AIBU to think that high streets and small towns will be thing of the past?

[Lonelybunny]

Well now due to Jessops going broke and clintons and woolworths our town has hardly any shops left. It's so depressing down there, do you think the only shops left will be super stores, like asda and tesco? Maybe due to them selling everything and of course online shopping. I feel so bad for all the retail staff loosing jobs yet again.

I live down the road from a retail park. Over the last year or two, whoever owns it got a company in to replace all the signs and shop fronts/entrances to make everything match and make the place look less shabby. Presumably the idea was to increase revenue by making the area look more aesthetically pleasing and admittedly, it does look rather nice. Unfortunately, the retail park was home to a Comet, a JJB sports and a Best Buy. So there are now three huge, pretty but completely empty and sorry-looking stores just wasting space, which kind of renders the whole project a bit of a failure.

And don't even get me started on my local high street! Plenty of banks, charity shops and cash-converter type places and not much else! I always find it saddest when pubs/clubs/restaurants close (which they do often) - there are nearly no entertainment venues left where I live. :-(

but Tiggy - lots of high streets are still thriving. Its just a combination of factors as mentioned up thread thats killing some off...personally i definalty think there is a place for supermarkets - but unfortunalty with thier buying power - thier underhand tactics etc its a shame that they are monoploising places everywhere...

Tesco in Sheringham will be built after local residents voted for it (by narrow margin) in a referendum. Jobs are scarce up here, we don't get to be choosy. Unbelievable excitement about jobs at the new Waitrose at North Walsham.

Tame! I still can't figure out where you are (am I useless?), only Wroxham (thriving due to tourism) seems to be owned by just the one company (I will think hard).

I think Stalham was gutted by the Tesco there, but they are trying to reinvent selves as a hippy-dippy trendy scruffy corner of the Broads.

I reckon that richer towns are doing alright, but the poorer the town the harder the high street finds things. So it comes down to local wealth factors.

I can't believe how many closed-up shops there are in Norwich city centre, even in the malls.

Not to mention the automatic till points which they are installing everywhere.

Workfare is foul.

YANBU

But I don't think it's just the internet etc that is to blame, it's just a fact of modern day life. Nobody is free when shops are open any more so it has to be online or a big 24/7 type superstore.

Shrewsbury is still lovely and so is Nantwich.

Nantwich was terribly run down tha last time I went there?? (admittedly about 2 years ago)

I hadn't even realised that Nantwich had a town though to be fair I have only ever drove through it on the way to Chester.

This is a total aside, but does Dagfields still exist? I used to buy loads of furbiture from there back in the day

Nantwich grim?
Crewe maybe,but Nantwich full of thriving independant shops.
in Cheshire,I would say
Sandbach nice
Congleton grim
Winsford grim
Northwich ok
Tarporley nice
Alsager nice
Macclesfield getting grimmer!
Crewe horrible
Chester nice obv

Just my own opinion off top of my head!

Oh Wilmslow and Knutsford ok

shrewsbury, ludlow, chester all wonderful...

A lot of High Street failures are due to poor management by councils.

Agree eliza

I think you are right. Every time I go into town another shop has closed down. They just can't compete with the online retailers and major supermarkets. I remember when I was a kid you could only buy a telly from an electric retailers shop, now you can nip to Tesco or order one from Amazon.

I love Ludlow, it's one of my most favourite places in the whole world

that log burning shop cannopt afford anything from there but well that's not the point

can I just say it's not just northern places that are suffering. I live by Bedford and Luton, enough said :(

Yes tsc agree it seems the prettier and more well heeled places,especially if have a bit of 'history' thrown in,will do well.
From my travels out of Cheshire I liked
Ashbourne
Holt
Truro
Dorchester
Wells
Keswick
Harrogate
Falmouth
Southwell
Southwold
Aldeburgh
York
Pickering
Alnwick

To name but a few....
Am sensing a theme though

It never ceases to amaze me that in our small town when one shop opens there is always someone ready to step up and give it a go. We have very few chain stores. We are 10 miles from a larger (but not massive) town and that is dying on its posterior, it's unbelievable what a difference those 10 miles makes.

absoluty not just northern towns suffering its all over the country.