To be so angry with the British high street?

[peoniesarejustperfect]

Went sales shopping yesterday with my elderly Mother yesterday. We went to an 'affluent' city in the south east. We always go shopping after Christmas and it's a bit of a tradition and we normally really enjoy it. Yesterday was just so depressing - it made me fizz with anger. I hardly know where to start!!

The shops were just horrible - full of badly merchandised sales stuff which looked totally uninviting.

In several of the shops we went into there were no staff on the shop floor - we wanted to ask where different departments were (to save Mum walking too much), but no one to ask and poor signage.

In House of Fraser (one of the stores which is remaining open) we waited for 25 mins in the luggage department for a member of staff - there was no one there to help - no tape measure, no useful signs about cabin luggage allowances and no one to take any cash. We hung around for ages with two other families - no chairs to sit on, we just stood around. After a while we all gave up. The same in lingerie - no staff on duty. We had lunch there, which was really nice, but the restaurant loos were closed for cleaning when we went in at 12:15. What restaurant shuts its loos at lunchtime??? They suggested we left the restaurant and 'popped down' two floors to use another loo.

The British high street keep moaning but really, why on earth would anyone want to shop there? Why do they deserve our hard earned cash? It's incredibly expensive to park and the retailers don't seem very keen on keeping customers happy - let alone delighting them! There's not enough staff and with some notable exceptions, many of them are poorly trained - it all seems a bit of an effort for them.

Last Christmas we went to the US. I know it's different in America, but every morning in Macy's, when the doors open, a group of staff clap the shoppers in. We couldn't get over this and asked a sales assistant about it - she told us it's an honour to be picked - to welcome customers, look them in the eye and say thanks for coming. US retail is facing similar challenges, but what a different response. Helpful staff directing you to places, gorgeous merchandising, seats everywhere and staff trained to sell.

Anyone else fed up with the high street?

YANBU to be pissed off OP, and I agree that retail has gone to shit. Many shops are overpriced, all big shopping centres are the same, (with exactly the same shops,) and smaller businesses have been priced out of the big shopping centres, (and big high streets, like Oxford Street London, and New Street Birmingham.)

In addition, the bosses/managers cut staff as low as possible to save on labour to give themselves a bigger bonus at the end of the year, so the remaining staff are having to do twice as much, work twice as hard, and put up with snotty, arsey, miserable, demanding customers.

Many customers are lovely, but one vile bastard who is nasty to you, can cancel out 50 lovely ones who talk to you like you're their friend.

I know around 10 people who work (and did work til recently) at two particular employers who I won't name, but one is a popular place to eat (that is quite cheap,) and the other is a hotel (that is also quite cheap.) Managers at BOTH of these companies got caught by their own staff, STEALING the employees hours.

One example of many, is that one woman (at the hotel,) filled in a time sheet for her hours every day for the 4 days she was in (all days were 7am til 2pm.) She noticed in her paypacket 2 weeks later that she was short on her wages. She was living on the poverty line and accounted for every penny. Luckily, she photocopied all her timesheets.

Long story short, the manager of this hotel had changed the timesheet hours, from 7am to 2pm to 7am to 12pm on 3 of the 4 days she was in, STEALING 6 hours from her. This kind of thing was a common occurrence.

At the popular place to eat that is quite cheap....... people were clocking in, (say at 9am and then clocking out at 3pm,) and the manager was going into the clocking-in system online and changing their hours to 9am to 2.30pm, and she did this to as many as 7 to 10 employees hours.

Again, STEALING peoples hours (and money,) and cutting down the labour to give herself a bigger bonus at the end of the year. I know someone who worked there and saw managers doing it quite often. Once again, this is not a rare occurrence.

Is it any wonder that some people in retail and the service industry can't be arsed with their job when shit like this happens? Not only staff being cut to the bone, but also your employer stealing your hours/stealing your MONEY?!

@kitkat1985

Oh and it's such a faff paying for stuff at the tills these days. "Do you want a x loyalty card?" "Would you like one of our promotional items?" "Can I take your e-mail address to send you a receipt?" "Would you like to be signed up to receive our special offers?"

