The Demise of the High Street

[Sarcelle]

With the news of the Debenhams closures plus all the other chains that have shut up shop for good, its clear that the High Street is facing monumental hurdles if they are to survive.

Do you think the High Streets can be revived, and what should facilitate that?

My Debenhams is not on the closure list (yet) and the big space left by BHS has just reopened as H & M. But the whole street has become downbeat, lots of these phone unlocking shops, charity shops, poundshops and coffee chains.

I used to be a spendthrift, reformed now, so I no longer like shopping very much. But when I do the High Street no longer has much to offer me (middle aged woman). Everything seems bad quality. There is a role for Primark but now a lot of shops are following that model, cheap, disposable, man made. I can't remember the last time I bought clothes in M & S, their offer is dire, nothing appeals, surely I am the epitome of their core customer.

There must be something that can be done to attract good quality shops otherwise areas will have no centre or hub, and that will surely make us a more fractured society. Ideas?

My highstreet has lost BHS, M&S, House of Fraser and soon Debenhams too. It's now poundshops, chicken shops, coffee shops and teenager clothes shops. Sad to see and I never go there anymore. I travel 30 miles to the nearest city centre- I never used to.
I think the high street as was won't exist in 20 years time.

My high street which used to be thriving and had every shop imaginable has now become full of poundstores, phone shops and chicken shops. Al the major names have gone and the last few won't be long behind them. The few stores left are dingy, badly lit with too few staff.

It's a great shame but all of us who shop online have to take blame I guess. Our shopping centre/precinct is about to be demolished.

My prediction is housing will be built, instead of shops more restaurants will take their place to serve the new houses and I suspect we will see the return of smaller shops like butchers, grocers etc. Or maybe far more Tesco Metro type shops will move in to the area and close down the newsagent/corner shops. I think where there were high streets and covered shopping centres we'll see lots of flats, multiplex cinemas/bowling/swimming/bars/restaurants. Regular shopping will be a day out (to places like Westfield). We might see the re-emergence of weekly markets too for bits and bobs, a bit like when I was young.

I think there is a new high street in the happening,
Lately I’ve seen lots of smaller independent lifestyle stores, specialty cafes. And it’s a nice change from the predictable high street names.

But you never know! Lately Fenwick which was barely surviving , is having some sort of revival.
I’m sure things will turn full circle and few department stores will reinvent themselves. More appealing layout , smaller floor space, and less jumble sale like.

The problem is that a lot of stores in my local “high street” are miles from where the parking is.

I can park up and shop in the mall but then I have to go outside and traipse 1/2 mile in probably windy rainy weather and I just can’t be bothered.

High street where I lived for a while in the 70s had a bustling high street that you could hardly move in on a Saturday.
It was convenient because even if you couldn’t get a parking space a passenger would run out and get what was needed then they would jump back in the car.

First came the yellow lines which made people think twice about using the high street as it meant paying for parking.

Then came the idea of paving it over and making it a pedestrian only place.
Then everything went down hill from there.

People decided they could get what they needed by going to the out of town shopping mall with free parking and no threat of getting a fine if they wanted to stay a few minutes more.

By the end of the 80s it was deserted.

Didn’t help that the only parking available was for about 35 cars.

Where I live, the city centre is dying on its feet. I can't see any way back. And yet a couple of miles up the road, small neighbourhood shopping streets seem to be thriving. And back where I grew up, the suburb that was once the dullest place on earth (and not just because I was 15) is now lined with delis and hipster coffee shops and chi chi emporiums. There's a monthly market and it's always rammed.

So things are changing but then they always are.

It would be great if some of the empty shops were filled with traders like Etsy is online - small independent traders under one roof offering all sorts of hand made or bespoke goods.

I think councils should stop the rot by limiting the amount of shops selling tat or fried chicken, or those nailbars which also seem to be everywhere. But then I suppose empty units would proliferate.

Our city is dire for shopping, although our Debenhams isn't closing (haven't been there in years as it's a way from the main centre). The trouble we've had is the building of a huge shopping centre, which took most of the big names from the precinct and high street. Another issue is having two universities and the taking over of any empty space to build student accommodation. Parking isn't too bad, but as some of the high street shops are going there's nothing decent replacing them.

