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.

Yes, the nearest town to us has a Co-op, which is pricey, and a Lidl. The butchers are excellent though and there are a few small shops struggling. There are the usual banks, takeaways, charity shops and pound shops. It's not an affluent place and many people are unemployed. It would be great if the people who lived in the town could get jobs, so they could spend their money there.

I live in a small town in Essex. Our high street consists of one local department store a shoe shop a small card shop and loads of estate agents charity shops and cash in hand/cashconverters.
Two years ago we lost our local bookshop which was so sad. Had been using it since the 1980. I used to buy my Sweet Valley High books there. And Barbara Erskine books. And Stephen King Nicci French etc.
I remember my final purchase from there two years ago was Barbara Erskines Hiding from the Light.
They usually had a good selection there and were happy to order in what wasnt on the shelves.
I like wandering and browsing around a local bookshop. I remember going to Maldon Carnival every year in the early 1990s and i absolutely HAD to visit their second hand bookshops each time i was there. I have yet to discover internet shopping. I like browsing.

Sorry. that should say id been using our local bookshop since the 1980s.

10 tears ago a relative who works in town planning said "Well Just people want to use their cars to go shopping." So it's all our own fault then! I thought this was a bit presumptuous, and assuming planners have no responsibility.

I think it was obvious, even before internet shopping took off, that our towns were being gutted.

If there are out of town centres proposed near you do take the opportunity to lodge an objection.

mam29- Abergavenny's lovely! I haven't seen any empty shops and the indoor market keeps people coming in from miles around.

Well Just people want to use their cars to go shopping."- the sad thing is, once this assumption was made, the pattern that followed is that soon you will HAVE to be able to drive to go shopping. All the retail parks will be out of town.

It's partly the price we pay for being such a car dependant society.

Yet so many people don't drive or can't run a car, and many elderly can't shop online, so what happens to them?

Taxis and buses, YOS.
I heard a story of an elderly couple who never go out. They phone up their order to local Sainsbury's & get it delivered by taxi. It's a regular thing.
Car dependency is very bad for cities, though, it makes them pedestrian-hostile.

That's a very resourceful couple lljkk! I'm not a driver and I feel sad that the trend is now that retail parks are taking over from High Streets and forcing people's hands. It'll be like America soon where not driving is simply not an option. Over here in the UK you can still get away with not driving and still get around and have good quality of life.

Not so much when all the shops are just off the motorway and the high streets are ghost towns.

Thanks you old slag its nice but my mums always telling me about shops that closing down, cash for gold shop opened up and not as many shops as their used to be. very limited for food so think they welcomed aldi as tesco metro it town gets most of oap trade.
I dont go back often so cant say take good look at highs street recently.

Theres few gems that still exist

richards department store-used to love their toys.
nicolls has done well too.
Theres probably too many coffee shops always has been,
markets not as good as once was used to love tuesday market
lots of charity shops.
The chains are small whmsith, wilkos, iceland, tesco.
dorothy perkins/newlook

They still have independant butcher but fishmonger went and not sure about green grocers.

peococks and clintons shut.my cousin lost her managers job peococks newport

my mums been made redundant twice from rosebys then ponden mill.

Most people go cwmbran-which has lost lost lots shops too and is new town so quite ugly,.

I think theres also the the point that shops dont match incomes.

Abergavenny and other market towns seen as affleunt and property prices are so high. But incomes are low and jobs are scarce and fulltime jobs even harder to come by guess why wales has larger public sector.

My husband used to be store manager in newport.
for 8hour temp min wage position in 3days had over 100applicants some overqualified and had to close applications.
Having worked both side border wales they slightly more loyal other day saw someone in waitrose use dto work with 15years ago in safeway doing same job.

Not been good week for retail

jessops 2000 jobs
hmv 4500
comet 4000

so extra 10,000 people on the dole.

The ones I miss

wollies some taken over but huge gap. retail park near me lost tj hugues, wollies, peococks and jjb is mostly empty looks really sad.

Miss borders.It was so much better than waterstones.

glad whittards was saved.

gutted about habitat and the pier.

never really shopped at la senza much.

Makes me wonder wheres these jobs in private sector coming from?

