To think this is why the high street is failing?

Then biusinesses shouldnt be hypocrites when the system goes down and they should close for the rest of the day instead of taking cash just when it suits

You could put them straight in a bag?

Expanding on tourist destinations, my large sea side town is losing hotels hand over fist due to Air BnBs which are often second homes depleting housing for locals.....

Out of interest do you not have a smartphone or you just don’t want to use apps? Personally I think parking apps are great. Can pay without queuing at the machine and can extend remotely if you need more time. Are never out of order.

Your shitty comment isn't as clever as you think it is.

I could just as easily say how sad that you need to meet random people you don't know in order to interact with people.

I don't need to interact with strangers in shops precisely because I have plenty of family and friends (who I open the door to) for interaction. If others need to go shopping in order to mix with people, that's fine, but not everyone does. No need to try to be shitty to others, which only made you look nasty, sad and lonely anyway.

Oh and the opening hours.

My local pharmacy is only open 9-5. When most people are at work.

Guess what ? I get my prescription delivered from somewhere else instead.

I'd rather use self service checkouts and hope to keep the shop open rather than insisting on them employing more staff which makes the store no longer viable and them closing it down!

It's 2024, we have to move with the times. The old High Street and personal service is never coming back. Apps, self service checkouts, online shopping, online banking, etc., is all the future and people need to get with the agenda whilst they're young enough to be able to cope with change. Things will get more automated and if capable people today in middle age don't get with it, they'll really struggle in years to come when they're older and less able to cope with change.

You are assuming that everybody has had the same experiences growing up that you have. What you think of ordinary and run of the mill will be quite out of the ordinary for someone else.

We often get similar cases of people not being aware of how others live in other areas of life as well. This often comes up when salaries are mentioned.

On one hand you will have posters saying "I literally know nobody who earns as much as £40k per year". Then, in contrast, you will equally have posters saying that they know nobody who earns less than £80k.

Your experience of life is not necessarily the same experience of life that other people have had.

I’ve also recently had to give up on the high street - I went looking for 2-3 basic/common items. After going to 5 shops I only had 2 one the items I needed.

Gave up went home and ordered online.

When you say "landlords and shareholders" do you actually realise you're mostly meaning pension funds for the vast majority of workers, don't you?

Most workers' pension funds will have investments in commercial retail property, big shopping chains, etc.

A crash in property values or closures of high street chain stores will reduce your future pensions.

You should write to the shops and tell them about your experience.

A lot of shops have moved out of town centres and onto retail parks, we have a fairly new retail park with lots of clothes shops and it's always busy at weekends and queues for carpark which has 5 hours free parking, I often stroll down there in the week to nose round the shops, return any unwanted online shopping and get a few nice bits from M&S food hall but it's not like the normal high street.

I agree OP..I refuse to go to the high street to pay parking and to receive shit service! Not worth the effort to me.

Yanbu. Can't park on my local town as it's pay by app only. Today Barclays was open but you couldn't do anything as the machines were down and couldn't give money out and the one counter was closed. Lady told me to do it on my app in my phone told her I didn't have the app .

@taxguru I agree. Internet shopping is here to stay and although there are extremes, most people do a mixture. I probably do 70% online/ 30% in person although food I do mostly in person. Shopping has become more transactional with more people not really wanting to just “have a wonder round the shops” as a leisure activity. If I want something pretty standard like “black trainers” it’s far easier to just look and compare online. That switch to hybrid means that high streets will never again have the footfall they once had and there is a huge surplus of retail space in most towns that needs to be repurposed to reflect new leisure habits or just converted to residential with more “local service” type shops.

Nope I work full time in a neighbouring city.

Waste of time. Even the cafe in M& S had gone self service and most of the tills. Haven't been since.

It’s not the self service I mind so much it’s the lack of stock that annoys me and the loss of actual shops to go into.
I used to love an occasional mooch round the shops and would have lunch and buy a few bits. We only have Primark left on our high street ( I live in a city) it’s all charity shops, takeaway shops doing a roaring Deliveroo/ Just Eat trade or vape shops now. We used to have Debenhams and John Lewis and a lovely bookshop, our Marks and Spencer is away to close. Further back we had House of Fraser, Dorothy Perkins and other fashion places, Mothercare, BHS, Littlewoods, C&A and Woolworths. The last couple of times I went into Debenhams and John Lewis ( before they closed down) I asked for something only to be told they didn’t have it in stock but I could order it online, I was in the shop with money to spend and they were happy for me to leave without making a purchase. Needless to say I did order online, the Debenhams item I did purchase from them but the John Lewis item ( quite an expensive purchase) I purchased cheaper from Amazon.

Oh, and University students, of which we have thousands, don't seem to go anywhere much other than bars and clubs.....

You also need a member of staff when something invariably goes wrong-items too light, alcohol verification…or machine just feels like playing up. I don’t want to wait for help and I also don’t like the game of Tetris as you balance your items in the area they have to go in before you move them to a bag.

Hate it. Not doing it.

@taxguru While I agree to a degree, where does that leave tourist destinations? I live in one of those and it's dying on its arse with little for visitors and less to sustain residents.....

That is not the issue though. The issue is that some things can’t be performed without a staff member’s assistance (returns, removal of security tags, restricted items checks…) but staff is not available.

Nope. I try to avoid going into our city centre because driving and parking is an absolute ball ache. I drive to the out of town supermarkets and retail parks instead. It's nothing to do with not wanting to leave the house.

I already have a job thanks.

The other reason I’ve ditched the high street is the cost of parking. It’s extortionate.