New look closing shops? What's the future of shopping?

[PassingStranger]

New look are closing about 25 stores. Whose to say more won't follow.
What will happen to all these empty buildings?

Unfortunately the buildings in a lot of towns will be left empty. In my local town the old Debenhams, Wilkinsons and Top Shop are still empty after several years. The bizarre thing is that the local council have refused planning applications to convert them to residential. Reform of the planning system, that seems to block everything, is long overdue.

Some of the units will be used for hospitality (that’s where the money is now), experiential stuff like escape rooms and short-term pop up retail. The rest will remain empty or be converted to housing.

We will all continue shopping online.

The council are probably still hoping they’ll be able to collect rates from commercial tenants at some point.

Same in my market town a developer wanted to convert empty shops into apartments, council point blank refused it and the reason was the high street might flood, it has never flooded, it’s absolutely ridiculous.

Our local council actually bought some premises that are now empty, inc Wilkos, littlewoods, Woolworths and a Frankie & bennys. All are sat empty with to let boards on them. Council lost tens of thousands as bad debt in unpaid rents and rates when wilkos went under. Trying to let them for retail - not a Hope in hell. They’re deluded and think high street retail is coming back- it’s not! Yet they can’t accept they’ve screwed up buying the buildings and just sitting on them as they know they make a whopping loss if they sell them!

Ah yes, I forgot about Peacocks, I hadn't even realised Halfords had gone. I do miss Outfit though. I've only been in the new M&S a couple of times - seemed a bit sparse in the clothes department, I'll have to pop in and see if it's got better over time. I can't understand how Matalan survives, you always fell like you're the only one in!

Ridiculous. They’re about 20 years out of date with their thinking. This trend has been on the cards for years. Privately owned shopping malls have been turning over more and more space to restaurants and experiences for decades because they’ve realised that people don’t go out to shop anymore, not like they used to.

On the other hand, I’ve seen councils force retailers into bankruptcy rather than negotiate rates.

I live in a smallish city where high st is still surviving. And we have a number of beautiful Victorian arcades. If you want to keep your high street you have to use it.

New Look never seems to hit the target. Not as cheap and fast as primark, not as cool as H&M or as trendy as Zara, not as comfy as JD sports. Or as randomly glittery as River Island 🤔.

Our entire New Look seemed to go on the sale rail at the start of January. I pop in every so often to see if there is anything DD would like but I rarely see anything.

I shopped in New Look as a teen, it all looks like cheap rubbish now that's wildly overpriced compared to the likes of Primark - which is always busy.

The future is probably large supermarkets Tesco's, Sainsbury's, Aldi, etc and then your homeware stores such as B&M, Home Bargains, etc. Oh and Primark and female clothes shops because we will always keep those in business.

High streets have been dying for years, Woolworths, BHS years ago , the whole Burtons/ Dorothy Perkins chain a few years back, most of the big department stores are gone, retail parks haven’t helped the high street but are hardly full of shops where you would routinely buy clothes for example, most of that’s gone online with its
own issues around inability to actually see the product or see if it fits before ordering, but that’s how it is. Our high street is just a few banks, estate agents, hairdressers , vape and charity shops and cafes with just a couple of shops left, none of them what you would call big names

New look has good petite jeans though. And you’d always get a nice jumper.

Our retail park is full of clothes shops, probably about 20, more clothes than other sorts of shops. Some aren't but they are more for diy or home stuff, where you wouldn't go for clothes anyway

It's survival off the fittest.....
The cheaper shops always tend to be in demand.

Their website is doing something funny also...

For some reason we are all in love with catalogue shopping, but without the benefits of knowing who we are buying from. I hardly go into town any more, M and S shut and that was that - not that I've seen anything I'd wear in their shop lately.

Food shops, mobile phone shops, coffee bars. There’ll be no clothes shops anywhere eventually, utterly depressing.