AIBU to not be surprised the High Street is Dying?

[MythicalKings]

A few weeks ago I bought a pair of shoes in a store in town. This is a real find for me because I have trouble finding comfy shoes.

So I decided to buy a couple more pairs in different colours. I had 25 minutes before I had to get the next bus home. I went into the store this morning and there was only one assistant serving. Usually there are 3 or more. She was serving a lady struggling to find something to suit her. I wandered around the shop looking at other shoes then spent a few minutes deciding which colours to buy the new pairs in. I had no acknowledgement of my presence at all. Not a smile or an "I'll be with you in a minute" or even a "Hello".

Meanwhile I could hear that there was someone in the stock room moving around. I went to stand at the counter to wait. A woman came out of the stock room with some shoes which she gave to the other assistant and went back into the stockroom. She had to walk past me twice but didn't make eye contact at all.

Still the woman hadn't found anything to suit but was chatting away to the assistant about her holidays and other chit chat. I am aware that I am not the most patient person in the world and that the other woman had a perfect right to take as long as she liked to choose her shoes but I had been in the shop at least 10 minutes and no one who worked there had said a word to me. More time passed.

The assistant came up to the till, where I was still standing, with the shoes the woman had chosen. The woman was putting her shoes on. The assistant said she'd serve me as soon as she had finished with the other customer. No "Sorry for the wait", no "I hope you don't mind if I serve this lady first". Not even a smile.

So I said, very calmly, "Never mind, I'll go somewhere else." And I missed my bus anyway.

I've been able to find them cheaper online so have ordered them.

So AIBU to think that this is the sort of attitude that is killing High St shops?

Closing on Saturday afternoons?

Oh dear. Somebody does not want to be in business at all. I suppose you should be glad they've done away with early closing on Wednesday.

"I'm happy to pay more for cheerful service and often a better product, when I know that my money is likely to go back into the community and is supporting small businesses. I'm very lucky that I work part time and have enough money to do that though."

Same here. I also prefer to give my money to companies who pay their taxes.

I do buy online but not to the exclusion of shopping on the high street or supporting local businesses.
If everyone only bought online there would be no high street and loads more unemployment. I don't like the I'm all right Jack view and sod everyone else.

I know quite a lot of people who very much want to support their local high streets, especially when they live in smaller market towns and villages, but the biggest problem is car parking charges.

YANBU. It always amuses and irritates me when people try and make others feel guilty about shopping online and "killing the high street", as if we do it on purpose to spite them. No, it's because shopping on the high street is so thoroughly unpleasant and less convenient than online shopping. High street companies can't keep whinging about losing customers when they continue to provide the same poor service and irritants that have been mentioned in this thread, as well as others. Parking is usually out of their control but not much else.

The British are a very small-c conservative people and don't like change in retail. When the village shops which people now get sentimental about first opened they were regarded as a threat to old markets - see William Cobbett on the subject. You find the same attitude towards big shops and then to chains.

But change happens anyway, and the High Street may be doomed.

As for parking: if you make it too cheap it will just be taken earlier in the day. It is usually finite - there are only so many spaces - and when they are taken they are taken. You can restrict how long people stay - but they they will whine about not having enough time - or not restrict it - and they they will whine about not being able to find a place!

The debate about online shopping is circular one though isn't it? My parents are becoming older and more frail and the day when they can no longer drive is fast approaching. They are looking to move nearer me but more and more of the large villages, that have the sort of house and community they want, are losing their shops. The reasons those shops are closing are the rise of big supermarkets and online deliveries - but if you live somewhere with no shops and don't want/can't drive there isn't much of a choice.

I will freely admit to only doing 'fun' shopping in the high street. Christmas decorations, birthday cards, visits to the specialist shops, farmers markets visits. Things that are as much for pleasure as for neccessity.

YANBU

I'd very much like to support my local high street, but usually end up going back to my tried and trusted websites.

It's not just price, although I couldn't justify the £19.99 in my local hardware store was charging for something I could get online for £4.99 incl postage.

I live in a seaside town so my local high street is a dead loss for anything other than gift type stuff, art galleries, sailing clothes/equipment or coffee shops/cafés. I nipped in town for socks for my DD the other day. Could I buy basic black socks? No. I went to Matalan. I'd much rather support a little local shop.

