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?

I think it's a universal problem sadly, the high street is dying. I live in the affluent suburbs of SW London and it is the same here. So depressing.

We've got empty shops, bookies, vape shops, barbers and mobile phone repair shops. Indy take aways that last max a year and charity shops. It's such a waste and looks awful.

McDonalds is a franchise with high levels of fixed cost to use the McDonalds suppliers/ logos etc. It might be that the franchisee had just overstretched themselves?

The two shops that tempt me in to town and part with money are Waterstones and the independent shoe shop.

I've no great need for new clothes and am not a fan of current fashions. Plus petites went online about 10 years ago. Most of the shops I used in my 20s are gone, so I don't really know where to shop anyway.

Most of the stuff I buy is a bit niche or obscure that I would never have known where to buy it from on the High Street anyway.

Town's looked run-down since the late 2000s due to local issues and wider trends. There are a lot of issues from abusive street drunks/ druggies. The chuggers seem to be better regulated than they were, but there was a point where you couldn't walk in a straight line without being sworn at, being sent to Hell and asked if you like puppies and want to donate £2/month or a Sky Sports subscription.

I'm not tempted in by wanky coffees, mountains of over-decorated icecream on waffles or over-priced mediocre cake.

@Waxonwaxoff0 Yep you are right- we spend amounts on rent that to be honest make my eyes water, just to live somewhere that's reasonably ok- we are lucky to be able to do it , and accept it may not always be the case. I'm from a not very thrilling town originally and large parts of UK towns are really a bit grim - no wonder we've got so many depressed people.

Many posts back, but this, absolutely. If shops are losing a huge proportion of their in-person customers to online shopping, why would they keep their expensive town centre premises, and expensive staff? If you're sad about your high street consisting of charity shops, betting shops, and cafes, ask yourself how much you've spent online in the past year compared with in store.

@pussycatlickinglollyices are you in Maidenhead? We had to go there the other day for something and blimey , it's half demolished and half closed - what a depressing centre for quite an expensive area.

I thought so! I always wondered why that McDonalds closed, it was always busy. I live not far in town beginning with L.

Burger King and KFC have left my town centre, I believe.

My town is awash with coffee shops/cafes, and most of them are independents, but we have Costa and Cafe Nero, plus a Costa in the Tesco on the edge of town. Our Waterstones did coffee as well, but stopped when Covid happened.

We have little that's useful though. For clothes, there's New Look, Sea Salt, Jigsaw and White Stuff, plus a couple of very expensive independents. We don't have a hardware shop, only one (expensive, independent) shoe shop (Clarks closed down), and the nearest place you can buy underwear is 8 miles away.

Never had a Macdonalds here, and there would be strenuous resistance if they ever tried to open one. But we do have around 20 pubs!

Large northern town and Costas seem to be popping up all over the place. A few McDonalds still going strong as well.

This thread is making me realise that our town may not be as bad as I thought. We still have our town centre MacDonalds and have gained another just on the edge of the centre. We have a Costa in the centre too, obviously as well as lots of others all around.

We must be greedy as we have 6 McDonald's all within 5 mile of each other!! 3 kfc 4 Costa and 3 Taco Bell as well as many other fast food stores . Ironically it's a deprived area. It's a town not city.

I think a PP has mentioned our town - SC university town with expensive residential areas around it.

But no department stores when we used to have three, no M&S or BHS, and New Look has gone along with Topshop, and possibly H&M?

The rot set in when they demolished all the family activities - swimming baths, ice rink, end of pier theatre, etc.

The council, one of the most corrupt in the country allegedly decided that their target demographic was stag and hens and students. There’s a prolific but troublesome nightlife scene, takeaways galore, and a number of high end restaurants etc but out of the price range of most residents - they’re aimed at the local “glitterati” for the most part.

I am a small independent retailer myself and had to move from the outskirts of the town centre to a “rough area” where I’m doing better in a smaller cheaper shop than I did in five years where I was despite trying literally everything to build the business.

I am 53 and have lived in my town almost my whole life. I could weep when I go into the centre which is boarded up and only lively when they run summer and Christmas markets for a few weeks.

Rents are astronomical in the town centre, and the big corporate out of town landlords don’t care about big units being empty as they still count as portfolio assets and can get tax breaks I believe.

It’s very depressing.

Our town centre is dying as well…though there are a multitude of independent cafes and we still have a mcdonalds

we also have three costas 😳

Three costas in the town centre

Our town fared quite well until Covid and seemed to hang onto stores which closed in other towns. However, the loss Of shops such as Topshop, Dorothy Perkins etc, plus M and S moving to a larger (almost) out of town store means that the middle section looks tired. Some parts look okay-ish, other parts not.

Trouble is, less shops mean less shoppers, so it’s a vicious circle.

The i dependent shoe shop and Waterstones - wonder if we’re talking about same town.

My local shopping centre (SE London) has a few empty shops but seems to be doing ok.

There are two McD, two Costas, Neros, numerous independent coffee shops and restaurants.

Shops include M&S food and clothes, TK Max, Primark, The White Company, Joules, Next and lots of other well known names.

One empty shop has been taken over by the community and it gives green advice regarding recycling and upcycling. There are workshops on how to knit, sew, crochet and how to repair and mend clothes. There is also a bank of gardening / DIY tools which can be borrowed. It is run by volunteers and some paid employees.

Oooh do you live in a town starting with E and is next becoming a bakery?

We're in a very small town, but our high street is absolutely thriving. We don't have any big chain food places (one coffee shop is part of a small chain) but theres actually a shortage of shops for new businesses at the moment, and they are proposing to expand the indoor market to accommodate more.

Our McDonalds and Burger King closed down in the town centre. We still have two McDonalds and KFC's in 'town' but not the town centre where the shops are.

I live in a tiny coastal town and the only chain shop we have is Tesco. The nearest McDonald's and Costa are 45 minutes away - same with any other supermarket - and the nearest Starbucks is an hour away.

We have a few independent shops but they're all struggling and several have closed since COVID hit.

My centre does have a lot of empty shops now. I think part of the reason is the Council's drive to move cars out, now they want it to be totally pedestrianised by closing roads that buses use making it more difficult for people with disabilities and old people to shop.

@Waxonwaxoff0 @Mercurial123

We went through Beeston for the first time in years the other month and were surprised by the improvements and investment in the town. It's got to be linked to the tram network though? If they expand the tramline down to Long Eaton, it's likely to improve that area too.

Both towns are much better than our small market town in the West Midlands. We have never had a Maccies to lose!