To feel sad about how many retailers are going under

[Cinammoncake]

Just read about Clintons and I felt quite sad and nostalgic about all the losses and how many more shop chains there will be that will soon be lost from the high street.

I think Brexit has a lot to do with the high st woes

Chain stores were closing down 10-20 years ago, long before Brexit was even a twinkle in Farage's eye.

You can't blame Brexit for Woolworth's closure in 2008 - 11 years ago.

Or Littlewoods in 2005 - 14 years ago.

Business rates have risen as councils, squeezed by central government, try to raise money where they can.

Local councils have no power to set business rates - it's all done by central government.

I'm also surprised WHS is still going but it must be because of the station branches.

WHS High St branches are still turning a profit, that's why they still exist. Unprofitable ones are closed down as and when they are no longer viable - there are a number of High St closures every year. That's probably why they are surviving - they're cutting the dead wood so the profitable ones aren't subsidising the loss making ones, so the whole firm remains sustainable.

A lot of these shops which are struggling have the same things in common. Vast areas of stores taken up with complete tat which is of no relevance to the nature of the store whatsoever, flogging shite at the tills, having poor stock holding and having atrocious customer service. Oh and usually overpriced too.

Why would I choose to spend my money somewhere my presence is seemingly an imposition on the staff?

I choose to shop online because its just a far more pleasant experience.

@SteamedPotatoes Labour have been calling out tax avoiders and unscrupulous businesses for a long time, long before the election campaign started.

If a business trades here, they should pay taxes here. And HMRC should not be having meetings with these businesses to assist in their tax planning.

Unprofitable ones are closed down as and when they are no longer viable

Or combined with the post office, which seems to have become a recent trend.

Clinton’s was too expensive for me
I buy cards in supermarket at card factory or local independents

I shop online for almost everything now. My high street doesn't have many shops left. I have to pay to get into town too whereas most online shops offer free delivery and easy returns. They are always out of stock in things when I do go in. There is also a lot more choice online and it is just easier as the shops all close at 6pm.

I think also people buy fewer cards now. This will be the first year I am not doing christmas cards due to cost of stamps and the fact people don't reciprocate. It is really only older relatives that send them these days for any occasion.

In town the only shop that is always totally packed is Primark. I suspect sadly more will go after Christmas if they don't get their expected sales.

I think it’s interesting that male dominated heavy industries like steel get government rescues and weeks of take but no one gives a shit about retail

It’s absolutely nothing to do with it being a male dominated industry. It’s in the national interest for the country to have a way of producing its own steel, that’s why the government would step in to provide assistance for certain industries.

I think you have to travel abroad a few times at least, out of Europe especially to fully appreciate how dire British customer service actually is.

I practically had to flag down the guy at the (queue-free)till at a supermarket this week as he was too busy chatting to the guy serving at the next till.

Lots of Brits just accept it. Like the rain. Fucking rain. Can you tell I'm pissed off with the rain?

But more to the point, I always did think Clinton's were overpriced shite with shit teddies.

Specifically to cards, it's very difficult to find good cards for people that aren't living sexist clichés. Try finding cards for men who are teatotal and totally uninterested in sport. Try finding cards for women not interested in shopping, shoes/ handbags, flowers, pink, gin/ wine/ cake. People that don't welcome humour about growing old or innuendo. Cards for mothers who don't dote on you, just a simple "happy mothers day" would suffice, not a load of vomit inducing gushing. Plus the cost of the likes of Clintons is expensive compared to other retailers. I'm not paying £5 in petrol and parking just to buy a card in town, I go to the local newsagent.

For the High Street in general, it's tiresome dodging street drunks/ druggies/ evangelical preachers/ chuggers/ Sky subscriptions. Stock management is poor. Layouts are cluttered and it's hard to walk from one end of a shop to another in a straight line. Sizing is poor, many shops such as Monsoon/ M&S don't do a size suitable for a woman who is averagely small and short. Petite has gone online only. Customer service is poor, I don't want upselling, just efficient pleasant service at tills. I always thought that there should be a help point where a customer can call for help rather than being pounced on too early.

When I'm in town, I don't want to pad out the visit in painfully loud, overpriced coffee shops of crap cake and artifically sweetened soft drinks. I don't want to have an IBS attack at the new trend of desert parlours. Finding pleasant places to go is hard going.

Obscure and specialist stuff, I buy online. Things like clothes I rarely buy. I have a good stock of clothes that fit over the last 20 years. I rarely need new things and when I do, I struggle to find what I need. Fashions have been rubbish in recent years and quality is plummeting and not proportionate to pricing. I don't want to buy blind online then return most of it. I just don't often end up going to the bother of buying new clothes.

There are structural issues such as rates, rents and private equity stripping assets. BHS deserved to go under for being neglected and being so dowdy for years. Poor management again. Better customer service doesn't need to cost a lot in investment though, just break away from the script that no one wants.