The next town isn't much better so 9 times out of 10 I come home empty handed and frustrated.

Bus fares are stupid expensive, car park charges are quite high so I just end up going online.

There is always a lot of complaints about how the internet is killing the high street, how local shop owners have had a bad season, etc, but I wonder just how much they're trying to help themselves.

For example, this weekend there was a couple of fairly big events on in town in the evening. We wandered down with the kids, promised them an ice cream, have a mooch around, etc. Town was packed but were any of the shops open? No. The ice cream parlour could have made a killing, but it was shut so we all went to Sainsbury's. Then the owner complaining about how bad business is. I can't help the local shops and business when they're not helping themselves.

Now I know people want to enjoy the summer and take part in these events, but the season is fairly short and when you're relying on making most of your profit during that short period of time, you've got to take advantage of it

Unfortunately, I've had a similar experience in an independent high street shop. Even stood there like a lemon with my shoes off and a single shoe in my hand and felt completely invisible.

It's that shop. Others are better.

I bought some trainers in Aldo recently. I'd never considered it before but they were pink suede and rainbow vinyl with diamante and half price and called like sirens from the window.

The shop was busy but the staff were great. I was being a fusspot because I couldn't decide between a size 4 and a size 5.

The only thing that let them down was delivery. They didn't have my size in the shop and I opted to have them sent to my home. The delivery company lied about the the despatch which made me think that my shoes and money were lost.

They turned up in four days, which was what I was expecting in the first place. They shouldn't have lied and sent an email the next day saying they were on their way and had arrived at a Royal Mail hub. When they couldn't be traced I started to worry. It would have been better to have them delivered to the shop and go and collect them.

I'm wearing them now btw. I love them.

The British are a very small-c conservative people and don't like change in retail.

I'm not sure that's entirely true: they took to online shopping quickly enough. The real problem is that small shop-owners are small-c conservative and only want to do business on their terms.

How fascinating about village shops being deplored for taking trade away from markets, Andrew! I didn't know that.

DH is an independent menswear retailer.

You have to offer a special product and special service to survive and he does. It's not easy though.

Apart from things like rents, business rates, parking etc there are the customers, some of whom can be challenging, especially towards an independent retailer and the staff. Some people think they're doing him a favour by patronising his shop. He's a lot more patient than I'd be. With my attitude I'd probably be out of business in a year.

He does not provide an online shopping service. Many people are astounded and even affronted by this. Sorry, but it doesn't suit his business model. Other retailers are available.

That said, he'd never allow someone to stand around like a lemon and neither would his small workforce.

one reason I find it hard to shop at local shops is that they are very inflexible about returns. I realise I don't have an automatic right to return something if I change my mind, of course. But when so many online outlets will do a free return if you change your mind for any reason and the tags are still there, I'm not likely to give my custom to a business that won't. If it's a coat or something where I've spent a fair bit, I need more time to be sure about it than the time it takes to try it on in the shop.

I've also had bad experiences with a handbag and piece of jewellery becoming faulty and the small shops I bought them from had closed! So no refunds or mending possible.

Sometimes it's not just an online competitor, but the attitude in small shops. For example, the large branch type shoe shop in my high street will allow customers to wear shoes at home to check they are okay, as long as you leave labels on and it's clear that you haven't scuffed them or marked them. I tried buying shoes from a local independent shop and when I asked if I could wear them at home a bit, the answer was "no".

all of the above, finding anyone to help is like looking for a needle in a haystack. Its off topic, but public toilets in the big department stores are mostly a disgrace, parking is going up and up every week and some shops have the music far too loud - overstacking on the end of aisles is also bad, as mentioned on another thread yesterday. my local town only has pay and display car parking, if it was pay on exit I wouldn't feel I needed to just get around in the hour , I may have a coffee or something. self service tills give me the rage - I agree that the high street will die out, apart from charity shops, nail bars and hairdressers!! online shopping isn't always perfect, but it beats walking about looking at my watch.

