Sad demise of the high street

The nearest town to me dithered for over a decade about demolishing all the small, independent shops, removing the weekly market stalls and building a spanking new, state of the art "mall", complete with high street chain stores and a multi screen cinema. All the little shops, the market and the small independent cinema, were slowly, but surely, forced out by the council repeatedly increasing their rents and business council tax until they couldn't afford to stay. The spanking new shopping mall is now open. Marks and Spencer have declined to open a new store in there. Debenhams, ditto. Boots, ditto. House of Fraser, ditto. Then the long promised multi screen cinema was cancelled because the developers couldn't see it being profitable. So we have streets and streets of empty, boarded up shops and an a huge, echoing empty shopping mall with just a TKMaxx in it.

The council decided that the time is now right to increase the parking charges.

The next town on has no high street chain stores, only small independent shops. No cinema. Has free parking after 14.00 every day. A regular market. And you can't move around there on market days. It's buzzing with life, customers and activity.

Birmingham city centre, my home town, is awash with shops. They are opening a massive Primark in December. They have closed a shopping mall (or whatever the word is) and the whole of it is to be a Primark. All the smaller shops in there have gone. I suppose they know what they are doing.

Many city centres were pedestrianised with the best of intentions. While they're now more pleasant to walk around in, you can find yourself having to make lengthy and tiring walks with awkward and heavy bags just to reach the car park, bus stop or taxi rank and get your stuff home. Who's going to bother when a few mouse clicks will bring the goods to your door?

As for Debenhams, I can't understand how they're still in existence. Customer service is definitely not a term in their lexicon and I can't shed any tears for them.

Through out history progress (?) eventually kills off one industry whilst a another escalates. Some will benifit ,others will not.
To see shops closing & some town centres suffering from the declining foot fall is sad & devastating to communities , especially for those who do not have access or ability to shop on line. I am guilty of online shopping for clothes, music, etc.
I do use the supermarkets, but they not on the high street, times that by 100& 1000s in any given area, its hardly surprising that the high streets are struggling, but how do we turn the tide , can we ?

Just listening to Radio 4 reporting that Philip Green has been 'outed' as the man who had the injunctions put in place to stop people complaining about his abuse and bullying.
After the demise of BHS just how much further down can he go.

Business rated will need to be lower to encourage small businesses.
That is one of the main reasons for the reason demise of several shops in our nearest small town kitty. Businesses seem to come and go with astonishing rapidity because I think they are giving a preferential rate for the first six months to help get them started - which is about how long many of them last.

KittyL, I agree with you, we have a John Lewis, in our close by largish town. Without a doubt the best retail experience I can think of. It amazes me that Debenhams hasn't gone tits up years ago. Badly laid out, dreary, uninspiring. Having said that I hate to think of stores such as Debenhams and House of Fraser going under and leaving the high street a sad depleted place, not to mention the loss of jobs. To go back to the original post "what if anything can be done" Amazon and the like need to pay up their fair share of tax, given their turnover and profits their contribution is risible. Reduce business rates, after all if shops go bust, The Treasury won't get anything. Make parking cheaper. Where I live, our council allows residents to apply for a parking card which gives a free half hour parking in our local high street, which at least gives time to pick up a few items quickly. I'm equidistant between the local high street and the nearby big town. Parking in the latter is an arm and a leg for a few hours. Although Sainsburys give 2 hours free parking with a £10 shop, but after the 2 hours is up, you have to clear off or get a penalty.

We are losing our butcher and the pound shop soon. The butcher can no longer afford the rates, and the lady who runs the pound shop is retiring. We still have a fresh fish shop though. The only bank in town is down to opening for only three days a week, and I fear that it will close altogether soon.
I wouldn't miss Debenhams though. I don't think I've ever bought anything from them.

Pittcity you live in my town??? it’s exactly as you describe and the town centre rates are so high, parking is costly I don’t think they will change in our lifetime They will become leisure streets with coffee shops, eating places and gyms we now have a boxing club and a small casino it’s going to be social areas only it may go round in a circle but that will take a very long time

Towns are going to have to adapt. Business rated will need to be lower to encourage small businesses. I can see towns being much more 'social' places.

Debenhams, in my view, have lost the plot. The stores are a mess, in ours the staff are very lack lustre and not helpful - maybe because there are so many concessions.

We have a lovely, light, beautifully presented John Lewis where the staff are engaged and helpful but not pushy. Why would anyone go to Debenhams?

We are one of the towns likely to lose our Debenhams which will just leave a Primark, the only reason I go into town now is to use the Bank or occasionally meet a friend for coffee. We are affected by a large out of town centre nearby and with high business rates and rents I can't see how our small town can keep the kind of shops needed to pull people in. Our Supermarkets are all out of town.

Our large town has held on to one town centre butcher. No greengrocer except the market stalls. There are some big chain shops in town but most are restaurants, coffee shops and charity shops. I go into town far less now that there is no reason to, thus less money is spent and businesses close....it's a vicious circle.