Goodbye high street clothes shopping. Hello Amazon.

biba Your bucolic, quintessentially English market town with its "fishmongers, greengrocers, butchers, bakers and so much more" is suffering exactly the same fate as every other high street across western Europe at the moment. And your great mix of cafés and restaurants, will be lucky if they still exist by the time you get back; COVID has closed them all, along with the cosy country pubs with the roaring log fire you probably also frequent.

COVID has changed not only the way people shop, but the very landscape around us. And your quintessentially English market town may just be a shadow of itself by the time you see it again. But it's not all doom and gloom! Tescos are booming and are scooping up all the closed down shops and opening up mini supermarkets!

I'd be cautious about buying clothes from Amazon because I suspect Chinese manufacturers and sweat shops in the UK will start flooding it. I don't often buy clothes, but I do usually stick to brands I know.

But free parking is important, the high streets, or rather the local authorities, realised that way too late.

Ours have not yet realised it, but there is little here anyway; it was the out-of-town centres that caused many shops, some part of chains, eg shoe shops, to close.
Small independents, eg the yarn shop, remain and started to provide online shopping themselves.

There is very little in my local high street-most office buildings have been turned into blocks of flats. Now Sainsbury has closed down I could not buy a loaf of bread. There is a good fishmonger but I would not eat Halal meat. Very few shops are closed but there is a surfeit of beauty salons, hairdressers and fruit and vegetable shops with heir goods displayed on the street so it is difficult for a partially sighted person like me to negotiate.

It would appear I cannot afford to move to an area with upmarket clothes shops etc.

I dare not go down the route of parking charges. Some places charge so much and there is not even a valet service included!

I do hope the snow stays in Switzerland.

I have never been in an ironmongers in my life.
But free parking is important, the high streets, or rather the local authorities, realised that way too late.

Snap Callistemon. I didn't see your post.

Jaxjacky

MayBee70 I don’t think I was being venemous? Merely referencing a post from biba making an assumption that people who are pro Amazon voted for Brexit.

I'm a frequent Amazon user and I most certainly didn't vote for Brexit.

Even before the pandemic, I rarely used the shops in my local small town, apart from the market. I went to an out of town shopping centre, where parking is free and everything I wanted was within walking distance.

I often buy foreign books, which Amazon usually stock and deliver within a day or so with no postage.

We know, we know, we know

But we are trying to avoid mingling
And all non-essential shops here are shut.

The ironmongers - ours went 15 years ago when he retired.
Now, we could start to discuss out-of-town shopping centres with their free parking as the death knell of the High Street.

It is btw, snowing very heavily again- but as I have the lurgy and waiting for Covid results- skiing will have to wait. And I do NOT live in a ski resort either. Bringing this up is just plain nonsense, and a constant dig at the furiner who dares speak...

I am not a 'past time' shopper either- could never understand why people, couples and families even, would spend their free time shopping around town, rather than walking in the countryside, and doing other stuff together.

But the fact is - that without shoppers- we will not have cafés, restaurants, and all the other types of shops- including the butchers, and the ironmongers. Nothing better than an old fashioned ironmongers, packed to the brink- with someone behind the counter who knows exactly, after a short description, what you need and within an inch, where it is. Brilliant.

I loathe the idea that shopping is a pastime, I think it's an idea that's grown in recent decades often aimed at women, and I dont think think its particularly beneficial for people and the environment.

That is very true, Galaxy
It is not regarded an essential now, it is a leisure activity. Advertising and subliminal persuasion that we need a constant stream of new purchases to make us happy.
We need a reset.

Nonsense. It is because I love our town and all the nearby towns we visit so often, and which we support in so many ways - that I can upset to see people willfully behave in a way that will, inadvertantly or otherwise, destroy them in a much faster and comprehensive way than, say, the EU, ever could or would.

biba Perhaps you should come back :
Your Country Needs You (to Shop)

I'm a definite Amazon fan.
Over the years I have shopped more and more online and have become completely at ease with the process.. Shopping in our local town nigh on impossible. Our local council, in an effort to make the town more pedestrian friendly has severely curtailed parking anywhere near the centre. Bus lanes and cycle lanes criss cross all over making life as a pedestrian precarious. Public loos are as rare as hens teeth, meaning revellers from the night before use alleys and side pavements while they wait for the restricted bus service, so until the street cleaners arrive, the pavements seem awash with urine and sometimes vomit.

If I need to do a big or heavy shop its always on line nowadays. Fighting my way through town then standing all the way home on public transport is not my idea of a good time.

And just before Christmas, I realised I had not got any alcohol in the big Shop (I blame my brain fog on lock down!). So i ordered supplies through Morrisons at Amazon. It was on my doorstep in less than 2 hours.
So sorry, I'm an Amazon fan

I am half German if that's any help biba. And I dont criticise you at all. I think accepting that people have different views and different habits is part of being British. Well actually that's nonsense I think it's part of being French, German, part of being human. I loathe the idea that shopping is a pastime, I think it's an idea that's grown in recent decades often aimed at women, and I dont think think its particularly beneficial for people and the environment.

