I don't want it there, but for towns it'd be good. Most stuff that's delivered isn't as big as not to be easily carried - you'd obviously need some other solution for the stuff that is.
so... two delivery offices, one for small stuff, one for big stuff? Put the small stuff one in a pace which you have to walk to and the big stuff one in a place you can drive to, and let the delivery guy decide if you can carry it or not?
What is convenient about buying something online, waiting for the postman to deliver it while you're out, organising a re-delivery to your local post office, then heading to said post office on the high street to pick it up?
Funny, the reasons you've cited don't gel with the reality for most of us, do they?
so... two delivery offices, one for small stuff, one for big stuff? Put the small stuff one in a pace which you have to walk to and the big stuff one in a place you can drive to, and let the delivery guy decide if you can carry it or not?
as I said, I don't want this, but it'd get people into towns
And yeah, why not? or have the office in town, but the 'large items' counter round the back. It'd not force everyone to go into town, but a lot of folk may think 'well I'm here now, I should probably go and see if ....'
So, towns should make it easier for people to pick up the stuff they order on-line. and that will make the towns more successful.
Can I interest you in a driving glove for driving in Europe?
Funny, the reasons you've cited don't gel with the reality for most of us, do they?
They do with me. Most things I order need to be collected.
i think until peoples attitudes change i think the high st will always struggle...ive been on a quiet in house crusade this year to not use the supermarkets and buy as much as i can from humans in shops...not spent any more money but the quality of service/goods has gone right up...i eat better meat/fish now,vegs are loads better etc.bought a telly and a washing machine off a local good independant,he fitted them both for free and did me a wee deal on the telly.all done within a week of ordering..kinda like the service i try and offer customers.
next year a lot of the brands that ill run in the shop will be lbs only brands if i can...if its in crc merlin wiggle ill look at doing something else
Secure cycle parking would help in towns and villages. Make it easier to 'pop in' by bike rather than faffing around queuing for parking spaces and paying for said spaces.
Some towns need a good spuce-up to make them appealing rather than looking run-down and dreary.
For example, nearish to me is a town called Marlborough and it has plenty of independant shops. Sure over the years that I've been shopping there some shops have closed down but, in many cases, others have opened up.
Place is always busy and fortunately there is a large car park set back from the main high street.
The difference is that it is not a clone of anytown, it has some wonderful old buildings and plenty of character.
I have very little option now but to buy from supermarkets - my local high street being almost dead now.
It was very interesting when in the Netherlands to see that all the towns and villages still have thriving high streets full of independent shops - why - basically because out of the centre food stores are not allowed nor are supermarkets over a certain size - so tesco for example simply hasn't bothered even trying asw their tactics have been effectivly countered.
It amy really now be too late for us which is a shame = but if councils stop allowing the massive shopping malls and out of town centres and huge supermarkets then our high streets may have a chance
You know what, I don't really like shopping. I know lots of folk like me. It's not the shop's fault either. I don't think shops are the answer. So what else will make me want to use the town centre? If the shops go to the wall, I might think it's a bit bleak, but it wouldn't bother me that much. So aside from pubs, estate agents and banks, why would I go there? There's a ton of space above shops and in empty buildings that could be residential, but it cost more to convert than for new build, never mind lifts and disability issues. If there is a solution to the high street, I don't think it's going to be from retail.
My high street has a proper hardware store where I can get advice and buy just one screw. Try doing that in homebase.
The spread of those self checkout things is a worry as well. Give it 10 years and your mega hyper shop will be self automated for your convenience. Its all to speed you up at the checkout due to ginormous queues. Queues that exist because everyone is forced to shop in one place.
And don't start me on Ikea aaaggggghhhhh.
Really don't think you can in major towns, being not every part of a town is an affluent area.
Small country village high streets are totally different also usually very affluent so always
buzzing during the day and also used for socialising too, unlike cheaper town high streets
which usually arbour a lot of social crime.
I work in retail property and go to a few conferences. Recently I attended one about the future landscape of retail property, and one of the things discussed was collection lockers. It is a well known fact that Royal Mail provide a proper pants service which simply hasn't kept up to date with modern shopping habits.
Amazon do it already (Hammersmith I think), but other online retailers will soon follow - I think House of Fraser are doing it in Aberdeen. There will soon be many locker facilities where you collect your online purchases. The location of these could have a massive bearing on what happens around them (particularly in high street locations).
On a slightly different matter - many people blame the supermarkets for putting high street retailers out of business. Interestingly, both Asda and Tesco have seen drastic falls in their sales of non-food items, to the point where they are assessing their property portfolio and making adjustments to the square footage they give to non-grocery items.
i think until peoples attitudes change i think the high st will always struggle..
This. Like I said up there: in Britain we don't buy on quality, only price. Watch every supermarket advert - it's all about price.
But, this is a change that we as a nation seem to have invited, or at the very least not been bothered to counter. Sure, it happened drip by drip, but nonetheless our attention was clearly elsewhere.
I was only remarking on this yesterday when in Southport. Once a thriving town with a fantastic shopping street with a variety of independent, expert retailers. Now there are many boarded up shops and too many chains.
It's like we are too scared to make decisions for ourselves, so we allow the tide of large scale retail uniformity suck us in and dumb us down.
As the consumer becomes more discerning online, so we've allowed ourselves to do it again - buy more stuff at ever lower price without ever considering the cost.
The online retailers I like best are those ones with bricks and mortar shops. Best of both. I'm also tending towards buying less, but of higher quality. And that needs experts.
