Shocked after visiting city centre

[Snog]

I've just cycled through the centre of my small city for the first time in 4 months.

So many shops and restaurants are boarded up and have closed for good, maybe 30%?

I found it really shocking to witness. Is it the same where you live?

At this stage all the local pubs/cafes/etc are open, but not sure if they'll survive going forward or not. I'm not entirely sure how they survived prior to Covid as pubs per head of population Is nuts! I can walk to 7 without breaking a sweat. And plenty more just out of comfortable walking distance.

sad isnt it-weve had problems before covid so im nt surprised some havent reopened

rents are just too high to survive it now

I was in Cambridge on Monday and really taken aback at the number of closed businesses. There were very few people about too. I think it’s going to be awful there because it’s a double whammy with no students and no tourists. It’s going to take it a very long time to recover.

I live in a mid sized town in the midlands which wasn't particularly prosperous before, but it's dead now!! The weekly street market has re-started, but a lot of the smaller shops are still closed.

Sadly my town was destroyed by high rents long before lockdown, but I think this might be the final straw removing any of it bouncing back now. I really hope initiatives will be brought in to save the high street, but I won't hold my breath.

I live in a small town and yes c 30 per cent shut. With certain shops closing 3pm. One charity shop is only open three days a week 10 until 3. Perhaps short staffed. It isn't a prosperous area though.

I wouldn’t want to be a commercial property owner in the next few years. Going to be huge write downs in values.

High rents charged by absentee landlords mean that there are dozens of empty units in my (popular) seaside town. We really didn't need Covid and its economic implications on top. Some kind of legislative curb on exorbitant rents would be very helpful at this point but obviously highly unlikely.

The market town I live in has had two chain shops shut, I think a case of high rental.

Went for a drive to Salisbury at the weekend .Lovely Cathedral city, not run down at all.Many shops closed down and very few people about .Seemed very quiet(usually go on Sundays and not like this normally).I do think this seems to be what is happening in many places now .People are scared and choosing to stay at home .Wearing of masks may not help, or conversely may make people feel safer who knows?

We've got one small high street in our little market town. We have about 10,000 - 12,000 residents in total.

There are eleven coffee shops/tea shops, four pubs, seven restaurants and one fish and chip shop just in that stretch of high street plus another two pubs and five takeaways just outside of town. Cafe Rouge closed down last year. Someone said, on the town Facebook page last year, that all those eating places just aren't sustainable without a lot of tourist footfall. And so it's proving now.
Tourists couldn't come - cafes are desperate.

It's totally nuts - there used to be bets laid when a new shop started painting or renovating, that it'd be yet another blooming place to get a coffee/cake or meal. And rents are sky high here so I can see some going to the wall unfortunately.

Same here @TheySeeHerRowling - our main drag down into town was dying on its ass before all this, and now it's twice as bad.

My bricks and mortar shop is not worth re-opening so online we go..... but I can't help think that people will eventually run out of money or feel they can only spend on the necessities (we're alternative lifestyle accessories and tarot cards won't feed a family of four....) and I don't blame them. It seems like a zero sum game and I don't know how it'll pan out without alot of hardship along the way......

@Alsohuman

I was in Cambridge on Monday and really taken aback at the number of closed businesses. There were very few people about too. I think it’s going to be awful there because it’s a double whammy with no students and no tourists. It’s going to take it a very long time to recover.

Yes Cambridge will really suffer if foreign students can't be tempted back. They spend a lot in university towns.

I'm in a large town and it was busy in the town centre today. The general impression was that most shops were open, both independent gift shops, cafes etc and the chains. I am sure some will not make it though as shops tend not to last very long here anyway, apart from some stalwarts who possibly own the property, due to high rents. Some of the charity shops haven't reopened yet, but there are also some new shops opened since March.

We do have a large Debenhams slap bang in the centre so if that closes (I know the company is in trouble) it will really leave a gap, I can't think what other shop would be big enough to take over the whole three storey building.

I haven't been to my local town since the beginning of lockdown so no idea what is happening there.

DH drives a lot for work and he says there is tons of traffic on the roads but all the shops are either closed, boarded up or just look dead.

I find it so depressing and worrying. I can't believe people were saying (and some still are) that things would be back to "normal" very quickly

I guess I thought that more deprived parts of the UK would be harder hit than my area which is normally a boom town but I'm now thinking that's too simplistic a view.

I live in a deprived area and initially thought the same as you, that we would be absolutely devastated by the economic fallout. Since the re-opening I've been feeling quite a bit more optimistic though. There's a very strong pub culture here - an outbreak of actual SARS wouldn't keep people away - and it's popular with new graduates because rents are cheap, so the weird hippie shops and independent cafes aren't overly dependent on students. My friend came to visit and was surprised by how much was open compared to his town, and likewise when I went to see my parents I was surprised by how many of the shops in their region are still closed.

I also suspect that middle class people are in general more likely to be ultra-cautious about doing anything than working class people, as their jobs are more likely to involve WFH, so they aren't as desensitised to the risk. On the other hand areas of higher deprivation may also be more likely to see local lockdowns for the same reason, so who knows how that will pan out. It's a shit situation all round and no-one will do well out of it, but I don't think the consequences will be as straightforward as widening the existing gaps between richer and poorer regions.

A few shops haven’t reopened in my city centre. It’s a sad place at the moment and actually doesn’t feel safe at night due to the lack of people. I had an evening hair appointment last week and didn’t like walking back to the car park and it was only 8pm.

I can foresee a widespread move of businesses such as hairdressers and restaurants out of city centres and into areas where people live. I think this was happening to an extent anyway, at least where I live. There are more of these businesses locally now than 10 years ago.

It’s the same in our sw ,fairly affluent I would say, university city. There’s also been a huge increase in the ‘visible’ homeless camping out in the doorways of these closed down shops on the high street.

My husband told me Manchester was like a ghost town on Monday morning when he had to go in.

Yes it is shocking. We live in an affluent area and so many shops are boarded up. Cote, Pizza express, Cafe rouge and all the rest. We need some blue skies thinking as to how to replace the high street, with housing etc as the high st is only going one way sadly. Covid was the final nail in the coffin.

Anywhere catering to the office worker lunch trade is stuffed
Anywhere catering to the tables close together casual dining trade is stuffed
Many pubs will REALLY struggle when the weather gets worse
And then there will be Brexit

LOTS more high street shops will close in the coming months

I wonder what % of international tourists are coming? Our nearest city is usually full, and I mean full, of tourists. The office worker spend must be much smaller than the tourist spend.

Labyrinth
I wonder what % of international tourists are coming?
Less than 1% if that much
and the International students won't come back in September

Why would people want to travel TO a country that has bollocksed up its COVID response?
The USA is the same .....

Yeah, it's pretty bad. Off the top of my head in our local area:

Thorntons, River Island and TopShop have all chosen not to re-open their local branches. Our local Waterstones is also still closed whereas 95% of them have re-opened. Travis Perkins have closed their local branch putting everyone out of work.

Two small independent businesses have gone under. Neither had been trading very long - under eighteen months.

The chain I used to work for has permanently closed some stores and has made staff redundant - with more to come.

That's only off the top of my head.

Our favourite local curry house went out of business

I was so sad I wanted to cry - the owners were so lovely, it was our favourite place.