To think this is why the high street is failing?

I find it hard to believe that teenagers only carry cash!!! Only person I know who ever has cash on them is my dad, because he hates using his card as he doesn't know his PIN!!! Surely people realise we're moving away from cash because of how dirty and inconvenient it is?

My teenage daughter couldn't buy something from our football shop, because they don't take cash! I had to go back to pay. How are cashless shops still making money?! Havent bought my football top, because im anjoyed about it. They've lost teenagers and the elderly! Crazy.

Great comment, very well put.

That’s where I got to, why bother exchanging cash at all? I travel all the time for work and never take currency with me. I have Currensea and if you have Revolute, that’s literally the point of it!

Shops not matching their demographic is an issue. Having been in M & S food near my mum (retirement area) all the 3 self tills are free the one staffed has a long line.
They need to test systems with real people all ages, disabilities, wrangling 2 toddlers etc.
Self serve doesn’t work for larger orders there’s no where to put it - put item in bagging area! It won’t fit. The Aldi one won’t take yellow sticker discounts off they have to manually do it.

When shopping is actual shops, which is rare now, I prefer self checkout. I do as much as possible online though just because it's quick and convenient.

I have excellent public transport, from where I live I can access the nearest town in 15 minutes, there are about 30 buses an hour. So I dont have to wait long.
The cost is not excessive but its 2 quid each way or a day ticket for iirc £5.
If I'm just going to town and back I may as well get the two single fares. Having said all that, nearly everything i want is online, can be delivered to my door for free and most of the shops on the high street are the same ones that deliver.

Theres virtually no independent shops, and still then, most do online.

I have only been to my high street about 6 times in 10 years, only to meet friends and the parking last time I went in was a fiver in the centre, but nowhere near where I needed to be.

It easier to all meet at an out of town shopping centre, they all have food halls, free parking and multiple buses. And you can do all the same things as in town but under cover.

TBH I don't really recognise this on my high street. I've just walked through and it's packed. Good mixture of shops, restaurants, entertainment venues. It's not universal.

YANBU. Shopping is a miserable affair these days. I don't work there so don't expect to serve myself. If shops want to drop staff and get customers serving theirselves then I expect goods to be cheaper as a result of those staff savings but they're just going up and up, like their profits. Plus I use mostly cash and most self service don't take cash. Customer service is rubbish too. I worked in retail in the 80's/90's and we would have been sacked for talking to our colleagues whilst serving, nowadays they barely acknowledge you.

The bureau de Change woman wasn't being awkward. Those are the rules when buying foreign currency—it's all about the money laundering laws.

Currently living in a town in the south east - huge grown of housing - town centre dead - mainly i gather due to parking and rents. It was bad when i moved here 20 yrs ago, now awful. Full of charity shops, nail salons and coffee shops. 3 good restaurants, that is literally it. Its a real shame. In the process of moving to the south coast - small area with a bustling high street full of independents, bars, non chain restaurants, the whole place has a community vibe its a refreshing change but also shows me that all is not lost

My own woes aside, there is a massive big picture issue here.

Big companies/corporations have immense buying and lobbying power on the global front. It impacts employment because their main goal is profit at any cost, so there are fewer and fewer staff, mostly on part time or zero hours contracts because it reduces tax and NI contributions and low paid workers can get UC.

This is another can of worms because workers have to be flexible and are expected to do some unontracted extra hours. This royally screws up the whole budgeting thing for people as they sometimes put in different hours every month and then their pay and UC entitlement is a bit like a lottery due to "assessment period" for UC not jiving with payroll dates.

Retail work is now precarious in ways it never used to be unless you're management on a salary. In times past retail could be a career option starting on the shop floor but now more work is done in the "back office" where IT qualifications are required more than customer service.

I suspect the PP who referred to tin foil hat theories is actually on the button. Far easier to administrate a few behemoth umbrell companies for tax etc than lots of little businesses. CDBC could lead to us being controlled through our purchasing power.

Black Mirror, The new X-files and even the film Wall-E are possible glimpses into our future. Sounds extreme? I've watched the foundations being laid in real time. In purely economic terms, the NWO is pretty much upon us.

I see your point, also we are being ' CONNED' ' TRICKED' at every corner and have to watch out. I had an altercation this morning with a well known telephone vompany. I wanted to simply change my home address, I was on hight alert as this could render me vulnerble to more trickery. I toyed with the option of wholesale CANCELLATION because I cant be bothered to jump through lots of hoops to arrange transfer of address. " Oh if yo wasnt to cancel the you have to pay CANCELLATION FEE " I was informed. No Ive had this mire than 18 months!!!!!!!
Oh No, she said Your contract is fir TWO YEARS!!!!!
*** Its news to me!!!!!! How deceptive 0f you I said!!!!!!!!
Anyway I just cancelled the whole lot, paid cancellation fee because somehow I susspected I was being cojoaled into another contract if 2 years. Im done eith society treating consumers like SECOND CLASS citizens. I must admit I swore a few times at the operator because I feel so powerless at big corporate powers.

There's a little row of shops near where we live - fishmonger, wine merchant, cheese shop/deli and chocolatier. I wanted to buy a few bits so clocked off work a bit early and walked there for around 4.50pm to find every shop closed (according to the signs, they closed at 5.30pm)

These are all independent shops. I guess it was quiet and they just shut up shop early, but I then went home and did an Ocado order instead. It was mildly annoying, but mainly I feel sorry for any 'real' shop trying to survive these days, when the online option is so easy and accessible. I'll support independent shops when I can, but I shop more online these days.

Someone posted a while ago on a similar thread, saying that there's no God-given 'right' to a high street and high street shops. The way we buy stuff is evolving, and there will be winners and losers in that.

That you expect her to work for free or take it up with her manager. Cashing up half an hour early is a bit much to be fair but she won’t get paid a penny for working after 8pm and her manager won’t entertain paying her. Anyone who has worked in retail knows that.

I tried to pay on Revolut and she said “We can’t take those cards!”, as if it was somehow obvious. I asked about Apple Pay and she said, “No, it has to be a proper bank card or credit card”. I therefore went to pay with my credit card and she said, “You do know we have to charge a fee for these, don’t you?” I said I didn’t have a choice given she’d rejected two other payment methods.

She did nothing wrong. As I understand it, they have to have the physical card to change money, it’s not her fault that they don’t take Revolut and she was only warning you that a credit card will charge a fee.

Against which vehicle manufacturers will lobby because it will have a negative impact on their profits.

Tell me you’ve never worked in retail without telling me you’ve never worked in retail.

I'm lucky enough to still have an HMV "in the wild" near me, and that is a decent shopping experience. Being middle aged with disposible income means I walk round and buy anything I vaguely like the look of, the kind of rockstar lifestyle my 15 year old self could only dream of. I've always found the staff in there really good (ordering stuff they don't have in, spontaneously offering to swop a DVD boxset for one in better condition in the stock room etc). They also have a section of staff picks with hand-written enthusiastic summaries. One young lad was stoked I bought his choice, it was quite cute.

I hate self checkouts but I am not ignorant thank you very much.

I know how to use them but they rarely work without some sort of problem and, of course, if you have alcohol someone has to come to help and they are often busy helping someone else.

If I wanted to use a checkout I would work in a shop! Shops should employ enough staff so that checkouts can be manned.

I no longer shop in Boots because they only have self service checkouts