I wonder how much longer mothercare can survive as they shut their early learning stores down.

lots of kids independants/gift shops never last.

Some supermarkets do free bus know asda do know idea how to get it.

I dont drive and some shops bit hard for me to get to so stick to good bus route.

I like a good high street just sadly my nearest is not that good neither is the other 3nearby suberbs.

Posh areas like clifton will do well.

baths been regenerated

love york but not been there in years.

My mil wont leave house.
we do her weekly shopping.
back when fil alive used to go once a week nearest high street.

Our local council have totally killed off our town centre. Firstly by doing a half hearted refurbishment which made it worse,rather than better. Think slippery pavement surfaces (coated with a strange varnishy stuff), and everything else just left to rack and ruin. And secondly by charging extortionate charges for parking. Even full price has to be paid for parking at night now so it's affecting the trade of the local theatre and cinema.

We're about 40 miles from a big city, which is in the UK's list of top 10 shopping destinations, and we pay far more to park then you do there! Our council arrogantly think our small town is on a par with that city for some reason.

We have a severe lack of decent shops too as the rates are just so high. Again the council is just greedy. We have about 15 charity shops, loads of banks, loads of mobile phone shops, and then just smaller, more rubbish versions of all the high street stores, interspersed with vandalised empty buildings. Looks like our large HMV will soon be joining the empty buildings too.

I rarely go into our town as to be honest it makes me feel depressed. Parking is too expensive, and the town centre is filthy. I prefer to buy online, or at our massive local Sainsburys, or to go to the city I mentioned earlier.

By contrast, we sometimes stay with relatives in a small town in Devon, which has the most amazing high street; full of small, independents stores; delicatessens, a pharmacy, an amazing bakery, a butcher, a greengrocer, plus lots of quirky little boutiques, coffee shops and restaurants. It's like being in the middle of France, it's gorgeous!

mam29- the butcher in Abergavenny is excellent!

Cwmbran is not pretty, 'tis true, but the council don't charge for parking and it's very pedestrian friendly so a lot of people with kids/wheelchairs/mobility scooters go there. It's always busy so they must be doing something right down there!

I have to drive to get to any shops...and my nearest town is lovely...but, has so little parking that its a gamble to go there as very often you just wont get parked! If there are no spaces you then have to just go home, as the parking wardens are very efficient! So, I'll get in my car, decide if i feel 'lucky today'...and more often than not drive further, to a town with a tescos, where I always get a space.

Ican- that's really sad. What a shambles we have become! There's no point even having shops if people can't get to them! Someone in your local planning department needs to have a long hard think.

I can't afford to go to the high street anymore. If DH and I want to go to the local town to visit a few shops and have lunch, it's either a bus daysaver for £4.50 each (£9 total) or parking at £7 for 2-3 hours. The retail park has free parking. And my council seem to think that putting up some hanging baskets and planters will solve the problem

Our high street , (Cornwall), is lovely and is always busy but it has never had any chain stores. There are butchers, bakers, fishmongers, groceries, gift shops and coffee shops, hairdressers, chemists and coop but no clothes shops or music shops. It hasn't changed for over 30 years. People do their daily shopping here and buy on line or have a 'day out' for other things.
It does mean being more organised though but is a much calmer way to shop if you have the time.

I live in a city now, but the small, rural town where I grew up has suffered a lot. When I was younger it had three greengrocers', three butcher's shops, a couple of supermarkets, three or four women's clothing shops, a couple of men's clothing places, a couple of baby/childrenswear shops, several independent gifty-type shops etc, as well as Boots, Superdrug, Clarks, Currys, Woolworths, M & Co, Birthdays...

These days it has four supermarkets, one butcher, a couple of clothes shops and a plethora of hair salons, estate agents, cheap food/pound shops, etc. Currys, Birthdays and Woolworths are now long gone although the other chains remain. The high street looks run down and miserable. It's sad. You go to more 'well-heeled' small towns in the area, however, and they seem to be thriving.

Mary Portas was appointed High Street Tsar by the government about 2 years ago. She did a TV series about what's going wrong.... basically all the things mentioned here... parking costs, high rents, internet shopping, out of town malls etc., etc.