This is very annoying I agree. But the staff are told to say this, and get as pissed off with it as the customers.....

@BooHasAPressieForYou

Worst recently was in Morrison's when I asked where I would find Christmas trees- "how should I know?" was the reply

I find it very hard to believe any shop assistant would say that.

Agree with the poster who said you quite often find stuff with no prices on, and even more often than that, incorrectly priced stuff! Funny how it's always a cheaper price than the actual item. Eg, i picked up a particular item the other week that was placed over a £3.99 sticker on the shelf, and at the till it came up at £5.99. Happens all the time, in LOADS of shops, and they ALWAYS blame other customers for moving the stock. Bollocks.

Oh and ignore the 'you sound entitled' bullshit that people always spout on here, YANBU to want better service, and shorter queues etc. I do draw the line at someone clapping me as I enter a shop though. No thanks!

Yes, I point out the disposable income peoplecto my DH when we are out. They have all but abandoned the local high streets. I'm still hanging on in there but thus may be the year I give up. And yes I was thinking of getting a cinema season ticket lol!

Went to The Bull ring in Birmingham recently. Never ever again. The place was absolutely heavy but like most shoppi g malls nowadays people treat it like a day out. They can take their kids to run up and down the marble walkways and up and down the escalators, then have a cheap lunch in a generic fast food places and save on a days entertainment. They don't even need to buy anything!

the us are still paid poorly but are trained much better always helpful and they dont stand round clapping all day its just prob macys and the big city ones that do it

"Disposable income" is shorthand for disposable income, with a car and not of an age that's interested in the very latest clothes! They are parked at the out of town and garden centres round our way and who can blame them.

My teenagers like to venture into the nearest city but it's not so attractive to the rest of us anymore.

I shop irl and online but have to physically try on shoes. The sizes vary so much and they need to feel comfortable. I do not envisage the day I would not go into a shoe shop ... as long as there are any shoe shops that is!!!

I went into an independent dress shop just before christmas which wasn't even that nice, the person working there said across the shop very loudly, I think you'll find we don't stock clothes in your size - I am a size 18 not an elephant!!!
I said thank you for publicly fat shaming me in front of all your other customers very loudly and walked out.
Unbelievable - back to buying my clothing online.

wow mad thats awful-im large and look round with my sister too scared to ask the question though

primark ar4e doing some lines up to 24 now if youre interested in looking there

I know it's different in America, but every morning in Macy's, when the doors open, a group of staff clap the shoppers in

That sounds like North Korea. Imagine being the twat of a manager who demands the staff humiliate themselves like that. And Macy's is pretty dull.

disposable income, with a car and not of an age that's interested in the very latest clothes!

I was thinking more mortgage/rent free and no children/ grown and flown children.

It's more true in our family anyway they have more discretionary spending power - certainly IL don't drive and care way more about clothes than we ever will.

I'm the same with shoes nicslackey
I cannot buy shoes online because I usually end up trying on 20+ pairs of shoes before I find any that are comfortable.

I tried to do my Christmas shopping on my local high street. Got a few bits, got wet, went home and went on Amazon.

Pretty well given up on clothes shopping on the high street after finding almost no maternity clothes on Oxford Street or in central Birmingham. I can go round all the shops and find nothing I want to try on, let alone buy, so I just pick up basics at supermarkets and will definitely plan in advance and buy anything else online as I have been happy with my online nursing purchases!

I'm another wondering what the high street is actually for. There is nothing there to pull me in. I dont even bother with my local pharmacy since I found I got better service from Pharmacy2U.

The high street is not something which has been around since time immemorium. It replaced street markets and hawkers and peddlers. The high street as it stands in its turn is being replaced by the internet.

So what next for the space? The idea of making it more residential makes sense. That will encourage more corner shop type stores plus other services to serve a residential community.

8 pages, and I don't think anyone has mentioned just how dirty the High Street is? Lot's of entitled people, who finish a sandwich or drink and literally drop the wrapping on to the streets.

Also, I went to Dunfermline recently, and in the multi storey car park, they now want you to download an App in order to pay for your parking! WTF! What if you didn't have a smartphone? Sooo much hassle, it's really off putting.

