Sad demise of the high street

NanaMacGeek what a good idea.
I think some stores do something similar.
In fatface recently in a small town, I tried on the right size, wrong colour. The girl took the details and had the right one sent out soonest delivery.
Is this the kind of thing you meant?

That shop and that high street are still busy and popular. I suspect it's because it's in an affluent area. Whereas in our local High St discount shops have both closed. Even the charity shops are struggling.

I trudged to JL in the city centre as I need a new laptop and hoped for proper service and advice.
The guy was not bothered , knew little about the different kinds he was selling apart from what was written on the cards and finally told me I should go online because they don't keep enough stock.
I didn't buy from him.

Councils and greed are to blame for the extortionate rents and rates. Naturally retailers have to increase their prices to pay for these services leaving the customers to pay the increases.
It's one greedy and grasping country where everyone has jumped on the bandwagon to make a quick buck. It's horrible !

There are companies who can deliver same day or tomorrow Monica.
NanaMc's idea would mean that shops could be smaller and warehouse space bigger, so more scope for fast local delivery or collection.
Brilliant!

Yes, I have often thought something similar. The only problem is when you need something urgently, either because of a sudden invite or crisis and need to immediately replace something - washing machine or cooker and you need delivery tomorrow.

NanaMcGeek, excellent idea. I bet the boffins are already working on that if not they are stupid.

Something like Argos, for instance, but more streamlined.

Our nearest John Lewis took out its fabric and haberdashery dept at exactly the same time as the world was embracing hand crafts once again. Luckily they reinstated it by public demand after a few years.

When the latest boss of JL took it on she said people want high end shoes and hand bags.
Do they?
I think we all vote with our feet. (in comfortable shoes)

For clothes Debenhams went cheap & frumpy, House of Fraser matronly and boring, M&S either Per Una overdesigned or frumpy. I told M&S years ago to base their clothing for Grans on Cos, And Other Stories, Finery: stylish and quirky - but no-one took any notice. If you don't want to walk around looking like a set of flowery curtains with a frill you are forced to trawl the internet. No wonder these stores are struggling: they don't listen to their customers.

For a while, I have been wondering if there isn't a way to use technology to help town centres and that could be incorporated into retail models.

Take the complaints about M&S for example, they don't have all the garments in all the sizes! What if they kept a limited number of items in all the sizes in stock so that they could only be tried on? If you were satisfied, you could order the item that fitted and a new one would be delivered to your house at your convenience. Nothing to carry. Technology used but not necessarily by the customer. Clothes displayed well too, no crowded racks. You could also have a local 'purchases' area in the town centre where everything you bought could be assembled, either for collection by car or again, delivered to your home. You could leave your car behind and go by bus!

You could see/try before you buy, use the internet but not go near a computer.

A bit radical perhaps.

If high streets were used for morning or afternoon social meetings, cafes with table service, and perhaps mannequin parades or live music, or talks. Really welcoming cafes with table service could belong to M and S or other big online outlet and show off their wares to potential customers sitting in comfort.
Another use for high street premises is smallish meeting rooms for special interests like poetry writing or drawing, and the venues make a nice profit from tea and cakes service.
There is a need for really good slightly arty vegetarian cafes especially those that welcome retired people.

Gabriella , you are so lucky to still have all those useful shops on your High Street, those shops have already disappeared from lots of towns, long may they prosper, especially hardware and haberdashery/wool shops , lucky you,, ?

We share our house with a young couple who buy everything online so I can't see it happening really unless online shopping is made more expensive.
The girl said she buys multiple sizes and returns free the wrong ones. It is not an environmentally friendly way of shopping. All those delivery vans.

The only answer is to stop shopping online.

I live south of Abingdon, so Banbury is a bit too far, but we have called into the shopping sheds by the motorway once or twice on regular journeys north.

I tried Newbury this autumn, as it is just down the A34 from me but found it not as good as it looks, so it is back to Witney.

Yes, M0nica, we shop in Witney or Banbury. Even though Banbury is 20 miles away, it is so quick to drive there, the parking is much cheaper and the main shopping centre has a great range of shops and is completely under cover and always warm in the winter, unlike the new shopping centre in Oxford, which is freezing in the winter as it has no doors and the wind just whistles through!

Not sure re-opening areas closed to traffic would boost trade necessarily. I think shoppers quite like having 'precincts'. As long as towns have well signposted & reasonably priced parking areas on the circular roads it would be fine. DH and I popped into Petersfield the other day for the first time as we were in the area. It was easy to park, not particularly cheap but not OTT and we had a stroll round the town centre.

What would save the high street? Well the following might help:-
-lower the business rates drastically
-lower rents
-limit parking charges to a maximum of £1 a day
-reopen all areas closed off to traffic.

Dinamo I'm concerned too by the downward trend.
We shouldn't blame ourselves for this either. Successive governments have neglected shoppers.
I wonder where our politicians do their shopping.

I’m really worried about this trend. We will all be shopping on line soon but what about those who aren’t computer literate.

Chewy, piffling, isn't it?

Let's hope it will provide a boost to local communities.

BBC news website:

Chancellor Philip Hammond is set to announce a £1.5bn boost to small High Street UK retailers in the Budget.
The financial package will include £900m in business rates relief for nearly 500,000 small businesses and a pot of £650m to rejuvenate high streets and their transport links.

Personally, I think it's too little, too late.

Phoebes I live near Oxford, well 12 miles away, and I agree with everything you say.

I rarely go into Oxford now and even getting into the Park & Rides is difficult at times. I now shop in Witney. Free parking, a High Street full of independent stores or small chains and a recent development beside it with some of the bigger chains. I suspect that is where you shop as well, from your description.

We live in a village just outside Oxford. Over the last few years the city council has rebuilt the shopping mall in the city centre and a lot of the stores from the main shopping street have moved in there, which leaves the shopping street a wasteland with empty shops, a few of which have been filled with tatty tourist souvenirs. Obviously, tourists don’t come to Oxford for the shopping but to see the historic centre and the colleges and the locals aren’t too keen on going into the centre because of the vast numbers of tourists and the extortionate parking charges. Business rates have gone up, so there are no small independent shops left and several of the shops in the historic covered market have had to close down. Parking is incredibly expensive and, although there are good park and rides around the city, non-locals don’t necessarily know they exist. Many locals, us included, prefer to shop in one of the nearby towns, with cheap, or free parking and no crowds of tourists and more small independent shops as well as a good range of chain stores.

In my locality, over about 10 years, I have lost my very good butcher, excellent DIY shop (cheaper and nearer than B&Q and if I wasn't sure how to do a particular job the owner would give me instructions), greengrocer but we do have lots and lots of takeaways (who pop leaflets through our letterbox several times a week in university term time). The city centre has lost many, many shops but there are plenty of places to eat and drink . The out of town shopping centres with free parking have decimated the city centre where parking is very expensive.