And there goes Debenhams too. Will we miss our high streets?

[longwayoff]

What will life be like when all the high st stores we're used to seeing aren't there any longer? Will they be just bars and coffee shops with an occasional nail bar and hairdresser? Even £shops are suffering. Will they become mad max wastelands? Housing with no shops?

I hope Debenhams Bullring doesn't go because my husband works there, feel sorry for the underpaid overworked sale assistants, it's those in charge earning thousands who I don't feel for, they don't listen to the staff and as my husband said more focussed on the staff getting accounts than customer service

But the high street model is itself a realitively modern phenomenon. It’s not the way people have shopped for centuries.

I have heard this week that John Lewis are no longer going to be selling DVD players, so a desirable item 20 years ago is obsolete because of new technology.

We fell in love with department stores and the same chains on every high street and now we’re mostly over them.

I take the point about high rents (and business rates) but I enjoy the convenience of shopping online and so the high street is now where I go for a coffee or dry cleaning.

If I need something I want to physically see & try before buying - such as shoes - I go somewhere most likely to have a wide choice, so a retail centre with several larger stores.

My guess is that I’m not atypical in my habits. The largest stores will mostly survive, because they can offer that choice and will continue to attract footfall, the town centre Debenhams with their limited ranges will go.

I think Argos are nailIng it, like Amazon in terms of organisation but you can still go to a store which is usually open late or more impressively has a space in a supermarket.

I recently ordered a game online on Sunday morning, paid a bit extra and the guy delivered it at 9pm. Very impressed.

Private equity companies have a lot to answer for. They buy successful shops, then reduce the quality of the clothes to save money. Reduce staff levels and don't invest in store updates. When they've taken all they can and the customers stop coming, they either try to sell or go into administration. It's all the same to them, the money has been made and another originally great shop has bitten the dust and they move onto the next!

The rents are to high, and the products in store are to expensive when you can buy the same item online with a discount code you can also find online.
Putney high street for example used to have a body shop, topshop, new look, m&s, Halfords, thorntons, and quite a few more shops these have all closed down in the last few years. Where there was shops they've actually smashed them out and put new build houses there. The high street looks sad now.

it's quite surprising news as in Watford, Debehnams is building new bigstore which is not opened yet.

DSis and I went into a branch of Debenhams a fortnight or so ago. She has a Debenhams Card she's had since the 90s (when the shopping there was good). Well, we were underwhelmed t'other week. The clothes, even concessions ones, have somehow 'morphed into oneness. The 'has-been' 'Designer at Debenhams' range seems very staid and stale (with the exception of Preen which isn't stocked in many stores). Just a 'shabby experience really.

I think we may end up with clothes versions of Argos - with different sizes of all the stock to try on, then products will be retrieved from a warehouse area.

Agree that ordering clothes online can be hit and miss (I've learned my lesson with shoes) so it's definitely not the way to go for everyone (including me).

The high street as it's is obselete.

People wont go shopping in the future, high streets need to change.
They need to become about experiences, so more focused on cafes, pubs, resrurants, theatres, community centres etc.

They need lots of flats and beginner homes to increase footfall.

But no the councils will just try get more and more charoty shops into town and bargain stores etc

I love a browse around shops but online is cheaper and saves hassle of taking kids into town!

I wonder if, in our post Brexit utopia, the only stores that will be open are going to be similar to the state run ones I saw in Soviet Russia.

Got to be worth a dystopian novel about it.

I'm not the slightest bit surprised to be honest. My local Debenhams is absolutely dreadful. I predict it'll be one of the first to go.

I buy mostly online, as it is much easier, I don't drive and have two kids with SN, so traipsing round crowded shops with them is like doing my own root canal. I think shopping and variety have got much better now. It is easier to compare prices at the click of a button.

I like Debenhams for cosmetics. There are no other make up counters within an hour of me if you get rid of debenhams. I can't really buy online because I need to see the colours in the flesh.

However, their gift card policy online is dire. My dad brought £200 worth of vouchers for me last year. But brought 10x £20 gift cards you buy in the supermarket. I wanted to buy bedding but you can only use a max of 2 gift cards online. So I had to drive 20 miles to the shop to get them to put all the balance on one card. Of course they didn't have the bedding in stock in store

A lot of shops are going for strategic positions, where they can showcase what you can buy online, click and collect and get a cuppa and browse some tat before you go home. JL Home is very much this. Next have moved over to this whilst filling their big shops with franchises to bring more money in to pay the rent.

Thinking about my shopping habits -

the largest town near to me has opened a couple of 'retail parks' (is that right?) where you have a massive free car park with decent sized spaces in the middle of a square of department store size shops - Primark, M&S, Next, River Island - and some smaller units - McDonalds, Costa, Fat Face, Clarks, M&S food hall ect.

I find myself there a lot. It's always busy in the week and it's heaving with people at the weekend. I was there last week thinking ''all these people would have been in the high st. No wonder it's dying''.

