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.

One of the advantages of shopping on the internet is that you can usually find exactly what you want, and usually the website will advise whether something is out of stock. Then you have a choice about whether

How many times have you gone into town looking for something, walked from shop to shop, waited for an assistant to ask where it may be found and then be told that they have stopped stocking the thing you want. So, finally you have left empty handed? it has happened to me twice this month already (I wanted a particular skylander toy and some space bags).

The advantages of going into town to shop are you get to see the item before you buy it, you can take it away straight away and window shopping can be nice. the disadvantages are the range is tiny compared to the internet (even if you were shopping in central London), prices are typically higher, the cost of getting into town can make the item you need very expensive, it takes a long time and sore feet!

IMVHO I think councils need to reduce rates and parking charges, landlords need to accept that their good days are over and shops need to be more service focused.

Sorry, I don't mean to ridicule your post. I was wondering about how you regard people who need to buy some food, or replace some cookware, or replace their knickers or stock up on sanitary protection and the shops which sell them this. And I was wondering how you marry this opinion with your opinion that all women should have interesting, well paid, rewarding and fun careers. Or do you not include bring a small business owner on the high street in this list of exclusive career options?

OK, sorry. It's just....I thought she was supposed to be Very Clever.

Very Clever at making comments that she knows will outrage everyone.

There is a book called the Ethical Shopper or something. I nearly wept when I read it. Pretty much everything is out of bounds.

With clothes, I don't like ordering online because I am a funny shape and need to know how it looks first. So I for one will shop for clothes in town forever even though I hardly ever buy clothes

My town was supposed to be one of the most recession-proof towns a few years ago due to its location yet we are losing lots of shops. Having said that it could be a lot worse.

"I loathe clothes shopping with a passion but can't imagine ordering everything online, surely once the post and packing/click and collect has been paid for, and the pita waiting for a courier, then the returns etc (all the while they have your money...) is more of a faff?"

It is and it isn't.

On the one hand you can try it on then and there.
On the other the changing rooms are rarely pleasant and they don't always have your size. While at home your are comfortable and you'll have ordered the size you want.

On the one hand you don't have to wait for a courier.
On the other you don't have to brave the crowds/weather/pay parking/walk much/wait in a queue/deal with people with poor customer service skills.

If a shop can make the changing rooms a pleasant area, make sure the staff are well trained and pleasant to deal with, ensure the store itself isn't stressful, and hold a decent amount of stock, then there's no competition. Unfortunately that isn't always the case. :(

I am interested to read Mary Portas's initiatives but to be honest at the end of the day, you just need free parking, and lots of it and lower rent and rates.

All the street theatre and yarn bombing in the world is pointless if people can't get there or park cheaply or for free. They just won't go.

YouOldSlag - I completely agree, except when you are talking about commuter towns where the station is in the town centre. In that case. you need the parking to be really cheap but with a 5 hour time limit.

I couldn't care less about street theatre either (nor street art) but then I'm a philistine when it comes to that sort of thing.

I don't understand anyone buying cvlothes in shops really. We never do. However I do not really spend much anyway on that type of thing so it's a small part of my life and not important.

I never said I was clever. I've never posted my Mensa score on Mumsnet. I might be thick as a plank, you never know.

So if people don't want shops enough to shop in them they will die away. Surely that's just free market economics? I have done a lot of work advising actually in an area of all this but better not say what.

It's all feckin' shisha bars and Tesco Expresses round here. :(

I am sure those who paid for your advice, truly felt that they were receiving value for money given that you freely admit to having no understanding of their customers behaviour...

*I put down one months rent, and months deposit and I was in business

gosh i would open up shop and try it if it was that accesible.*

Too true...I've been on a business course lately, and only one of about 30 prospective small businesses was considering renting premises.

To be a devil's advocate, I will say that at least the advent of online shopping is creating a lot of small businesses, which is probably a better way of earning a living than working for minimum wage at WH Smith. (Just try not to buy your online stuff from Amazon Central, which I don't think has a very good reputation as an employer- let alone a taxpayer).

Helston (Cornwall) still has a pretty good high street, despite 3 out-of-town supermarkets and 2 or 3 empty shopfronts. Cheap parking (free after 4!) helps, and, to me, sheer accessibility- it's small enough to be able to get to everything really easily and quickly. It's pretty working class too.

A trip to Bristol or Gloucester is not something that attracts me. Gloucester is a shit-hole and the centre is really grotty with its 1970's/80's shopping mall monstrosities. It's so sad, because you can see the remnants of the old buildings with wooden beams. If it wasn't for 'town planners', it would have been an architectural gem. There's nothing there to make me think "Yay!" and it's my nearest city.

I do a lot of shopping online, but I prefer going into real shops for some things. I like to go to the butcher and the greengrocer. You can be very specific about quantities and see the things you will actually be buying! Photographs online can be very misleading and so can the little blurbs describing items.

Same goes with clothes. I prefer to touch the fabric and try them on before I make up my mind about buying them. Due to the lack of decent clothes shops in the vicinity, I usually end buying online and often send things back.

(I do it all the time. It is on some complex technical issues around differences between internet and bricks and mortar stores)

stubborn, may well be true. Much better to be a woman at home running a growing internet business than on £6 an hour in your local W H Smith.

Our council banned all the street traders who were popular and added a splash of colour from our dull town center. Also closed the weekly market that had sprung up. Bloody useless.

I would love a weekend in Cornwall or Devon for my 40th birthday in June but i doubt i will be able to afford it. i will have a look online at prices of B+Bs in the area. Ive never been before and it sounds lovely.

I found this video of my home town on you tube about 13 months ago. i wasnt born till the 70s but it made me nostalgic and shed a couple of tears too.

And this was shot last year.

mam29, I'm from Abergavenny too. Game has gone, so has Millets and Caboodles (lovely independent shop). Also Curry's. I think Richards might be in trouble - it doesn't sell half the stuff it used to. Places keep opening, then closing again and it seems to be wall to wall phone shops and charity shops.

Peacocks is still open though, but I remember when the big Safeways was in the town centre - I think it started to go wrong when the out of town one was built. I used to love mooching round Jungles and Woolies when I was a teenager. Tried to buy a DVD there a couple of weeks ago and I kid you not, there was nowhere selling what I wanted, in town.

Internet shopping is all very well but when you've left buying someone's birthday present to the last minute (looking at you, DH), then you really do need actual shops!