To ask which shops are on the verge of failure

[curiousbeak]

I'm so depressed with the uk high street. Specifically British companies. The likes of Arcadia group, new look (already on its way out), next, oasis , Debenhams etc etc

The clothes are just terrible quality and most stores and staff and just tired, uninspiring and lacking any kind of chicness.

The wave of European brands seem to be killing our home grown business with their beautiful stores and chic offerings.

Who do you think is on the way out?

I’m very surprised a few stores are still open tbh.

HMV surprises me since hardly anyone buys physical copies anymore (or at least that I know) and even when they do, Amazon will undoubtedly have it cheaper.

Body shop is always empty and that’s understandable. I think Lush really destroyed them, I also always found their staff incredibly pushy (haven’t been in for at least eight years though).

WHSmith as mentioned but I believe a lot of their sales will be airports and train stations as there’s not much other option.

The one that amazes me most is Waterstones. Apparently they managed to make a substantial profit last year which I found phenomenal! I love our local Waterstones, the building is absolutely stunning and the children’s area is great but their books are astonishingly overpriced compared to amazon or eBay. I just can’t believe they’re still managing to make a profit on books twice or sometimes three times as expensive as the online market.

I’m not surprised about new look in the slightest. I haven’t bought anything from there for many years. Their clothing is shoddily made and isn’t overly cheap for what it is. Dorothy Perkins probably won’t last much longer either.

Books are an oddity I'm happy to read paperbacks in e-books format (where the imposition of VAT suggests we aren't actually in an ecological crisis).

Books that don't really move to e-format are the ones that would have been costly anyway (£100 art books and the like). Which frankly the e-reader to display them on hasn't been invented.

That said, there really is nothing like browsing in a bookshop or library (not that I've even done that in the last couple of years ). But on the basis that the one building which our forbears would recognise today is a library, maybe there's hope somewhere ?

New Look teen clothes are great. We could go with a shop that really focuses on the 10-15 age range.

Mothercare was only really good when parents didn’t have any other options. When my first DC was born eight years ago, I wasn’t a massive online shopper so I did buy most of his things from mothercare. Looking back they were hugely overpriced and I was ripped off but I was a new parent and not very savvy with cash. Two more DC later and I’ve learnt my lesson, now wouldn’t even think of buying clothes from mothercare.

Some retired people go on a lot of holidays and some of these still use travel agents.

Re: free parking.
The choice round here is now:

• Staying out of town a bit and parking in one of the large free car parks in front of the shops, for as long as you please, with no roads to cross ect.

or

• Making sure you leave the house with change, get through the traffic into the center of town and cruise various small car parks to get a space, pay for an amount of time which is always ends up being too long or too short, or keep a ticket with you and remember to go to a pay station and get charged 5 quid because you've gone 1 minute over 2 hours .

It is a shame the high streets are struggling, but i'll hold my hands up and admit i'll do the first choice every time these days.

It's a shame, but I agree with you Laiste. Driving or taking public transport into the middle of Sheffield takes me twice as long as driving to Meadowhall.

Although I do visit the two nearest towns to me as well.

ifailed Twice you have said I want free parking. I have never once said this. I just think charges should be reasonable and not put shoppers off to the extent it jeopardises shop survival

Our local town centre does free parking after 3pm on weekdays and it's free at weekends.

I visit another local town because they do free parking for the first hour so I can go to the bank or click and collect from Debenhams without being charged.
My own town not only charges but the parking is some distance away so you have to pay for walking too.

I've not had a car long - I stopped going into town because of the bus charges. I know lots of people now take taxis as it's cheaper, which is ridiculous.

shatners i agree with what you've been saying.

Reasonable charge all the time or
Free for first hour.
Cheap for first 2 hours.
Free mornings/afternoons of quiet days like Mon or Tue.
Free on a Sunday maybe?

I'd take up any of the above. At the moment we've just got free all the time at x or expensive all the time at y PLUS the added hassle of getting to y. It's a no brainer.

When i was a kid (in West London) 'Sainsbury's car park' was pay and display. I think the car park was there before the store ... It struggled and hardly anyone went in there. Most of us went to tesco with it's free car park. Like you would. Sainburys closed down after about 6/7 years. It was a bigger store than Tesco and this was a busy town. Even as a kid i wondered why Sainsburys never sorted something out with the council about that car park to keep it's shoppers.

I don't have time to read whole thread so don't know if Topshop's been mentioned but that's my bet. I was working in TK Maxx until week before last and we were flooded with Topshop clothing, shoes and makeup coming in. To me that's a very bad sign. For the record,I'm not a Philip Green fan but I've always loved Topshop, even though I know I'm far too old now. They certainly do the best soft, long length jeans for tall birds like me

I'm completely baffled how M&Co survive and more and more seem to be opening. My small market town now has one. The clothes are the same quality as Peacocks or Primark but cost more.. and are frumpy

(whereas at least Primark does fashion pretty well, in fact my all time favourite dress, my most flattering, is Primark... I prefer it to all my Ted Bakers, Karen Millens etc

Primark needs a tall range. I can't wear any of their dresses and shirts only just fit. Modern teenagers seem taller, shops might start changing.

Never see anyone in magnet kitchens!

Agreed, Itmakes. I'm 5ft 9 so , tall but not overly so.. my Primark work trousers shrink in the wash and are now cropped on me ..they shrink worse than denim but are only standard polyester.. and Zara too..everything is cropped on me

Parking charges are some of the problem because like people have said it's much easier to go to the out of town shopping centre with free parking then it is the town centre with their charges.

