That assumes a compelling reason to visit.
Good point - I very rarely visit the town centre (we have a local high street near us) as there's bugger all there I actually want / need to visit. Last few times were to go to Vision Express, but its only every few years I get new glasses....
Oh and x2 for opening hours that actually suit the working population.
See, supermarkets already have that nailed.
Local "out of town" (well, only just, but, point stands) 7am - 10pm, Mon - Fri.
Town centre butcher? 9-5.
My work hours? 9-5.
Chances of me ever buying anything from the butcher ever? Zero.
Actually, it gets worse for the town centre specialist artisan boutiques, because Tesco website is open 24hrs a day, so my weekly shop is actually a few visits to a website.
exactly. If no-ones coming to your town centre, it’s not working, and things needs to change drastically as it’s dying anyway. As someone said earlier, bulldoze the empty shops & make apartments, parks and other nice spaces, etc, small/cheap units for popups/local indie businesses, etc.
That's one of the very few ways of reinventing the high street - businesses come in due to the influx of new residents. Needs to be medium density (so apartments rather than detached houses), ideally close to public transport and ideally not have much in the way of car parking for residents, it needs to cater primarily for those without cars. As a subsidiary to that, you get the sort of convenience shops that you need, not just an endless supply of overpriced cafes.
It works the opposite way too - I work in a little "courtyard" of semi-high-rise office blocks and, pre-Covid, there was a lovely little community of small shops catering for this. Two coffee shops, bakery, little bar/grill lunch place and a small supermarket. All catering to the hundreds of office workers who'd pour into the place daily. Lockdown, everyone WFH and that was the death for all of them. The only place that has reopened is one of the coffee shops. Everything else is still empty units.
that’s mad. Where is this? All the bakers here locally have queues out the door & down the street in tourist season, and will be closed before mid-day as everything will be gone!! Maybe they need to start making nice cakes or something, stuff that tourists actually want to buy?! Personally I spend a fortune in bakeries/butchers when on holiday, it’s the first thing I make a beeline for if I see one. Possibly just me 🤣
Fife, its more of a day trip, rather than multi day trip destination. If they were staying and needed more food than a burger/ice cream things would be different but when the end of the day arrives, they generally go home.
yeah that’s BS. If people are driving to the local bakery, they’re not really local are they? 😂
Youd think wouldn't you, but allegedly pretty much all custom for those retailers comes from local buyers, small town of 6300. Im sure there are those that drive because its too far them to walk health wise, but by and large its just laziness. My neighbour drives to the high street, its literally a 3 minute walk. And because theres no parking he just parks on the pavement.
Ive actually beaten him to the same shop at walking speed befire, as my route is much shorter.
My neighbour drives to the high street, its literally a 3 minute walk. And because theres no parking he just parks on the pavement.Ive actually beaten him to the same shop at walking speed before, as my route is much shorter.
There was an article in one of those dreadful local newspapers - the standard photo of a couple looking upset / angry next to some roadworks - about how these long term, significant roadworks between where they lived and the town centre 500m that way ---> meant that they now had to drive a round trip of 5 miles to get there.
Seemingly missing the point that it was still just a 500m walk past the edge of the roadworks.
I get the elderly / disabled argument but the vast majority of people driving to a town centre are just lazy. And they can't all be buying a fridge / 60" TV / ton of compost. What drives that behaviour is free parking - there are no downsides to the individual to drive there. There are of course downsides to everyone else in terms of pollution, congestion, slower bus journeys, increased road danger and so on but councillors are terrified of doing anything to upset the drivers and most shopkeepers think (wrongly) that drivers and free parking are essential to their survival.
Regarding parking spaces for new flats. If someone is paying £650K for a new flat (rough going rate for a 2 bed in West London)
West London isn't representative of the rest of the country in any sense.
Our edge of town retail park has recently been filled by some new restaurants and cafes (chains and locals), a climbing wall, a Ninja Warrior place, JD Sports with Evans Cycles. Added to what was there before it suddenly feels very busy down there. But that's a few hundred metres from the town centre itself.
My high street is great!
