Poll. Did you stick to the high street or switch to out of town?

[IncompleteSenten]

Not a taat but inspired by. Purely because I'm curious and polls make posters honest 😁

High streets are ghost towns now. When the alternatives that led to this happening first sprung up did you

YABU - I stuck to the high street 80%-100% of the time until the shops all closed and I had absolutely no alternative.

YANBU - I switched to the big supermarkets and the retail parks and home delivery etc 80% - 100% of the time

If you are too young to have had the choice please don't vote 😁

High streets are ghost towns now.

Really not my experience at all.

Switched. It was cheaper and easier.

If the high streets didn’t make it so difficult and expensive to visit them they would still be thriving.

Switched, the high street is so expensive!

A mix- I hate retail.parks and online shopping but go to big supermarkets but there are 3 very close to me. I'm about a mile from both the city centre and a vibrant neighbourhood and go to specialist, independent shops in both.

I use both. I live in a small town where there are still small independent shops and cafes although the banks have gone. I also live near several large retail parks so use those too as they are convenient for parking. Wilko and Argos just gone from there though.

Yabu

Where I live the town centre is always packed with people. South East tourist town though.

The high street tended to be expensive, you had to pay to park, and I simply didn’t have time (city job) to wander round the shops. I buy nearly everything from supermarkets and Amazon.

It depends on lifestyle though. I have more time now and can walk to the town centre, so it’s now nice to go rather than a frantic frazzled event.,

Out of town but no choice here - deadest high street I’ve ever seen in this town.

I’ve never used home delivery, and I don’t have a car, so retail parks would be difficult. My high street seem OK, though the banks have all closed.

Switched.

I hate routine shopping and found department stores like Debenhams deeply depressing (low ceiling and Muzak I think)

Saying that, all the high streets / town centres where I live are either thriving or in OK shape - with small shops etc. I appreciate that’s not the case everywhere. Although I think the country may sink under the weight of coffee shops..

My village has the traditional small shops plus coffee shops etc . It's a massive tourist village in a national park and the tourists keep them going. Us locals mostly drive out or have home delivery. I read other posters not in tourist areas talk about how their high streets are mostly closed shops or pound shops. So my own high street exists (no banks or clothing shops though)

What is a taat and what type of shopping are you asking about? Clothes, homewares, food shopping or something else?

My high street is far from a ghost town!

Omg I was thinking of starting a thread just to rant about my recent experience.

Went to a big high street shopping area a 20min train ride away to get some winter maternity clothes. (Because I'm starting my third trimester but all my maternity stuff from prev pregnancy is summer stuff).

Let me tell you, I am not fussy. Just anything that vaguely fits and is warm and not too scratchy and I'm basically willing to pay whatever. Any style, any colour. But I'd rather not buy online as I'd rather try stuff on

I tried:
M+S
Next
Tkmaxx
New Look
River island
H+M - temporarily closed
Debenham - permanently closed

And every SINGLE one (except the ones that were closed altogether) said their maternity range was online only. Bearing in mind a) this isn't clear when you look up their "store finder". Also b) I have PGP so hauling my huge person from shop to shop took me ages and got painful.

The ONLY shop with maternity in-store was Primark (I could have hugged the sales assistant who told me), although it was a small section but I almost cried with relief by that point - and I saw they had some fabulous maternity jogger bottoms. Fab, I think! They're reduced from like £15 to £5...er...this is almost too good? Because the entire rail was only XS and XXL. The XS was creepy small like for a pregnant child. The XXL wouldn't have stayed up. I would have accepted S, M or L and made do. I did buy two t shirts.

The high street deserves to die. The rare time I actually need to try stuff on is when my body has changed.

@SM4713 , TAAT - thread about a thread

@IncompleteSenten , I've always stuck to the high street

Do I
A) travel 20 minutes to town centre, pay £5 to park, for less shops
Or B)
Travel 30 minutes to out of town shopping centre, with free parking and more shops?

I rarely go shopping... but its more likely to be B.

High street is booming where I live.

I was an early adopter of online shopping. I always hated traipsing round the shops looking for things and don't do and never did shopping as a hobby. I like mooching around high street independent shops and browsing bookshops when I don't have anything particular to buy.

High street - about 10 minutes walk.
Out of town - car or bus journey. The stores there aren't very appealing. Traffic is quite bad a lot of the time. Not many parking spaces.

Thread about a thread.

Traditional high street where you would buy your food every week (or few days. If you had to get the bus or walk you'd only carry a few bags), get yourself some new clothes and a pair of shoes when needed, pop into the electronics shop to get your toaster fixed once in a blue moon, go to the bank to draw out some money or cash a cheque, get a paper and a comic from the newsagents etc. That sort of thing. When I was a kid that's what we did. Also visited the sweet shop far too often.

I stopped using the high street shops years ago due to really poor choice and inflated prices. When dd was little (mid to late 2000's) there was no way to buy her clothes other than online or travelling 45mins for crap parking and crap choice. I have limited sympathy for the whole demise of the high street thing. Most town councils/landlords/retailers in ghost high streets were greedy, short sighted and/or resistant to change so only have themselves to blame.

Neither

i do 99% of my shopping online

Combination but mostly retail park and supermarkets. A big chain near me as a private company operating their car park and that has put most people after fines for being too long or the machine being ooo and getting a fine anyway. Parking and convenience are the biggest factor IMO.

I have limited sympathy for the whole demise of the high street thing. Most town councils/landlords/retailers in ghost high streets were greedy, short sighted and/or resistant to change so only have themselves to blame.

Exactly. Plus the dull chain stores is what killed retail. Homogenity and lack of consumer choice. Plus opening 9-5 while loads of people are at work - duh.

I've tried to use the high street several times in the past few weeks to buy bog standard items e.g a kids white shirt, a pair of toddler gloves and some craft tape and each time they've not had what I needed and have more than once directed me to order online.

I've all but given up and if I had to visit physical stores I'd rather use a retail park or super market at least then I wouldn't have to pay for parking.