My local out of town shopping centre was only built around 16/17 years ago so the spaces are wider for a modern car, it's all flat and free for as long as you like. The shops are all big and more modern too.

Town centre is expensive to park and the shops are all old buildings so they look dark, dingy and really ancient. And it's all hilly.

They built a brand new cinema in the town centre but parking is almost as much as a cinema ticket so makes the trip so expensive!

I can't remember the last time I went into the centre of my local town. It's absolutely dire and there's hardly any parking. I only go in for Tiger, Superdrug and the Perfume Shop, though I might have another look at the makeup in the Body Shop. Even on the days when I work at the offices there, the parking is a nightmare as the council has been merging many offices into one and not creating any more parking. I have to use the car as I'm half an hour from a bus stop. As I'm never there, no idea what shops are left; I use the big retail parks on the outskirts of the centre or the town on the way back from work. B&M, Argos, Asda, Aldi, Matalan for occasional home stuff.

My main work base is in a new town and the shopping centre is truly a Carbuncle (the town has won in the past). Even Dunnes are closing and both WHSmith and Boots are grubby. I go there for the post office at WHS, Ryman's, discount books and O2. I shop at Aldi, Lidl, B&M, Asda in town. On the way home I may take a 5 mile detour to another town where they have M&S food, Next, Sainsbury, B&Q etc. Or a quick trip to an independent household department store on the edge of town.

Due to arthritis in my feet, I can only wear Docs or Fitflops which I buy online. I also buy my Neal's Yard skincare online. I love Asda for my basics, both clothes and home. I live in black leggings and t-shirts for work, topped with a skirt and cardi or top. I love Holy Clothing online. Even though Asda is Walmart, my US friends are dead jealous of George clothing and home stuff. I got a waterproof there last autumn that was much better than my Seasalt one. I wouldn't be caught dead in M&S clothing any more as it's been so frumpy for years and I thought Wallis had closed down years ago. Our local Debenhams is shit once you get past all the make up. I went into Next a year or so ago and was horrified how frumpy and polyester it was when it was once my go to for work clothes. To be honest, I haven’t been in a clothes shop for ages as it was all just dreadful, topped off by those dreadful frills and cold shoulders.

Not RTFT but to go back to the New Look thing I thought that their actions was just around landlords rents same as others have done like HoF and Monsoon etc?

I personally shall miss places like HoF & Debenhams if they go since they've always been my 'go to' for special event outfits. I can find them in one place rather than having to try all other options when as a slightly plus size (I say slightly since depending on store I'm a 14/16/18 maybe 20 in their sizes) and I can find what I've wanted.

Tbh the whole 'decline of the high street thing' just makes me sad.

A pp made the point that consumers are going towards either cheap and cheerful or expensive, high quality but I think there is still a demand for the "mid market", it's just not being met by the retailers. Instead the businesses who see themselves as mid priced are giving us Primark/H&M quality at three times the price. If for example Oasis or Warehouse are selling a top for 35 quid it needs to be better than the one I can buy in Primark for a tenner and unfortunately it's often not.

Noting that many of the retailers mentioned are womens clothing stores I'd also say that many have failed to recognize that women in their 30s/40s/50s are just not being catered for. Womens clothing retailers try to follow every fashion trend which by and large tends to be targeted at young women but what suits teens and twenty somethings (both in terms of body shape and lifestyle) often isn't what works for say, the 42 yo full time working mum of 2 dc ie me.

Many of us have disposable income and would be willing to buy the £35 top rather than the £10 one, or pay £50 for a well cut pair of trousers rather than £20 for cheap shiny fabric. Provided that they are decent quality and dare I say, not so "on trend" that in 3 months time you are considered an unfashionable frump because now it's old hat! There is a market there for mid priced clothing but nowhere has really stepped up to meet that demand.

alltoomuchrightnow I used to love M and Co, and was so happy when they opened near me, but oh dear, they are so disappointing. They are Peacocks/Bon Marche/Per Una on speed.

You are spot on CocoPuffsInGodMode about Primark clothes at inflated prices in the shops selling "mid range" clothes. Mind you, I am really pleased with the 100% cotton jumper I bought in M and S today for less than £20.

Reasons I dislike going to actual shops:

Have to pay for parking

They have horrible music

I don't like crowds

More expensive than online

Have to carry items back to car with baby

I do not like walking around the town centre and getting smoked on

Don't like town centre when it's too hot

Don't like town centre when it's too cold

Don't like town centre when it's raining

People get in my way with their slow walking or sudden stopping, then have the cheek to look cross when I accidentally walk into them as I didn't expect them to grind to a halt

Chuggers everywhere

Random annoying stalls in the middle of the mall trying to sell me Sky or other crap

Takes ages to look through a small area to see if there might possibly be something I like (and then being disappointed when my size isn't there), instead of selecting the correct size and item from online filters and then being presented with a range of items to choose from and deliberate over at leisure, any time of day or night when I have a spare moment

I am not the only one to refuse to go shopping more than once every few months. I don't know anybody, other than my teenage brother, who thinks shopping is a fun pastime instead of something you put off for weeks and only have to go because you get desperate and can't purchase the item online/delivery time is too long.

Those aren't my experiences of shopping Gummy, but it's horses for courses. When I bought a jumper today I tried on 5 different jumpers before I found one that looked and felt right. I wouldn't have wanted the faff of ordering 5 jumpers and then sending 4 back.

To be fair Gummy a lot of what you've listed are things that irritate you generally. Which is fine of course but not really within the control of retailers as such.