to ask if my town is typical.

[Upamountain43]

The town i live in has been a bit run down for decades and it definitely would never be classed as anything but a working class town.

A couple of years ago the almost unthinkable happened and our McDonalds closed down.

Driving through the centre yesterday i noticed our Costa has now shut down.

We do still have them at out of town shopping areas but no longer in our town centre.

Its not that I'm shedding any tears about these companies going - but it has made me wonder if this happening everywhere? I think it must show how dire things are for our town centres now or is our town just an anomaly?

My town has had a lot of investment during Covid, a new cinema with restaurants and cafes. Some units are still empty. We have a Costa and independent cafes. It's in a university town which may help. There was a McDonald's but that closed years ago.

Our high street is always busy and seems.to be thriving. However, it's a traditional London commuter town which is fairly affluent and also seems to have been given new life by people working more from home. The type of premises has changed too. There are very few of the big chains - our branch of Next recently closed. It is generally more coffee shops, restaurants and beauty places, so things that have to be visited in person and can't be shopped for online.

No our small town has three Costa's, two Starbuck's, Cafe Nero, two Mcdonald's, a KFC, two Subways, M&S with a good sized food hall, WHSmith's is holding out and 7 major supermarkets. Most are brand new or refurbished.

I am often surprised at how rundown shops are in other towns.

I am not sure if you mean the chains are going and the premises are now empty, or that the chains are going and independents are taking over?

If the former, no, that's not like my town. If the latter, yes, very much like my town. People have turned away from chains and are far more interested in giving custom to independent cafes, restaurants, shops. They thrive locally.

Our local Costa closed 2 weeks ago. Not sorry to see it go, as it was always filthy. We are very fortunate to have many independent coffee shops and they are always busy.

It's a bit off topic, but I've seen two programmes recently that have featured robots and drones being on trial. One was the co op sending the mini robots out to people and one was a celeb in a hotel who had her afternoon tea served to her by a robot. If this is the future it looked a bit bleak : the shop or delivery service doesn't need to pay wages and maybe just one person to programme it in or maintain it or something ?
I'm sure it's still a long way off and it's not foolproof though but who knows? I did hear that Amazon wanted drones too!

One reason I choose to live in tourist places. In last 10 years we've lived in Oxford, Bath, Copenhagen and now back to Windsor. There are big downsides but the upsides are reasonably lively town/city centres - yes there are still lots of empty premises but still enough for it to be ok

I think it probably depends on the town and the parking situation. McDonalds has shut in one of our local town centres but has two drive thrus on the outskirts which always look busy. In our nearest town the Greggs and Costa are on a retail park with loads of parking and a Secondary school round the corner.

There actually have been robots delivering takeaways in Milton Keynes for a fair few years! I'm not sure they're any good for the local economy in that they replace delivery drivers, but they are very cute (and popular as a result).

www.miltonkeynes.co.uk/news/people/milton-keynes-famous-robots-spread-their-wings-to-deliver-in-cambridgeshire-3385249

Our "Town" McDonalds closed and built 2 x drive-thrus a few years ago.

No idea about Costa etc as I've not actually been into town for about 3 yrs - it's part demolished and part closed anyway. I go to another town a few miles away with free parking and open shops.

Our Waitrose closed and reopened as Lidl...

I'm in Scotland and I visited what used to be quite a bustling well kept small town the other day. I was shocked at how much it had declined. The previously tidy and bright high street was full of empty premises and peeling paintwork. It was still bustling yet several of the businesses had clearly closed down and nothing replaced them (including the one I used to work for). It really had an air of scruffiness and decline about it even though it was a nice bright sunny Saturday.

This town has had massive numbers of new build housing estates built on the edge of it, doubling its size, in the last 10 years, along with a retail park containing a supermarket, Costa, Macdonalds, chain restaurant and garden centre. I don't really think this is a great model of town planning and it seems obvious that the town centre is dying.

I honestly don't know what the Scottish Government is doing with its urban planning. There are plans to bring in a £2 per day charge to drive into Edinburgh (at least thats what it will start at) but where I used to live, the bus took 1 1/2 hours journey one way to get to the centre from a suburb 8 miles away, including the walk on either end. Every road around is a constant traffic jam so if you want to drive the 3 miles to the railway station (services not reliable), it would take 30 minutes. Why not walk? Well, theres actually no footpath...you would have to walk on the mud at the side of a busy trunk road with nothing separating you from traffic thundering past.

Surely city centres should be busy places and easy to get to? London is different, theres far more money and well paid jobs there and it has an extensive underground system which is easy to use.

McDonalds and Costa both run on the franchise model. Either the franchisees weren't making enough return, or they moved elsewhere and couldn't find anyone to take it on.

People haven't been going out, and with increasing WFH over the last couple of years the businesses that relied on office trade have struggled (as have newspapers, which is why the government are so keen to get people back in offices - Murdoch, etc. are leaning on them).

Actually wfh has helped our local McDonalds as lots of people pop there for lunch, to get out the house for a bit. Same for Costa & other local cafes - they're booming as people are wfh & not commuting out of the town anymore/as much.

Our nearest town has recently got a McDonalds and new Costa drive through is being constructed next door as we speak. It's quite an affluent area though. It's a small, rural market town.

Our town has become filled with cafes, hairdressers and charity shops. We've lost a haberdashers, a butchers, a DIY store, a car parts shop, Barclays, Nat West, Santander, Lloyd's and were losing HSBC in September.
We're midway between 2 cities but one already has a Clean Air Zone (Bath) and the other (Bristol) is getting one very soon which will impact footfall in the city centre retail areas.

@saveforthat M&S in Broadmead , Bristol closed down months ago.

I live in a 'deprived' area. Some naice parts, but in the main, definitely working class.

Our shopping centres are bloody abysmal.

There is not one shoe shop in the whole of the town. The High Street in the older part of town is a shithole full of charity shops and takeaways.

The shopping mall is an absolute pile of shite and feels like The Walking Dead, if there is any reason I need to go there - which is barely.

So many Subways! Can't keep up.

Does your town begin with a B by any chance? Sounds very familiar to one not far away from me, it's much nicer than my town 😁

They're all very expensive places to live though! I couldn't afford to live in any of those places. That's why our towns are run down, because they're full of poor folk! 😂

Not my experience though we have no Starbucks, but three new independent coffee shops. McDonalds still thriving.

Yes, Beeston!

South coast tourist town and it’s pretty dire now. All the department stores have gone, town centre McDonalds is still there along with a BK and a KFC plus a million coffee shops and food outlets. A few high street clothes chains are left but loads have gone. There’s a Primark, a Zara and a River Island left but that’s about it. It used to be so much better.

It’s not a poor area either.