Fifteen mile roundtrip to Dunhelm to get some new curtains for our bedroom. None in stock.

Eight mile round trip to Curry’s/PC World to get a Dualit toaster. None in stock.

Called in at our local Wickes to get some long handled lawn shears. None in stock.

All of the above now ordered on-line.

Is it all our fault that the highstreet shops are struggling?

Nope, but I bet if you went onto each of their respective websites you could order for in store collection.

You’re right and when you do find what you want, the service is rubbish. We are a nation of bumbling incompetents when it comes to training shop staff and waiters.

Are any of those high street shops? I’d say those out of town stores are the worst of both worlds.

I’m always pretty amazed what my local old skool DIY shop in stock. OK not as good as the entire internet but almost always have something that will do the job.

You could check stock online, or click and collect. Or even call.

You’re right and when you do find what you want, the service is rubbish. We are a nation of bumbling incompetents when it comes to training shop staff and waiters

It’s not that, it’s that the pay is shit and they have to deal with British customers. Act like an arsehole to waiting staff like a lot of Brits do, then expect poor service.

NB: DO NOT DO THIS AT B&Q! Their stock control system appears to be kept updated on a ZX81 by a blind pensioner

@binners…

I had exactly that issue with B&Q yesterday, looked on line at store stock, i needed 10 bags of Postcrete, they reported having 28, drove there and they had ….two…

B&Q deserve to go out of business just based on there web-site alone

There was a time before the internet that you just bought whatever toaster your local electrical store had in stock…

I think expectations might be a bit high.

Nope, most physical retail places are woeful and not deserving of your custom, let alone artificial ‘support’.

The good ones have shifted their business model, as so many others said, if you want same-day, click and collect, hybrid online/physical model etc. The bad ones are in a state of managed decline – I assume they think if they keep shrinking and dropping off stores when they become unprofitable at some point it’ll level out, they’re wrong.

I once went through the snow to get a laptop I had reserved for click and collect in PC world, it was the only one left in stock.

Turns out it was the display model and they couldn’t sell it to me!

Needless to say I’ve never been back.

My experience is that chain stores never have stock and you might as well go local as at least you’ll come home with something.

PC world

Yep, fairly terrible.

I’m forced to use them a few times a year, their staff simply don’t understand their products and I’m sure I know more about their stock control system than they do.

They’re also a bit like a museum, not just because some of the stuff they sell is very outdated, but mostly because they have much more stuff out the back than they have on display.

Oh, for the love of all things holy don’t tell them it’s for a business! (they usual trap is “do you need a VAT receipt?) or expect to wait 45 mins whilst the business manager puts all your details into their system (sloooooooowly) and produces an A4 invoice – no discount, no invoice terms, just a bigger format invoice for an hour of your time. Every time.

In fact Argos carry a lot of the same things they do, they just do it much better.

Im not sure why we should suppor the highstreet. Its a pain to park, a fight to get to the shops and a disapointment to deal with the staff for a product that isnt in stock.

Buy online – better choice and price and no messing about trying to get to the shop and park.

We could then repuropse the empty stores as starter flats.

Im not sure why we should suppor the highstreet

It’s the fear of change, and the fear that the very retailer you have’t used in 5 years might not survive until some unknown point in the future when they’d be marginally more convenient than a different one.

Totally agree with the OP – went to buy an edging spade from B&Q (the website said they had them in stock). I got there and they had none. So I went to Homebase. They had none. So I went to a local ironmongers’. They had some but they were cheap nasty plastic shafted ones and were £10 each. So I went onto Amazon and got a really nice wooden-shafted Spear & Jackson one at £15 delivered.

Errrr … think you missed the point about supporting the High street a little.

Dunhelm, Currys, Wickes….. not exactly local independent traders are they?

But to be fair doubt you get curtains at dunhelm prices or a dualit toaster from an Indy.

But shears?? …. Get yourself to the local hardware store (brilliant places) or garden centre.

Good luck.

Our local high street has transformed to cafes, bars, restaurants, take aways and hair salons; replacing most of the traditional stores that were there before. Has a much nicer feal about it as people sit on tables on the pavement eating in the evenings, almost European….

Burnley?

Dunhelm, Currys, Wickes….. not exactly local independent traders are they?

Probably they’ve put the local haberdashery, iron mongers and electrical retailers out of business though, so are the only “high street” left.

Our local high street has transformed to cafes, bars, restaurants, take aways and hair salons; replacing most of the traditional stores that were there before. Has a much nicer feal about it as people sit on tables on the pavement eating in the evenings, almost European….

Our local high street has transformed to pharmacies, betting shops, charity shops and pound shops; replacing most of the traditional stores that were there before. Has a much scarier feel about it as people slump intoxicated in doorways or  on the pavement  in the evenings, almost Eastern European….

Thanks for clearing that up DezB

Is that not the point of supporting the high street as opposed to supporting the retail park ??

Dunhelm, Currys, Wickes….. not exactly local independent traders are they?

Probably they’ve put the local haberdashery, iron mongers and electrical retailers out of business though, so are the only “high street” left.

This ^

Don’t suppose the Boards of each of those Corporates GAS about the High St when they setup business and moved into Out Of Town Retail Hell Parks did they….