I do most of my shopping online, for the exact reasons previous posters have said. In particular, I don’t have the time to get to the shops as they’re often not open long enough around my working hours and I can hardly ever get what I want anyway. Why would I spend a fortune on parking to traipse around 3 different shops looking for one item as the first two don’t stock it or are out of stock, when I could buy it online and have it delivered the next day, probably at a cheaper price and for less hassle.

I realise the chicken and egg situation but unfortunately for me and my circumstances, online wins.

I think one of the problems is the lack of rubbish bins these days due to terrorist activity. I have noticed that the only rubbish bins at Meadowhall are where the food outlets are.

Yes it won't be easy to rebrand the average UK high street as a pleasant place to live.

But the point is I can order online from the comfort of my own sofa with a cuppa. The high street store has to offer something online can’t.

For example, right now I’m pregnant. I need maternity clothes. It’s the first time in a decade I haven’t been about the same size/shape and so haven’t been able to guess what clothes will look like on me. So why is there literally nowhere I can go within 20 miles that stocks maternity clothing in store? I don’t want to click and collect then return £200 worth of clothing in your store. I want to come in and try on 25 different pairs of jeans and work out what works, then buy that then and there. Likewise prams; if you want to flog me a pram that costs more than a small car I expect you to be able to get one in store for me to look at. While I’m there I will probably pick up a bunch of other stuff I’ll need for the baby. But if you can’t do that and tell me to click and collect it from your website I’m going to notice amazon will ship it to my house for free and it’s £50 cheaper. Then I’ll order the other bits there too.

Did anyone read what the head of Timpsons said about the future of the High Street ?

I think the shareholders, directors and managers of a lot of companies only have themselves to blame for how things are now. It's not just about the internet - companies like Waterstones can thrive because managers have been told to be discerning about who they employ, and the knowledge and interest in their products comes across. The stores are mostly designed so that stock is well spaced out and they have armchairs and sofas which means you can sit there relaxing, reading or whatever. The powers that be at a lot of other places haven't the intelligence to realise that you shouldn't undervalue the experience of shopping.

I also think the British love affair with department stores has waned dramatically in recent years. Seems too much of a faff now to wonder from department to department, often requiring more faff getting there by public transport or trying to park nearby.

Too much of the high street is samey. WHSmith sells the same a Hallmark cards as Clinton’s and Tesco’s. Same Lindt chocolate everywhere, same “ best sellers” books in every shop including the charity shops.

Yes, agree with this. Which is why I find shops with more random (and variable) stock more interesting to shop in these days - like TK Max, Lidl, Aldi.

I worked at M&S before I had my first DD 3 years ago for the Christmas season, the que was nearly out the door and I was left heavily pregnant serving these customers with no help at all, I was ringing my bell no one came, people was getting angry with me even though I couldn't do nothing and then people wanted refunds too this went on for my whole shift (only 4 hours). But it was just funny to hear the other members staff worrying if the shop would be closing down soon and what everyone would do, yet they used to sit up in the staff room ignoring bells etc and we had a lot of staff in store at the time.

I feel really uncomfortable in Macy's etc (not to mention the US and Isaeli stores where staff get commission on particular client sales, so they are past helpful into overbearing).

FWIW my favourite shopping experience is the enormous warehouse of a Sainsbury's near my home. I'm not sure if it's a national thing but this store employs a lot of people who would otherwise be fairly unemployable, and they do an exceptional job. I am very happy to give them my custom.

The high street is not something which has been around since time immemorium. It replaced street markets and hawkers and peddlers. The high street as it stands in its turn is being replaced by the internet.

The High Street used to be mostly small independent shops with a small number of chains such as Co-Op, Redmans, Lipmans, etc who still had relatively small shops. When the larger chains took over the High Street, they killed off all the corner shops and precincts that were in every residential area. Then came the retail parks which badly damaged the High Street chains which are now being damaged further by the internet. Ironically, there are new "corner shops" opening up again in residential areas, such as Spars, Londis etc. What goes around, comes around!