This thread is making me realise how much of my bricks and mortar shopping involves independents or at the very most, small local chains like Yorkshire Trading or Boyes.
It's not because I am trying to support independent retailers, it's because they are the ones that are selling what I need at reasonable prices rather than filling their space with crap, not hassling me the moment I walk in, properly staffed by humans not self service tills, etc.
I can't get upset about the loss of chains that a few years ago everyone was bemoaning because they were pushing the independents out of the high street.

Clintons started having problems when Moonpig got set up as suddenly you could get the same quality cards and have them posted and customised for you. Then Card Factory’s successful low cost model started putting pressure on the remaining shops. Clintons should have moved completely online back when it was a valuable brand.

I was in a city centre today and eo dered about the future of Debenhams. Their Christmas window display was half empty, the empty half had a sign about their discount floor having 70%.

My town is all about chains with hardly any independents. Restaurants as well as shops.

If only this could be reversed.

It is a shame for people who are losing their jobs - but I do think that the retail sector is inevitably going to face a huge shake up because the times they are changing.

There are too many shops in my opinion now because of relentless expansion of out of town centres and new ones in the city centre. We have a newly built out of town shopping centre that hasn't been open long but is already struggling and pretty quiet whenever you visit. That's not to mention the up-market one that was built in town a few years ago - also struggling with some shops still unlet.

I remember looking around the up-market one when it first opened and wondering who was going to shop there, because I know I can't afford to and I'm not, touch wood, struggling badly for money and certainly better off then many people in my city. So who does that leave? Not enough people to keep it going probably.

I think the zeitgeist is totally different now as other posters have suggested. We all have one eye on the environment and consider our spending accordingly and are making things go further.

I wasn't surprised to see Mothercare go. I remember being very disappointed when I first visited years ago - such a dump and so hard to find what you needed.

I also agree with others who say that the experience of shopping in person can be unpleasant. To get to my city I have to take public transport which is expensive, slow and sometimes dirty. I then have to navigate around the 4 chuggers per street who won't take no for an answer.

Once I get in the shops themselves I can never find what I'm looking for because they move the displays once a month or so which just winds me up and wastes my time.

By the time I'm done I wish I'd never bothered.

Specifically to cards, it's very difficult to find good cards for people that aren't living sexist clichés.

@ShinyGiratina Yes I had that problem, it's very irritating. I wanted a card for my husband once and it was either sports based cards or sexist cards telling him how lucky he was to be married to me. As he doesn't like sport and I try not to be a conceited dick head I walked out empty handed.

I'm worried clarks will die; I'm between 7 and7.5 and hardly any other places make shoes that are comfy. But then, I shop clarks online.

Like ppl have said, I work full time and rarely get home before 6. Weekends are either family time or work prep time. I can't justify a couple of hours shopping... but I can do online shopping in the 20mins I have for breakfast or during swimming lessons etc.

Independents often use Amazon or Google to highlight their offers so it’s not as simple as Amazon / Google is destroying the high street. It’s not. Eg in the baby / kids sector - It’s simply allowed independent bricks and morter shops like Natural Baby Shower, Uber Kids, Jojo Maman and Bebe, Winstanley’s Pram world etc to compete directly with the big high street retailers for certain brands. For these big stores to work now they must offer price match and service / product guarantees like John Lewis does.

The last time I went into Clinton’s was about 8 years ago, I needed a birthday card urgently and was walking past a branch. It took ages for me to find simple birthday cards amongst all the other random cards and overpriced tat. I then had to face a long queue. The till is a bit weird too, like the staff are standing over you. I used to buy forever friends tat there when I was about 11 - I guess kids have other preferences now and don’t tend to send cards.

Clarks have the school shoes market

The other big problem is that every high street is now pretty much the same.

I live in Edinburgh but 25yrs ago if I had a day out in Glasgow or Newcastle they would be very different. Now it’s all Next, Starbucks, Vodaphone, Primark. There’s no uniqueto that city department store - just much of a muchness to every city.

Independents often use Amazon or Google to highlight their offers so it’s not as simple as Amazon / Google is destroying the high street.

Most of the stuff on Amazon isn't their own stock - it's independent firms selling their own stuff via Amazon as an online marketplace. They send their stock in bulk to be held in Amazon warehouses so it can be sold via Amazon Prime etc - known as "fulfilled by Amazon". Amazon themselves just make a commission as their profit share.

I stand corrected re: business rates.

No one here goes to Clark’s for school shoes. The one thing that I thought it would be essential to go into town for, I now buy online. Fed up of going to JL, Clarke’s only for them to have at best one style in DDs size the week before term goes back. Now I take the DCs in to get measured and buy online, and am very clear why I am doing so. Clinkards was better for stock though.

I didn’t realise Clinton’s was still open?! There is none anywhere near me (and I live in London) haven’t seen one in years