Is retail still alive where you live?

When we moved here in 2019 we had 4 banks on the high street they are all gone now. One replaced by a betting shop. We have had at quite a few restaurants and cafes open in the last 6 months. We think there is an element of money laundering going on.

North London suburb with fairly downmarket highstreet for otherwise quite nice area. It has improved since its worst point in late 2010s/early 2020s when there were loads of closed shops and the only things opening were bookies. There's been a few new cafes, a plants/interior shop, a jeweler, some more grocers, some household good shops and generally fewer long-term empty frontages. Largely have our local Iranian and Albanian community members to thank for the revival, as they run most of these new businesses.

That's why myself and DW are daytime people and we're late 50s.
My mum who's in her 80s was told hey wifey I'm afore you right.
Mum was scared she's the height of tuppence .

My town used to be brilliant with a great selection of shops, unfortunately lots have shut down and have been replaced by charity shops, junk shops or left derelict. Every time an area is thriving they put a red route there and with nowhere to park or stop businesses close down. We had a whole street of busy restaurants, you couldn’t even get a space, and with the red route the restaurants are struggling to get customers as they can’t get there or be dropped off. For a place to succeed you need parking, public transport is just not a reliable option outside of London and other large cities.

Yes, we have a fairly new retail park

Yes @NolanChanceJustLikeTheWeatherNSoul that was absolutely shocking. Too close to home. People are trying to get free passes taken away from troublemakers but I can't see it happening sadly.
Whenever I'm on a bus after 5ish there are gangs of them waiting to get on to wreak havoc in a nearby town.

And that's the crux of the matter..it's UK wide.as I said I'm in a city NE Scotland and I'm sure other posters are a lot further south.
England I hope the free bus passes don't happen.
In Scotland it's been a disaster the little hoodlums go on tour causing mayhem.
A driver in Elgin was punched by a 15yr old the driver didn't go home as he'd died from a punch.

The city centre where I live is struggling but there’s a local shopping centre that’s thriving

Same here. I live in a small city with an amazing history. It used to be lovely but it’s just grim now with empty shops, nail bars, barbers, vape shops, other crappy shops. Oh, and people living in shop doorways, and drunks and druggies everywhere.

We used to have loads of big shops too (Woolworths, C&A, BHS, Debenhams, Top Shop, Dorothy Perkins, HMV, WHSmiths). ALL of those gone apart from an M&S. I don’t think most of the local population ever go into the city centre as there’s very little reason to and it’s so depressing.

Whats happened to the whole country that this is occurring? Don’t the police or council have any responsibility or control any more!?

It’s okay, new town int he West Midlands, big shopping centre built in the 70s. Still has a few clothes shops, music shops, some banks, a few restaurants alongside the obligatory vape, nail and phone screen places. It’s not what it was maybe 20 years ago, but there are also at least 4 massive out of town supermarkets / b&m etc and of course the town is ram packed with Amazon deliveries. Whenever I go, I think it’s a shame it’s not busier, but then i remember that it’s been weeks since I visited and I’ve had countless Amazon and Tesco deliveries since then.

Leeds is def thriving! My Dd was at uni there and the town centre was always busy!

I live equidistant from 3 ‘high streets’ and I visit another not far as it has a cinema/nice cafes.

One has fallen in to the trap of vape shops/barbers.
Some are mainly cafes - weirdly one end (my end) is more salubrious than the other.

Two have a cinema (one Indy, one Everyman) No surprise that the more wealthy areas have better high streets, although there are empty shops in all

All have fishmongers and bakers.

There is a massive proliferation of barbers everywhere.

I live in a London suburb - in a ‘nice’ area overall but def pockets of ‘dodginess’. Sme areas in my borough which were pleasant growing up have become shitholes and others that were a bit ‘nothings’ have improved. 🤷‍♀️

I’m in a small market town in the SE and we have a good range of independent shops and a Waitrose but more barbers/nail bars/food outlets than I think we need. Everywhere seems to be busy though.

Our local bigger town on the other hand is awful. There are a few decent independents but the high street is beyond depressing with M&S having been replaced by a B&M and everywhere else the usual mix of discount stores, chicken/kebab shops etc.

Absolutely talking about Gosport,and you are absolutely right both used to be great buzzing with shoppers especially on market days it's just really sad to see the decline.

I live in Hove and my locality is doing great. I haven't been to what most would consider the high street this year, and I haven't been to Brighton in 14 years everything I need is easy walking distance

I suspect you are talking about Gosport. I know exactly how awful it now is as I grew up there and the High Street was a fabulous place to go and shop.

Fareham is almost as bad as I live there now. Really sad how they have gone downhill so badly. 😣

Weirdly, it's revived. A couple of years ago our local town's high street was full of phone shops, boarded up buildings and homeless people on matresses in the doorways of what used to be major stores. Now there are good shops, cafes, buzzing markets. Hideous old buildings have been pulled down and stylish new ones built, pretty but dilapidated buildings have been restored and turned into indie shopping malls. I have no idea where the money came from. But it's beautiful.

I live in one of the wealthiest areas in the UK - and even ours isn’t great. Lots of empty units and new shops don’t seem to last long.

The main issue seems to be rent and rates - but I also think part of the issue is that because most households have two full time workers to afford to live there, everyone is online shopping for convenience / lack of time!

I live 15 minutes walk to a town and we no longer have a butcher of fruit/veg shop, it's a biggish Tesco, Iceland and an Aldi at the other end of town. We used to have a small Debenhams, BHS and M&S but they disappeared quite a few years back.

Fortunately, I live a ten minute drive to two small places that I can get fresh meat and veg/fruit without going into a supermarket.

There is also a B&M, WH Smith or whatever it's called, Next, Poundland and the usual suspects, nail bars, vape shops, barbers etc.

It's the lack of furniture stores that we used to have that's annoying, if you want a new lounge suite, bedroom furniture or anything like it, you have to drive up the motorway to a retail park and you have a choice of around 4/5 larger stores.

There's no way I would order something that expensive online without seeing it first so it's time consuming having to find somewhere when you can see the actual item.

My son lives in Leeds, it's a fabulous city. I don't remember seeing any empty units in the city centre when I was there last month

No. Not at all.

Feeling goady today are we?

I prefer internet shopping anyway so I don't really care that's it run down.

Brighton never has empty shops. Loads of brilliant independent shops too alongside the big high street ones

Yes live between York and Leeds and both are thriving I’d say, also work in Manchester which is bustling.