Our high streets need experts.
Amazon do it already (Hammersmith I think), but other online retailers will soon follow - I think House of Fraser are doing it in Aberdeen. There will soon be many locker facilities where you collect your online purchases. The location of these could have a massive bearing on what happens around them (particularly in high street locations).
i'm *really* surprised one of the big supermarket chains isn't doing this already - just have your item delivered to your local tesco instead of home. From most shoppers perspective its fine, as you need to do a food shop anyway. for tesco its great, as it increases footfall into towns. for the vendor its great, as it reduces shipping costs (at a guess tesco could do this for way less than someone doing door-to-door deliveries). Tesco and sainsburys already allow purchases of products brought on their sites to be picked up from a store, so wouldn't be a huge leap of infrastructure to get products from 'anyone' delivered there
obviously, those folk who are at home during the day and hate tesco won't like it, but for the rest of us its a good idea..
Having them in Tesco or Sainsbury's won't save the high street though, will it?
Plus, why would the big supermarkets have goods from their competitors sent to lockers in their store? They'd have to weigh up the loss in sales with the increase in footfall.
Its simple, good shops will evolve and stay open as they offer products and services,
The shops that are closing just aren't good enough and why should we support them.
Wiggle will be on the high street soon to kill off bike shops.
maybe the stupidly expensive rents in town centres need to be looked at.
My local highstreet is still stupidly busy on weekends, too busy for my liking so I avoid it most of the time.
It is convenient for me though. Easy to get to by public transport, and has parking for motorbikes so I don't have to faff about. The shops generally open nice and early, so if I get there before the horde of chavs, it's still a rather peaceful experience.
The big plus points are a) I can get stuff straight away without waiting and b) I can try stuff on.
These are things the online world can't ever compete with.
I'm also getting fed up with the online experience lately as more and more companies are using the huge pile of crap that is YODEL.
It's the changing face of retailing IMO, convenience and choice. The internet for me is about choice, I have access to everything and anything. Convenience would be driving to an out of town retail park, you might not get what you want, but it's straight in and out, with a quick dash around in between. I can't be arsed driving into town, finding somewhere to park, then wandering around a town centre and a load of shops to possibly not get what I want.
Biking analogy would be, Altura and Endura only available at my local bike shop. Internet, absolutely anything and everything, plus bargains, plus Altura and Endura. Also, I don't think I'm alone in wanting my monthly internet charges to do some 'work' for me ie bargains and choice, even 2nd hand bargains.
Friend has a local sports shop, probably closing down in a few months. I feel sorry for him, but he hasn't tried to move on, internet selling in volume, ebay, etc.
but if councils stop allowing the massive shopping malls and out of town centres and huge supermarkets then our high streets may have a chance
Agreed, too much self-serving going on and no accountability.
I have noticed that Waitrose promote local produce although it just so happens they have a farm in Hampshire.
Have decided to go back to a local farm shop for meat following the extremely unpleasant 'minced steak' I bought from Asda. 
Only stopped cos it was getting expensive.
Does anyone else do battle with their conscience about what and where they buy from?
cinnamon_girl You can't beat the village shops at Hartley Wintney in Hampshire.
Was there over the weekend visiting friends Love that place.
grantway - did you take your bike? There's riding to be had in Bramshill Forest including singletrack. Have driven through Hartley Witney a fair few times.
Cinnamon_girl na never knew there was any riding to be had around there Gutted
Thanks for the heads up I will chat with my mate later.
Thought Swinley was the only place near him.
Is Bramshill Forest any good?
Longer opening hours – be open when people finish work
Better customer service – offer the kind of advice you can’t get in Tesco, remember people’s names, actually care
How about, right, if you're gonna demand retail staff work even more unsociable hours than many already do, as well as have to be nice to largely ungrateful and often quite rude customers, pay them a tad more than flipping Minimum Wage? Which of course would mean a big increase in prices of everything...
Ooh let's make everything more convenient for me, sod the effect on anyone else as long as I can buy a new wok at 2am...
Such a selfish attitude.
Ever lived near something that's open all hours? Had to put up with people driving cars, hooting horns, being noisy in the street etc when you're trying to sleep?
Coming out in the morning to find someone's defecated on yer doorstep?
grantway - Gorrick held a race there earlier in the year, not a regular venue though. Did actually check it out after the race and some of it was incredibly narrow. I also find it very lonely over there, the woodland is pretty dense in places.
Also more riding to be had at Yateley Heath Wood, again used for Gorrick races.
Instead of whingeing and whineing and thinking of new forms of legislation, put your money where your mouth is.
I propose a self imposed/personal moratorium on all non-essential purchases normally undertaken in the superstore or shopping mall.
Whaddaya reckon ??
Do I win £5 ?
Elf - tend to agree with you. We really don't need 24/7 shopping and I don't believe that the workers are paid unsocial hours rates. It's taking advantage of people.
Is there no public loos in your part of That Lahndun?
Yeah there are but they're down Chrisp St Market, and they close about 5pm.
Then there's nothing.
Free parking – removes the excuse for people just popping in
Hasn't it been shown that encouraging cycling, walking and public transport does far more for local shops and town centres than more car parking?
Ever lived near something that's open all hours? Had to put up with people driving cars, hooting horns, being noisy in the street etc when you're trying to sleep?Coming out in the morning to find someone's defecated on yer doorstep?
Yep, hated London 
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