Every so often I try to explain to my son that when I was little, we had to go to the shops to get EVERYTHING - no online hunt for the perfect item, no ordering the weekly grocery shop, no comparison between retailers the world over to find what you want at the moment that the idea hits you.
He looks at me like this: and I can't say I blame him - it must seem like a very backward way of doing things to someone who is growing up with the internet making everything easier!

Absolutely agree. Was looking forward to my trip to town today. Very disappointed that the assistant in M and S couldn't be bothered to stop sorting her towels to serve me.
Then into clintons where I waited to be served while the 2 cashiers discussed their weekend. Was about to tell them I would take my business elsewhere when they served me all the while as though I was putting them out for being there. Next into boots where the assistant walked off when I was next in the queue and I had to hunt down another member of staff to serve me. Was so looking forward to my quiet morning out and just wondered why I had bothered. I can shop online in the peace of my own home, find exactly what I like in the size I require with no shop assistants to make me feel I am in the way. All this and usually a good deal cheaper too and no car parking fees to pay which also appear to be extortionate lately.

I got spectacular service in H&M today, which isn't where I would expect to get it. I couldn't find something I wasn't sure they'd have anyway and asked at the till. The assistant took one look at my laden buggy and dd toddling about and went to have a look for me. She brought it down, I paid whipst chatting and it was a lovely shopping experience.
But I agree op. Bad customer service is infuriating. I used to work in retail and a quick 'hello, I'll be with you in a minute' is the difference between someone stomping off never to return and a sale.

I tried buying shoes from a local independent shop and when I asked if I could wear them at home a bit, the answer was "no".

What do you expect?

I bought a lot of things from Zara in the January sales and I was stunned and pleased by their generous no-quibble return policy as long as the items were unworn. I think it was 30 days.

I probably returned half of what I bought because in the light of day and a better mirror they weren't right.

But they are Zara. A multi-national who can stick the stock right back on the floors of their many shops. Not a sole trader with a tiny shop and little or no storage space.

And the returns checkout person at Zara still carefully checked to see if I'd worn the things and had the receipts.

Oh Andrew if only they had done away with early closing on Wednesdays. I always forget and it's a complete PITA

Best thing about independent shops though - no selfservice checkouts...
Previously I would have popped into WHSmith or the newsagent to get my magazine, whichever was nearer. Now I just go to the newsagent.

Round here there are loads of little independent retailers setting up... they all just happen to be in garden cetnres.

Is our area the only place like this?

The gardden centres are mahoosive now. People only rarely go to them for garden stuff.

Can't you see that the more you buy online the less profit there is for local shops.

Also don't you know it costs thousands a year in rates to run a shop in the High St. Our local seedy not hugely desirable town charges 18,000 per year for shops in the high st. It's ridiculous. But I assume because they want big bucks from the few large stores there they keep these high rates.

The upshot is the shops run on minimum staff, as that is also a huge overhead that the online shops don't have (ok they have staff but not many and they race around huge warehouses, not faffing about chatting cheerily to a picky customer).

And once all the shops have given up and gone you'll be left with those bargains online - or will there be bargains online as there will be one or two huge companies controlling choice, price, availability, everything. And we'll all be manipulated and stuffed!!!!

I honestly try to get everything I need in our locality, from independent shops. Occasionally though, I am so astounded by the face to face rudeness of shop (usually owners, not staff), that I'll go elsewhere.

A few months ago DH and I spent a good half hour waiting for someone to come and advise us on a new fire at a local independent showroom. As we browsed their showroom, we could hear and see two staff members having a chat, but they were in an office at the side. They could see us through the window but continued their chat.

In the end, I took a photo of the fire I liked and left. I looked it up on the internet and got it £400 cheaper.

If someone had come out to advise us, that extra £400 would have been in their till.

or will there be bargains online as there will be one or two huge companies controlling choice, price, availability, everything

Hardly. The barriers to entry for online businesses are quite low: for a start off, unlike bricks and mortar, they have the advantage that they are nationwide instantly, so can survive on far fewer customers per thousand (or whatever) than a local shop. For example, although Amazon sell some odds and ends for Raspberry Pis, there are three or four successful companies that offer better range and bring in innovative products. They also sell via Amazon marketplace, but steer people towards buying direct.