones. One used to advertise that they could provide anything from a nib to an elephant! Long gone of course

Replaced by The Range, B&M and Home Bargains - out of town.

The most extreme change in shopping came with the ending of Retail Price Maintenance in 1964. It has reverberated through our lives since. It killed off many local shops. Slowly, over some 20 years, we saw a marked change in our shops and shopping. It started with convenience shops, inexorably followed by supermarkets and hypermarkets. It changed the balance between the manufacturer, retailer and shopper. Many things happened to extend this change, but the law started it off.

I wonder if we will see such extreme changes, because of the internet, in another 40 or 50 years.

Callistemon21 there is absolutely no comparison between the old department stores and the ones in retail parks. It's very depressing to remember the old ones.

Aveline

Callistemon21 there is absolutely no comparison between the old department stores and the ones in retail parks. It's very depressing to remember the old ones.

No, I agree.

It's very sad to see their demise.

Message withdrawn at poster's request.