Our local high street is working hard to bring things back it has a lot of independent shops now that seem to do quite well. Yes it has bookish and charity shops too and for some reason lots of barbers and hairdressers.

No Go Outdoors though.

Isn’t the demise of the high street all down to the consumer buying patterns? I would guess that most people make their purchases based on price and bricks and mortar + staff cost money. The high street has changed and will keep on changing until there a just a few left in each area that offer restaurants and bars, plus a few fancy shops.

ROFL complaining about problems you are both directly and indirectly responsible for in management, politics and as complete arses of customers. Your faith in corporate giants only works when there’s growth and loads of money in it for them!

Good luck with the autocratic (low quality) hands off management and minimum wage zero hours workers being grateful and oh so pleased to serve entitled nobheads, have a nice day! Japanese style automation/vending is your only hope.

Starter flats, I almost spat my tea out. As for the retail sheds being turned into housing for those that need them, what a laugh, what delusional unicorn fantasy land do you live in? The benevolent private sector rallying round to provide affordable housing for those in need 😀 Yeah course they will, just more luxury BTL fodder for the same bunch of ****.

I would go and have a lie down if I were you.

It’s  all down to laziness. Your British shopper would rather drive for an hour to park 1 minute away from a shop than walk for 20 minutes.

Our local hardware store is staffed by people who know how to use the goods they sell.

You can buy one bolt if you want.

Our local gift shop is the best shop in the whole world and you should all visit it. Plus we actually pay tax.

Anyone who doesn’t have Amazon Prime please put up your hand …

Am I the only one?

So I went onto Amazon and got a really nice wooden-shafted Spear & Jackson one at £15 delivered.

You are Eric Olthwaite, et je réclame mes cinq Euros

We have an absolutely awesome, family run hardware shop on our High Street – I have to walk past Screwfix to get there, but they’re almost guaranteed to be able to offer a choice and will be cheaper than Screwfix. They’ll sell you screws and nails in quantities for the amount you need, not having to buy a big box because the little packets are gougingly expensive.
The problem with chain store retail in the UK is that they can survive because of zero hour contracts and tax-credits effectively subsidising their wage bill – pay their staff naff-all instead of them sitting at home watching Jeremy Kyle.

@ Kerly – Don’t worry about me I’m fine. I just don’t walk around with blinkers on in cloud cuckoo land.

My hand is up C_G
Talking of Prime, it’s quite clever how Amazon got all those people to sign up and pay a subscription for free post, saved shopping around eh? Once they’ve got everyone into this one site shopping, hike up the prices! Genius.

you need one of these…

http://www.wcbaker.co.uk/

Absolutely staggered what they carry ie for our race car – o rings for the fuel injection (correct spec) and roll pins for the gear lever mod we did AND they will sell them individually!!! bought boxes of each hasten to add.

sigh…

We have a WHS smith opposite our shop. We stock one card company that they do. The same card is £1 more in Smiths and I can guarantee that they buy it cheaper than we do.

Re go outdoors, if there was an alternative locally I’d choose them every time, I’d actually spend a bit more if there was an independent competitor (tried LD Mountain Centre after go outdoors but they didn’t stock the sealskins) as I do regularly with bike parts. I live in a small village with no high street, and the nearest towns as mentioned already have a choice of takeaways, pound shops and betting shops with very little else. If I’m honest I can’t ever remember shopping for anything on a local high st, I’ll always choose an independent over a chain but its getting harder to find an alternative to the online option these days

I point blank refuse to use Amazon and always have tho

Waves to C_G. I didn’t even know what Amazon prime was, haha.

We live in a small town. The high street has:
1 fantastic huge DIY store. everything from coal to baking trays.
2 very good family run bakeries,
1 independent outdoor shop,
1 proper family owned fruit and veg shop,
2 butchers,
2 pet shops,
1 gift shop
1 book shop,
1 bridal shop’
1 Posh dress shop’
1 interior design shop,
1 electrical shop,
1 fabulous health food shop,
2 opticians,
and a fantastic stationery supplies shop
All these are independent. Of course mixed in are the usual hairdressers, charity shops, beauty parlours, cafes, a clothes store and supermarkets. But the shops are well used and supported.