Most retailers leave the stock control to the Manufactures to manage these days, it’s not surprising that dead stock costs money, why stock it if you can get it shipped direct from the manufacturer..??

Click and Collect is the way to go.

High streets need to change. Cardiff is a good place – loads of parking, then you head for a coffee, browse some cool stuff (e.g. Lego Store, John Lewis, sundry clothes shops, try on shoes etc), have a burrito for lunch, maybe walk by the castle, grab a doughnut or an ice cream, head home – that kind of thing.

Molls on Saturday lunchtime as he flits between costa and John Lewis…..

To be fair Molls, that sounds like Rochdale, but did you know Rochdale famously has more canals than Venice. The feel of the place is very much the same

I once went through the snow to get a laptop I had reserved for click and collect in PC world, it was the only one left in stock.

Turns out it was the display model and they couldn’t sell it to me

I had that in Halfords. Store was most apologetic and encouraged me to complain to Head Office because they were fed up with the system continually doing that.
Head Office threw my complaint back to the store to deal with.

I ordered on line, paid for next day delivery and still paid less than Halfords would have charged me.

In the old days we used to just phone up the shop to see if they had it rather than drive 23 miles and waste an hour or two. Even had a book called the Yellow Pages to get their number.

Molls on Saturday lunchtime as he flits between costa and John Lewis…..

I don’t actually buy anything except the pair of kids shoes we’ve come in for. And the food 🙂 I haven’t yet won the lottery so I do not buy anything in the Lego store.

Is that not the point of supporting the high street as opposed to supporting the retail park ??

You can’t if they don’t exist, rosey, but thanks anyway 😆

Actually, there’s a nice working class estate near where I work and that high street has an amazing Aladdin’s Cave of a hardware shop. As well as a pet shop, 3 card shops and a car parts place.
I usually go in Lidls though.

“We are a nation of bumbling incompetents when it comes to training shop staff and waiters.”

In fairness I know some truly excellent waiters… ah… but none of them are British. Fair point.

I will always try my local independent shops before buying online, and it doesn’t necessarily come down to price; however, immediacy is a different thing – local independent Hat shop had a six week wait for a Tilley hat. It arrived on my doorstep next day with Amazon.

There was a time before the internet that you just bought whatever toaster your local electrical store had in stock…

But the shopkeeper would give you helpful advice about which toaster was best for your particular bread preferences etc.

Our local high street has transformed to pharmacies, betting shops, charity shops and pound shops; replacing most of the traditional stores that were there before. Has a much scarier feel about it as people slump intoxicated in doorways or on the pavement in the evenings, almost Eastern European….

You could well be describing my home town, and the home towns of many on here I would guess.

maybe walk by the castle

I’ll see if the council in my home town fancy building a castle. It’s probably no more pie in the sky than their ideas for regeneration.

I’ve never seen any of those stores on a high street, Ok Currys about 10 years ago, they’re all on outlets.

Fifteen mile roundtrip to Dunhelm to get some new curtains for our bedroom. None in stock.

Is that what they mean by starship mileage?

Go outdoors advertised sealskin mtb socks for less than half of usual price last year, ordered a pair after checking store stock online. Drove around 10 miles to collect only to be told they had none in stock, to be fair the young girl at the counter was very apologetic and explained their website is only updated once a week. I left the store and drove into Newcastle city centre, around an hour later I received an email and txt from go outdoors saying the order was ready to collect so made a detour back to the store on the way home. Showed a different staff member the email and txt only to be told again that they had none in stock and couldn’t say when they would get some

I’ve not been back to go outdoors since and doubt I will

maybe walk by the castle

Mine’s got one of those 🙂

(Think thats been mentioned drac 😉 )

Go outdoors

Talking of not high-street…

almost Eastern European….

Kiev was the most seedy place I’ve ever visited, lots of night clubs / brothels with blacked out range rovers on the pavement outside and body guards sporting not at all subtle firearms. Most of the kids were getting wasted on cheap drink in the subways….

On the other hand central (posh) Moscow was really pleasant, quite like nice bits of Paris.

High streets need to change. Cardiff is a good place – loads of parking, then you head for a coffee, browse some cool stuff (e.g. Lego Store, John Lewis, sundry clothes shops, try on shoes etc), have a burrito for lunch, maybe walk by the castle, grab a doughnut or an ice cream, head home – that kind of thing.

St. David’s Shopping centre is a good example of 21st Century retail. Most of those shops aren’t actually there to sell you stuff. Sure enough they’ll take your money if you want to, but their primary goal is to act as showrooms. Hence they’re more and more owned and operated by Manufacturers (Lego, Superdry, Apple et al) they don’t want to piss off their resellers so they will generally only sell current models at full RRP, you go in, you prod and push, check for size, feel the quality etc – then whip out your smart phone, connect to the (really good and free) wi-fi and buy online.

SD2 is a theme park for people who actually like shopping. The rents are way too high for most retailers who actually want to make money at the tills, they’re usually down the way in the less-flash SD1.

Screwfix and Euro car parts do a good job of combing the internet with a store a bit like Argos. Not exactly high street though.