Agreed, I can't win- we can't win. It is tough out there, and difficult. I am talking here in general- hopefully post Covid will happen. And I do hope then that people will support their town centres and local shops, cafés, butchers and markets.

Because you can't say 'we want our country back' - and then shop via foreign tax evading giants that will destroy it- and our amazing quintessential British towns (agreed some of them are nicer than others).

People never fight for what they don't like- if I fight for something, it is because I love it. In French we have a saying 'qui aime bien, châtie bien' - who truly loves something, criticises it'

Well Galaxy, if YOU the British, don't like your towns- don't blame me for criticising the UK !!!

I love our town, and all the towns around, and I am prepared to support them.

I agree, Monica, about feeling something and examining things before buying and that you can't tell from a picture.

But for those of us who are/were shielding and dislike tramping round the shops anyway, online shopping has been a lifeline and, in fact, I did my Christmas shopping online last year too as I do not like crowded shops.

Some items bought online have been disappointing but mostly can be returned and I did find Amazon to be very prompt, although I've never ordered clothes.
If you order known brands, ones you trust, you know you'll get the quality you want.

Yes, petra, Jean-Claude Juncker may know more about Amazon and tax than he would care to admit.

Because town centres will not survive if we don't go to them and use the shops, and will never recover from Covid.
biba - we may not survive ourselves if we throng the High Streets.

The British have been criticised for going shopping in the High Streets during the pandemic, spreading the virus and now you are criticising us for not doing so.

We can't win, can we!

And again, why would I get upset about the loss for our beautiful English towns and cities- if it is not because I love them. Our small market town in the UK is just so quintesseantially English- with great shops of all kinds, a fabulous mix, + great mix of cafés and restaurants, a thriving market, great independent butchers, bakers, fishmongers, cook shops, ironmongers, and so much more.

So one the one hand you say 'stop criticising' the UK- and on the other some say 'it is none of my business because I am an expert skier' ? Nonsense. It is because I love our town and all the nearby towns we visit so often, and which we support in so many ways - that I can upset to see people willfully behave in a way that will, inadvertantly or otherwise, destroy them in a much faster and comprehensive way than, say, the EU, ever could or would.

I think the answer is we dont love them biba, I loathe going into my local city centre for example, you cant force people to do things they dont want to. With all the things that people have mentioned traffic parking etc it's not a joyful experience. I have also always been wary of the idea of shopping as a pastime. Lots of local authorities are looking at innovative plans for town and city centres involving residential and leisure rather than retail.

Kalu ''How many of these local shops do you give your custom to biba...none! ''

these past few months, none, of course. As we have not been able to come and stay at our UK home. But when I do, normally 4 times a year- I buy from lots of the local shops, all the time. Sadly, many of the shops I like have closed since we were last able to visit. That will make a huge difference. But if people buy on-line/Amazon and co- the few lovely shops left, the independent boutiques, cafés and restaurants- will go soon.

That means that town centres will just die - and yes, that will include the great butchers, fishmongers and real bakers, and others. There will just not sufficient numbers coming into town to make them viable. We should be supporting our small shops and traders- be they clothes, or food. I certainly do.

We always come by car and return from so many goodies of all kinds.

If you love your towns and cities - support them, those indepedents who pay their taxes use local people and goods and materials. Every % given to Amazon and other on line is % that will continue to increase and kill our towns as we know them - and al the jobs that go with them- real people.

Jaxjacky No worries, I was just a little confused, and then things somehow erupted.

rosecarmel In the UK delivery is very good. I ordered goods from ebay on 21st December, they were not required for Christmas, yet all had arrived by the 24th

The high street in my local town has been dying a long slow death for the past decade and it's nothing whatsoever to do with Brexit (apologies to those who would love to lay the blame at that particular door) and nothing to do with Amazon either. It's everything to do with our local council failing to invest in the town centre; lack of amenities, lack of parking, hiking up already exorbitant parking fees year on year, hiking up business rates for small shops trying to make a living, flat out refusing to allow traders to extend their trading hours and then penalizing them with traffic wardens for having deliveries made to their premises, refusing change of use for premises, rejecting planning applications for new traders. Even when one of the large department stores showed interest in opening a store in town, about 4/5 years ago, the council made it so difficult for them that they gave up and buggered off. It's like our local council was determined to kill off anyone who tried to open and run a shop. So our high street has finally died the death of a thousand cuts and the council is talking about investing millions to regenerate it. Too little. Too late. Amazon beat them to it.

MayBee70 I don’t think I was being venemous? Merely referencing a post from biba making an assumption that people who are pro Amazon voted for Brexit.

Amazonian here as well

Oh dear. Can’t have any venom intended for biba to be aimed at the wrong person can we.....