It's a bit joyless, but you whizz in, park for free and nip to which ever shops you want round the edge and go whenever you're ready.

High st alternative - get through traffic to a pokey car park. Hope there's a space. Faff to pay with change or phone. Hang on to car park ticket. Cross roads and negotiate narrow pavements with DCs. Remember the parking time limit. Get out in time and do it all in reverse.

I think the future of shops is in spaces like this. Not the high st. Our big Next and M&S have relocated out of the town center and into the retail park and there's always people in them.

In 10 years someone young will say "wouldn't it be great of we could actually see and touch the stuff BEFORE we buy online?"

A hundred years ago a tailor made your clothes to fit! Wouldn't that be great?

Nah, times change and they'll keep on changing. Loads of online retailers offer annual next day delivery subscriptions, with free returns. Why would I schlep into the city centre to queue and not find exactly what I want when I can order it to my home and return the things I don't like for £20 a year (far cheaper than the cost of petrol and parking)?

Yes Hilda, mine's pretty dreary also. There was a Next nextdoor to it, gone, now becoming a Travelodge. Monsoon gone. Thorntons gone. Blanc patisserie gone. Just a few in past couple of years. So High St will undergo radical change in next ten years and I think efforts to save it are not productive. The opportunity for them to become sociable shared spaces is there but councils need to sacrifice the business rates. However, those rates are propping up our local areas. Dilemma.

I feel so sad for the employees every time this happens - always shortly before Christmas it seems.

I don’t shop in Debenhams but then I never have. Just don’t like the feel of the place, it’s like stepping back into the 1960s. The stock is overcrowded and the environment lifeless. Plus I find it expensive for mid range stuff.

My DC had weekend jobs there though and they seemed to be decent employers at least back then.

That's what it's all about Laiste, it seems that it is difficult to drive round and park in towns or cities, and this puts people off. More people have cars or access to cars and it has made life a lot easier, I am learning to drive. But still, I shop online.

I don't get stuff delivered to my home. I work long hours and I'm hardly ever in and there is nowhere else to leave things. I do get some things delivered to a local shop but as I said before I normally go into town to pick up from the shop I've ordered from. I'd hate it if the bigs shops disappeared and I'd find it really difficult

A hundred years ago a tailor made your clothes to fit! Wouldn't that be great?

But we're pretty close, surely, to remote personal tailoring? I don't expect that in ten years time internet clothes shopping will be so hit and miss - I anticipate having my measurements scanned before I click 'buy' ...

I think a lot of shops are going to become showrooms for the online store, with a small range of physical stock, tablets for browsing the range and ordering, and a click & collect service. I'm happy to do click and collect if it means I don't have to pay for delivery, or wait in for a courier. It could also mean stores consolidated their deliveries better as part of reducing the number of cars/vans on the road.

I think also we'll see more shops selling services rather than stuff - for example, my local bike shop doesn't really carry many actual bikes, because they can't compete with online prices but they focus on servicing and repairs, and they've built a good reputation for their staff and service.

Ultimately I think we all need to be reducing the amount of stuff we buy - going shopping isn't a sustainable leisure industry, we spend too much on stuff that we then throw away.

What I don’t get is that in my city centre it is absolutely cram packed every day of the week with thousands of spaces in the car parks all full and people laden with shopping bags all year round

That's what I find amazing. Someone must be shopping in there, the place is heaving on weekends. I hate it!

It's a real shame, I personally haven't been in Debenhams for a long time as not one near us. I really hope M&S keep going as that is near me and I use it all the time. Online shopping is not great if like us you still haven't got access to fibre broadband, our internet speed is slow so it's painful to use anything that has lots of pictures etc. On the plus side Ads take so long to load I can usually read the page before they appear. If everyone will be forced to use the Internet then Openreach are going to have to pull their fingers out and get everyone the infrastructure so they can access it.

I had a friend who tried to set up an independent beauty salon in her local high street. The rates and greed of the local authority finished her off. Yes, it is now a charity shop. We need to do something about business rates and parking charges. Councils are getting so greedy. In our previous area there was an option to have 30 mins free so you could nip into the local high street shops. Greedy council decided to charge 30p for those 30 mins to raise £15k per year.

I live near Oxford and wanted to try the Park and Ride. It was a complete mess with various elements trying to get their share of the cost. You park the car outside town and pay, you then have to go to a complex parking machine where you have to put the registration number of the car. There are 2 officials to help you because people were getting in a mess with it. You then queue to get on the Park and Ride bus. There is no machine to pre buy a ticket. Too expensive apparently. Buses are every 15 mins.

Stuff that marklarky. I drive into the centre now at the weekend. Park right opposite John Lewis. Need to get there by 1000 but that is fine. Providing I leave within 3 hours its £5. 20p more than the mess that is the Park and Ride.

Make the Park and Ride free. Preferably the parking element.