My high street has its share of charity shops but also lots of lovely independent shops. I’m not sure how they make a profit even in a booming market though as they must make so little on their products eg cards and small gifts. They are lovely to browse but I rarely actually buy anything.

Shops are inconvenient. Why on earth are they still opening from 9-5.30? Most people are at work. The 50’s housewife has pretty much gone.
Do European hours 10.30 to 7 so there’s a fighting chance of buying something after work.. Let people park for up to an hour for free. Encourage pop up shops rather than charity shops.

"It would be great if some of the empty shops were filled with traders like Etsy is online - small independent traders under one roof offering all sorts of hand made or bespoke goods."

I think one of the benefits of being a small trader from Etsy type sites is that you don't have to be out running any kind of shop front or talking to people.

Many of the small independent businesses , do well online.
I went to a shop in The Cotswolds,and although I had my eye on a few things I didn’t buy them as I had the DCs with me, but I did order them via their insta page.
it’s important to have an actual shop. Displays and product arrangements can play a big factor in advertising, think of all the pictures we take of pretty independent shop windows.

Pop up shops are an excellent idea to boost a dying high street too,

Why are there so many phone shops. Our small town is full of them. I appreciate I’m not target customer but who uses them and why?.....

I just don't find that the highstreet gives me what I want so much any more.

Clothes shopping - I don't do it so often and when I do I am more interested in shopping sustainably. Going online I can find lovely stylish clothes in organic cotton or knowing that the workers haven't been exploited.

Same with hair and beauty - don't want to be sold a load of rubbishy packaging, products full of palm oil, stuff full of fragrance, curly hair has only just reached the mainstream. I can buy lovely handmade soap from a local company mail order - the high street is just not meeting my needs.

Friend who lives in another part of the country took me shopping one afternoon to her local town.

Loads of interesting independent stores.

All closed by 3pm.

It was like walking around a ghost town by 4.30pm. Only the major chains were open.

Was never much of a fan of the high street for clothes shopping, often intimidating if you're the only potential customer and not very helpful if they are at all busy. Also the endless queuing for buying and returning items. Horribly busy during the weekend as well.

I'd love to see a different sort of high street, more of a social place with independent shops or market stalls, independent, small cinemas perhaps. Easy parking, good public transport would help.

Haven't been to a high street for years. Occasionally visit nearest big main shopping town but increasingly easy to get stuff online, and for specialist goods it's almost the only way now.

I would visit a piazza type layout where I could have a drink or food and know that my kids could have a noodle about in eyesight and a traffic free environment, that maybe had a few different shops - bookshop, interesting cheese etc. But not often as it's expensive and we are generally trying to buy less. It also needs to have cheap, plentiful parking.

We grumble about parking charges and yet we pay postage, hand over money for clothes we haven't seen - normally at least 2 because sizing - and we let retailers hang onto that money for at least a couple of weeks. Some of them even charge for returns.

I started off a huge fan of online shopping but I've come full circle. I think they've done a number on us.

My local high street is a nightmare for parking. Not enough, and the minimum is 2 hours, plus you have to have correct change, no paying by card etc. Really frustrating when you just want to nip in one or two shops! One of my friends works for a high street retailer and they are predicting a move away from the traditional high street towards the American strip mall model.

It's a perfect storm of greedy landlords charging ridiculously high rents and stupidly high business rates are a key contributor to the death of the high street.

Due to ill-thought out expansion, some restaurant chains are struggling and many are offloading sites or going bust, this is also a key contributor to empty units.

Lastly, it's more cost effective for stores to reduce their real life presence and concentrate on their online sales.

The high street and retail in particular will have to reinvent themselves in order to survive.

I'd love to see a different sort of high street, more of a social place with independent shops or market stalls, independent, small cinemas perhaps. Easy parking, good public transport would help.

Yep. High streets need to be reinvented so that they're not solely about shopping.

Our Debenhams is on the list (always deserted - I wonder how they've kept going this long) and our M and S is on the list too. BHS is now a giant Poundland.