Then she selected a dozen towns for a pilot project. Those towns have been given a (smallish) government grant:

Bedford ? offering mentoring support for High Street businesses and community use of empty properties.
Croydon, Greater London ? transforming the riot-stricken area?s historic Old Town market into a thriving market, food and cultural quarter.
Dartford, Kent ? opening up central spaces for use by classes and clubs, from the Scouts to Slimming World and starting a ?school for shopkeepers?.
Bedminster, Bristol ? putting Bedminster on the map for Street Art and Street Theatre. A bicycle rickshaw service and a review of parking will also tackle the traffic environment.
Liskeard, Cornwall ? competing against the edge of town supermarket with a vibrant arts scene, guerrilla gardening and yarn bombing to inject fun back into the town centre.
Margate, Kent ? putting education and enjoyment at the heart of the town centre?s transformation with courses, ?job club? services and pop up shops.
Market Rasen, Lincolnshire ? drawing customers in by restoring the market town look and feel, advertising free parking and mentoring new businesses.
Nelson, Lancashire ? attracting local students with a young persons café, sports activities, and a new art and vintage market.
Newbiggin by the Sea, Northumberland ? better branding of the town to draw people in, improving local transport and hosting pop up shops.
Stockport, Greater Manchester ? realising the character and potential of the Markets and Underbanks area with a creative arts complex, outdoor screenings, a new parking strategy and street champions.
Stockton on Tees, North Yorkshire ? live entertainment at the Globe Theatre to boost the evening leisure economy alongside specialist High Street and evening markets.
Wolverhampton ? bringing the city will to life with modern day town criers and on-street performers and a ?dragon?s den? style competition to support local entrepreneurs.

I don't know what has happened since. Maybe its still ongoing, or maybe it was a headline initiative with no substance.

I would rather watch paint dry than enter a shop so I am not too upset about their demise. If manufacturers are so keen they remain they will need to buy and/or support them more compared with on line selling.

Why do people want shops to be there?

Because they add life to the centre of town. Because going in to town is à social experience. Because lots of people enjoy browsing. Because if people did all their shopping online, some if them would rarely leave the house. Because they keep town centres as something other than merely the habitat of teens and drunks. Because shops provide jobs and use fir buildings. A town without a high street is like a town without a heart.

You don't enjoy popping into town. Lots of other people do.

Xenia - don't be ridiculous. Attention seeking again with your outlandish, out there views?

The high street has been dying on it's arse for the past 10 years at least. The rise in internet shopping has only served to accelerate this.

Local communites need to vote with their feet and shop with the small independents. Atmosphere, quality local goods and a sense of community. The heart of towns needs to be restarted.

I am a local independent trader. I work as part of a number of small businesses who rent shop space within a larger unit. The rents are low and it gives budding small businesses a chance to get started up.

I hope in the near future there is a movement away from out of town/big corporation shopping, and local economies can once again begin to thrive.

I only go to The high Street if it is in a town/cit where there are other things going on too - Bath for example. A trip to Bristol or Gloucester is not something that attracts me as it costs me a fiver to get there and back in the car and another fiver to park, so all in all a bit expensive for a visit to a dump when I can buy my stuff on the internet, get a discount and often free delivery and postage.

Farmers markets and artisan bakers are all well and good, but "The Baker Boys" bread is very expensive and I never end up spending less than £30 on a load of knobbly veg and some cheese that becomes strangely unattractive on the way home.

Bristol a dump? Gloucester granted, but Bristol....?

I agree with higgle and I live in Bristol. For DP and me to go into town, it's £8 on the bus (we live four miles from the city centre). Driving in Bristol is a nightmare let alone the cost of parking. They opened a big, shiny shopping centre about four years ago (Cabot's Circus) and when I was there last week, another two shops were closing. This new shopping centre ripped the heart out of the old Broadmead area which in turn ripped the heart out of St Nicholas as part of appalling post war planning.

I rarely shop in shops and sadly, tend to go to the out of town mall where I can park for free as do most people I know. It's not just small towns that have these problems, cities do to.

Just because I don't have the same views as other people doesn't mean I have no right to express them. Shops encourage spending too much. They are consumeristic. They are arguably immoral and are bad for the environment. Why do we want these dreadful places preserved? They are a monument to the foolishness of man surely?