Sad demise of the high street

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.

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.

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?

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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 ?

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.

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.

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.

It is probably far too late. We are all so keen to save on our purchases.. for reasons as varied as really 'can't afford it otherwise' to ' miserliness' and everything in between that we have embraced online impersonal shopping so wholeheartedly whist also wanting our High Streets to thrive. We cannot , it seems, have our shops and our bargains too!
The pressure on local councils, through central government cuts, forces up business rates which cripples independent businesses and cuts the profit margins for larger stores.

In our small town we still have a few independent shops (baker/greengrocer/butcher/fishmonger etc) plus a few chains e.g. EWM, WH Smiths, Waterstone's and two large supermarkets. Town council work hard and put on various 'events' to encourage footfall into town and build up community spirit. In the larger nearby town we still have a House of Fraser & Debenhams.. but maybe not for much longer!

I went into our local city centre to buy mother of the bride outfit, was totally ignored by the shop assistants in John Lewis, Debenhams and M&S. By contrast the there was a lovely lady in House of Fraser who helped me put my outfit together all at more than 50% discount!! Nuff said I bought outfit and have sourced fascinator from a small business locally. M&S make things particularly difficult to buy in the shop - needed a long sleeve top for the gym and after having walked round shop floor twice, got told that all sports wear is now in lingerie department - no wonder most people shop online - so much faster and easier

M&S have always been dreadful in organising their various bloody collections. When I regularly bought smart black trousers (as my work outfit basics) I would go to M&S as they do 'short' length but I would have to do circuits of the store to find all the options available and end up carrying several pairs of size 14 short black trousers, in varying styles, round the store to make sure I had not missed the perfect pair!

Mr. S. retired 3 months ago and we closed down our furniture retail business that was established by his GGF in 1890.

A sad day but also a huge relief as we could see how trade was being affected by on line shopping. We would have people coming in, sitting on suites, going through pattern swatches and testing out beds before going away and ordering on line.

On numerous occasions we'd be asked to match an on line price only to find that once the delivery charge they'd have to pay was taken into account, we were the same and often slightly cheaper.

Smileless we had a lovely small independent toy shop in town where the owner was very involved in community events etc. It closed last year partly the rise in rates but also that customers would go in, look at the toys instore then go home and buy online. So sad

The rot set in when planning authorities gave permission for all those out-of-town shopping centres. Once all the chain stores had come out of the town centres and scattered themselves into three or four different parks around every town, clothes shopping, for example, became impossible. M&S was in one shed development, but Next isn't in the same one, it is in another development 2 miles away. Primark is in another one. They were all soft targets for online shopping because they had made shopping so difficult. Once the big stores left town, so did many shoppers. I think many might come back if the chain stores moved back into town.

I have noticed that M&Co who only site branches in town centres in secondary towns and shopping areas are still growing, profitable and opening new stores. There are branches in all the smaller towns I shop in and I always look in in passing. They are not oversized and I can quickly see whether they have anything that might interest me.

I really like M & Co too. Sadly there isn’t one near here so I only get to visit one when we are away. To day on the news there is talk of Debenhams being in trouble. I do like some of their ranges.

Our local suburban shopping street has a Tesco Express, a Co-op, a specialist cake shop, an independent butcher, two chain chemists, a tattooist, a betting shop, more cafés and restaurants than I could get through in a week, three anus, two undertakers, a pub, a cycle shop, several estate agents, hairdressers and nailbars; opticians and chiropodists, and a private school... BUT a large empty retail unit that used to be another supermarket, and another large one that used to be a baker. How these will be filled I don't know. Parking is problematic.

Pubs??

But no clothing retailers! Three anus??

I mentioned one pub. There is one casual menswear retailer. Three anus has me totally baffled! There is also an artshop and a couple of mini supermarkets. I am told there used tobe a brothel.

My point is that some small high streets do tbrive, but town planners need to be flexible about large premises that are no longer commercially viable. To replace them with flats, say, would remove a couple of eyesores and increase the number of shoppers.

I heard a radio programme not long ago, saying that all the resources for reinvigorating urban centres have been poured into the big cities and the towns have missed out.
Birmingham, Manchester, Liverpool, Leeds, Newcastle, Edinburgh and Glasgow have all become ‘destinations’ where people will go for mini breaks or cultural activities.
Towns need some sort of attraction, whether it’s theatre, a music venue, a historical site or a grand hotel to lure people in for things other than just shopping.