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?

@Mercurial123 please tell me Bird's is still there?!
Not been for years (used to live nearby & had family there) but loved Bird's

I wish the macdonald and costa would close everywhere
overpriced junk

I don’t know… Lots of empty units in our small SW city, but food/coffee outlets seem to be thriving!

We live close to a few towns like this (ex mining towns) and none of them have a Costa or McDonald’s in the town centre. There’s a big leisure centre type thing in the middle of them all which has McDonald’s, KFC, Costa, Starbucks etc so everyone has to go there if they want to. We’re in a village so definitely no Costa etc here, have to drive 15 mins to the nearest one! The towns have independent coffee shops but no chains at all.

We live near Leamington Spa which is a pretty affluent town with a reputation for having a good selection of independent retail outlets. Many of these appear to be thriving still and it’s a pleasant shopping environment.
However M&S have relocated to the out of town shopping park, to the old Debenhams store, though they have kept a food store on the Parade. This leaves a big two story unit empty in the Royal Priors and there is another similar empty where Top Shop was. Add in a big empty hairdressers unit and several smaller ones that housed a lovely jewellery shop and one selling jigsaws, plus several more, and the overall effect in that centre is a bit depressing.
On the Parade House of Fraser, which had four floors of shopping, has finally given up after years of losing its way. This is also empty and it’s hard to imagine how these will be filled.
Dozens of coffee shops are still flourishing.

Yes these businessess with few customers seem to proliferate. Funny that!

In my part of SW London there's plenty of people around and on the street there's still
quite a number of shops and our own independent department store, but more restaurants than you would think possible! The line of takeaway mopeds is amazing as they wait to get called in for orders.
The mall though lost it's anchor store (Debenhams) and I can't see what would take its place. It's like a ghost town in there - the once buzzing cafe court has gone. They are doing some renovations so maybe they have plans to revive it the mall but currently only the vaccination centre, Boots and Lakeland are the only stores of note. It's a shame but I confess I do 90% of my shopping online so contribute to the issue.

It seems like it is really variable then - i was particularly talking about the big chain food franchises - 50% of all shop units have been empty in our town for years but it seemed the food chains were surviving but no longer.

We do have lots of independents of all types start up but most close again within a few months.

We have always had free parking in our town - there are no charges anywhere. and we have never really had any of the big chains beside Boots and WHSmiths - we have several B&M and pound shops, we did have a lot of charity shops but many of these have closed now as well as have the nail salons - Barbers seem to be flourishing at the moment but nothing else.

I feel for the people with no transport as they are dependant upon the town centre and it really is dying now but i don't know the answer as i am one of the many who rarely if ever use it.

But we have consistently had an appalling county and borough council which i do not think has helped.

It's a shame but I confess I do 90% of my shopping online so contribute to the issue

i didnt, bloody have to do it now

and to be honest i partly blame the greed of big business, they saw the opportunity of online shopping and even though they had a shop in just about every town centre they got an online presence. Quite often thousands of goods on line which obviously couldn’t be replicated in store so if i want that t shirt in blue and not pink i can only buy it online

i went to currys the other day to buy a dvd player….there isnt one in town so i went to the very very large out of town store but they didnt have one single player in stock, a few years ago i went in for a microwave and the member of staff told me to google it! (Nicely, she wasnt rude) so we did google it, found one we wanted, which they didnt have in stock, and bought it with next day delivery and £10 cheaper from john lewis

Oh yes and parking charges

a small off shoot of the high street had 40 minutes free parking, lots of independent shops and you could pop to the bakers and into some of the shops, or go to the podiatrist for 30 minutes

now its 20 minutes free, the shops tried to stop it but the council insisted

i live in a seaside town and they are charging to park on the front, so much oess popping to the shops there as well (people who live here or know the area now park on the residential roads…a bus couldn’t get through the other day)

our high street post office has closed down! There are other post offices a bus ride away, it isn’t great.

A worrying development is the conversion of empty retail to flats - which are often cheap bedsit-y ones with no parking and bought by investors with no interest (other than financial) in them. The government has changed planning rules to make this easier.

Yes, we need more housing, but is this the best place for it and the right answer for our town centres?

Not in my town, 2 new McDonalds have just opened up! I've noticed a few more empty shops but the restaurants, coffee shops, food etc are ridiculously busy.

Personally I think it's a process of evolution. Yes the old style High Street are dying out and it can be sad to see boarded-up buildings.

However over time I think new businesses will come in to fill the space, many of the empty retail premises will be converted to residential, and town centres will be used more for services rather than shopping. I think it's cyclical and we will see a bounce back over time.

Evolution or an extinction event?

It's not the norm for my town. Our highstreet is thriving. We have two Costas, Cafe Nero, lots of independent cafes, New Look, Specsavers, M&S, Boots, Superdrugs, Greg's, Wetherspoons, a travel agents, a rum bar, a shop selling fabric, a suit shop and a wedding dress shop, butcher, tons of hair dressers, two cake shops, two florists, pet shop, tons of pubs, Wilko, an independent book store, an art studio and so many more.. The small independent shops far outnumber the chain shops. We don't have a McDonalds (or similar fast food place) because the town voted against it - they didn't want it to take away business from the independent cafes.

The town is a busy market town in Wiltshire where we have a large number of elderly and middle aged so the highstreet is always busy especially on market days. We also seem to have a large number of entrepreneurs and as soon as one shop closes someone else is ready to move in.

I think the key to reviving highstreets are small independent businesses but commercial rent can be astronomical. The councils/landlords really need to give their heads a wobble over what's better - empty highstreets and no rent or a busy highstreet with thriving businesses paying a reasonable rate of rent.

Our Town was never great but there was a nice H of Fraser which now looks like a jumble sale. There was also M&S and Benetton so it was worth me going But they closed
Now I have no reason to go at all and so don’t

My closest town is touristy and filled with upmarket delis, bakeries, galleries, whisky, tweed etc. Apart from the tiny co-op there aren't any chains but really I can't afford to shop there so buy everything from Aldi the next town over.

A lot of our empty retail and offices spaces are being turned into Student accommodation (we have a Uni)

I only go in town for the bank really nowadays. Always shocked how run down is. Quite horrible to be honest.

It’s normal where I am and I am in London, high street is dead all shops closing, starbucks closed, now all they open is cheap tacky £5 clothes shops, they are always empty but someone must shop in them as they keep opening new ones there is about 10 of them on my local high street and not much else!

I think you live in my hometown!! De?

Why the mystery about just posting the initial of the town you live, nobody will have a clue of who you are.

Our town centre is dying on its arse. Lost Debenhams, Gap, JD Sports, BHS, Laura Ashley, in recent years. TSB and WH Smith are closing soon. M&S are relocating to the out of town centre this summer. The empty units are not being filled. It's all pound shops and bookies now.

If that’s at me - I don’t mind outing where I live. In fact I couldn’t care less. But if I’m asking other people if they live there then it’s a bit rude to ‘out’ them without their permissions surely?