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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

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

161 replies

IncompleteSenten · 20/10/2023 08:52

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 😁

OP posts:
KimberleyClark · 22/10/2023 12:38

I use a mixture. My city centre has lost Debenhams plus two independent department stores and even the John Lewis is under threat. It’s all very depressing.

maddening · 22/10/2023 12:46

Needmorelego · 20/10/2023 13:27

@user1497207191 I find the opposite. People want to work (or volunteer) evenings. People want to be able to work around daytime caring for children etc or being at university/college in the daytime.
@KirstenBlest if a particular charity shop is doing a good trade at 9am then that makes sense but I find many "High Streets" are quiet before 10/11am.
In many places people can't use the Freedom passes on buses until after 9.30. Anyone doing a school drop off is unlikely to be in town before 10.
Obviously this will vary from town to town - but being turned away from charity shops (and cafes) at 4 in the afternoon because they are closing is just daft. So much potential trade lost.

I agree with this, when I am free and not working the shops in town are shut, and Sunday afternoon more than half are shut.

AfterWeights · 22/10/2023 12:48

I've been shopping mainly online for years. I never enjoyed "shopping" itself am experience, I buy the things i need, so online achieves what I need.

What i want most from my local area are the things you can't so easily get online. Hair dressers, garden centres, vets, doctors, chemists, cafes & restaurants, leisure facilities. I'd use a butcher or fishmonger if it was reasonably priced - my mother uses a good one where she lives but in my area these sorts of things tend to target the luxury/premium end of the market, they are unbelievably expensive (£9 for 8 rashers of bacon) and the owners make a killing - not something I'd use regularly.

Things that take up half the town centre where i live that i never use:

  • estate agents
  • charity shops
  • random independent gift/tat shops that are always overpriced
Samlewis96 · 22/10/2023 20:56

AIstolemylunch · 20/10/2023 09:32

I also disagree that high streets are dead ghost towns. Most of the chain shops and banks have gone, agreed, largely due to what PP have said, their own greed and inflexibility and unwillingness to change. Everyone else has adapted and evolved, or are starting to. So now High Streets (if they are controlled by clever and more forward thinking people) have become/are becoming experience destinations. You can't buy a relaxing coffee with friends online, or a nice meal, or a drink in a pub, or get a haircut, or a tattoo, or take a class.

So for me, I'm more than happy to buy virtualy everything I need online in terms of physical things - it has long worked better for people who work full-time.I do my banking and savings in apps - way easier to control and move your money (I accept this is not great for the generation or 2 before me but everyone else is ok with it I think). I abandoned high street travel agents decades ago, long before the 'death of the high street' because they were never competitively priced. I then use supermarkets for food shopping in person (and these are in town where I lived though it wouldn't bother me if they were out of town) and out of town place when I want to actually look at things before I buy them, IKEA, B&Q etc.

But then I spend many happy hours a week in one of the 3 or 4 local high streets near where I live. I work from home so I often go to one of the local cafes and coffee shops that have sprung up in place of the shops. We use the pubs, restaurants and hairdressers. I use the small gyms that have taken over some of the premises. There are regular food markets and street events with bands and stalls. The high street pubs are busy and thriving. There's a walk in repair cafe, drop in centre for older people on their own. It's generally become a more sociable experience I think.

I personally think 'death of the high street' is over exaggerated. It's is (or should) just evolve to meet the way people live now, my generation and down anyway (again, I accept that older people might need some assistance with the transition).

This is a pretty apt description of our high street

IvorTheEngineDriver · 22/10/2023 21:16

I use whichever is the most convenient.

user1497207191 · 23/10/2023 10:56

@nettie434

i also think that a lot of councils believed people wanted pedestrianised centres when they didn't, especially in the evenings when they are empty and feel unsafe.

Nail on the head.

But I don't even think councils believed it was what people wanted. It has always seemed to be motivated more by other factors, such as political and other beliefs of the council (councillors and officers). More of the patronising "we know best" attitude. And, of course, by the time the damage has been done, the councillors/officers pushing for the changes have either retired or moved onto other jobs, so just leave the damage behind them, no accountability, etc.

SamW98 · 23/10/2023 11:02

Both.

I shop mostly online these days but use both my local high street and Lakeside

hallana · 23/10/2023 11:09

I shop either online or on my local high street and independent shops. I never liked those out of town places, or even the big malls like the Trafford Centre. I'm lucky that my little high street has everything I want - butchers, bakeries, grocers, gifts/galleries, opticians, chemist, hardware, paint and decorating, antiques, an indoor market, and a few clothes shops - I do have to go three miles up the road for shoe shops. I live in a small, working class market town in the north but we don't seem to have the high street problem here. (We have no chains either.)

user1497207191 · 23/10/2023 11:18

The ironic thing is that town centres used to be places where you'd live, work, shop, etc - they weren't domineered by retail. It all went wrong in the 70s and 80s when the big chain stores took over town centres and forced out the small independent shops, along with the demise of "industry", i.e. the town centre warehouses, small manufacturing, breweries, printers, garages, etc - all turned into shops or shopping centres. "Big" retail pushed everything else out of town centres. Now that "big" retail has moved out of town (mostly due to anti-car councils) it's left one hell of a vacuum, and online retail is the final nail in the coffin as can be seen by the empty big units in many retail parks!

If we want town centres to be thriving again, councils need to change their plans to include a lot more housing in and around the town centres, more employment opportunities for people to work in town centres (maybe smaller office units), which will involve some pretty major town planning, demolishing older/unsuitable premises and rebuilding, etc. AND less car-hate with more opportunities for people living, working and shopping in town centres to be able to park!

KirstenBlest · 23/10/2023 12:07

I think you mean dominated not domineered. The town centre here is having some retail buildings turned into flats.

Pinceywincey · 23/10/2023 12:51

I didn’t really get a choice in the matter - I’m plus size and the vast majority of high street retailers have moved their plus size ranges to online only, so there’s literally nothing for me in the shops so I have to shop online. Anything else I would have bought while I was on the high street I can now get from the supermarket or on a retail park, so I’d rather go there and park for free than pay to park in town.

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