I need to take some stuff back to M and S today and there is absolutely nothing making me want to go into the local town , not even a decent independent coffee shop.

You're all correct, I think .... parking needs to be encouraged in order to facilitate footfall to the high street ... Speaking as someone who does own a small, independent shop on our local high street, the key thing that is needed is money to enable people to open up a shop in the first place, and enough of it to enable them to keep going through the first couple of rocky years.

It costs an absolute fortune to run even a small shop these days. The cost of employing staff is high (and rightly so). Opening for longer hours means you either do it yourself and therefore run yourself into the ground and don't see enough of your own family, or pay someone else and your costs go up. It's a really fragile balancing act.

Added to that, my shop has been in its current location for THREE YEARS now and people STILL walk in and say "ooh I didn't know you were here" .... sigh.... despite the massive signage outside, our huge social media presence, website, advertising in local magazines etc etc ....

It's really bloody tough. The internet is the main culprit imo, certainly with regard to what I sell (clothing). Too much competition online, too many choices. In the seven years since I've opened my business I have had to constantly change / evolve in order to survive. I'm at the point now where I am so exhausted that I am taking a step back and gradually moving towards doing something else.

On our high street, new coffee bars, restaurants and pubs seem to do very well. Other independent businesses struggle.

Our big town centre, a couple of miles away, is half dead now. Half the units are empty. Debenhams closing; M&S, Dorothy Perkins, Miss Selfridge, Next etc all gone, moved to the big out-of-town shopping mall a few miles away, which has thousands of free parking spaces, is on all the major bus routes, is totally soulless and only has one independent place which is an amazing cafe ... and which manages to survive, probably largely due to DD and me who are addicted to their burgers and hot chocolate.

It would be very hard for Etsy-type shared spaces to survive in most high streets due to the high rents and business rates etc. Even if sharing space, you'd still be responsible for some of the costs, and these can be sky-high. Also, there often isn't a lot of profit int things, and you'd need to sell thousands of units in order to make money. People don't understand that something handmade will cost more than something made on a production line, due to the time involved. I'm not saying that shared spaces don't work in some locations, but there are a few of them in our area - I know many traders who've participated in them and not one of them has lasted more than a year as they simply didn't make enough money.

I went shopping a few times with the DCs over Easter and it wasn’t a fun experience. Couldn’t find any of the things we were specifically looking for (eg a nice black pencil skirt for DD). Ended up going home and ordering online. This happens all the time nowadays.

Apart from New Look, H&M and Primark, the shops were all pretty empty. People were just sitting in coffee shops or in Wetherspoons.

Maybe I’m just old and tired of shopping after all these years, but I couldn’t see anything decent to buy. Tried a few things on and debated whether to get them, but then it struck me I had lots of other things just like the item already - only much nicer actually.

I think shops will end up just becoming places to do click and collect in future. They’ll maybe have changing rooms so you can try your online purchases on and return there and then if unsuitable. Probably a few window displays for inspiration.

Saturday afternoon at the moment, and I’d rather slit my eyes than face going shopping in my local city.

Also, the internet has made the world so much smaller and therefore so much more accessible. In our town, for example, there is the big town centre and then there are maybe eight or ten outlying suburbs all of which have their own high streets. However, due to the fact that everyone has a car, plus internet access, and supermarkets Tesco Express etc) too on all those high streets, it simply isn't possible for - say - an independent greengrocer to exist on each of those high streets. People (ie consumers) tend to do whatever is easiest (and cheapest, but I'd say that easiest is the top priority) for them. Why walk to the greengrocer, the butcher, the bakery etc when you can just log on to the Sainsburys website? Why pop into my lovely shop for a browse and to try on a dress or two when, after finishing the online food shop, you can just click onto Asos and order a load of stuff for next day delivery?

Bah.

I think it's pointless trying to revive the high street - throwing good money after bad.

We can shop online and it's much more convenient so why go back to having to traipse through shopping centres etc?

People want experiences that they can't get online. Maybe there should be more places where children can do activities or different types of entertainment?