Anyone who doesn’t have Amazon Prime please put up your hand …

Am I the only one?

Hand up here.
What is the benefit of it, apart from being able to watch Clarkson? (no thank you).

It seldom takes more than 2 days for any order to come through. If there is something I really desperately need tomorrow I’ll pay the extra but I can’t remember the last time that happened.

We don’t have Sky or BT. Neither do we complain about how much all these services are costing and how little get in return.

We must live a boring life because we don’t use Facebook either.

you need one of these…

http://www.wcbaker.co.uk/

Plus one for WC Bakers. I have no idea where they store all the stuff or how teh staff find it – but they always find that odd bit you need

With a new baby in the house, Amazon prime is a godsend. I’m back to work and living in a small village with no shops, if my wife needs anything it’s an hours round trip into Dundee plus the hassle of packing up the wee man, finding a decent parking space with enough room to get pram out etc. She ordered something late yesterday (Sunday) afternoon and it arrived before lunchtime this morning. I’m sorry if it offends the holier than thou amongst you, but that can’t be beaten.

What is the benefit of it, apart from being able to watch Clarkson?

Well it’s free next day delivery, but it’s also a video streaming service (same price as Netflix), and a music streaming service although with fewer songs in the basic version. And for an extra quid unlimited free games and e-books from their (wide) selection for your kids if you have one of their tablets. Quite a few benefits.

Anyone who doesn’t have Amazon Prime please put up your hand …

✋

Also, I had the opposite experience today.

I phoned Stockbridge nursery, a little place on the edge of Dunblane and 1km from our house. No poncy coffee shop (nice coffee machine for customers who do want though, bring your own mug), no fancy BBQ’s or pukka outdoor lifestyle furniture.
Yes they had stock, but only 18 of 3.6m X 150mm boards of the 26 I needed, and therefore offered to deliver the rest for free on Wednesday.

I drove up, they loaded the roof rack with me and then charged me 20% less than Wickes.

Proper job.

http://www.molawn.com/garden-nursery-dunblane-stirling

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

Bath has a Curry’s/PC World in the city centre.

Anyone who doesn’t have Amazon Prime please put up your hand …

Technically, I don’t; however, there have been a number of occasions where I’ve accidentally ticked the box, and cancelled it when I’ve realised my mistake a day or so later.
There are still places with good shops, like Bath, and some parts of Bristol.
I needed a couple of pairs of shorts, most of mine were worn out, so I went into Bath to check out what Route One, a skate/streetwear shop had to offer.
They do a choose two for £50 of their own range*, which were fine, limited range of sizes in store, tried one pair which were a good fit, but they didn’t have another pair the same.
Lass on the till mentioned they could get another pair posted to me, which I gratefully accepted. This was Bank Holiday Monday; they arrived on Wednesday morning.
That I consider to be excellent service, and encourages me to continue buying there.
*£37 each, similar ones by other makes were up to £75!

Actually now you mention it Newcastle might too but that like Bath is not my high street, the one in our high street closed around 20 years ago.

We’re still in a little bubble here where those shops still exist. Within 2 mins of my front door I can buy electrical goods, women’s hats, plumbing supplies, lingerie, and choose from two shoemakers. This isn’t city centre, just a barrio like many others. There are still folk who’ll pay more to shop locally, for how much longer I don’t know. Airbnb etc is forcing up rents, suspect when current shop owners retire they’ll sell up.

Isn’t the demise of the high street all down to the consumer buying patterns?

Yes and yes – we’re really discussing two things here 1) the decline of Town Centre High Streets and 2) the Decline of Physical retailers in general. The two are linked, but not the same.

Some large retailers, the exact ones who have been blamed for the demise of the traditional high street for decades have been going under of late, lots in fact.

A decline like this is a sort of natural selection really, bad ones die, good ones not only survive but pick up the business from the failing ones.

I don’t know what’s a bigger threat to retailers these days, the likes of Amazon and home delivery, or the Supermarkets building bigger and bigger stores and moving into more markets all the time. I’m fairly sure, if I had to, I could go 12 months only buying things from my local Big Tesco – food, obvs, clothes, electricals, hardware, pharmacy, fuel, mobiles, utilities no doubt, they’ve even got a Bank.

Bath has a Curry’s/PC World in the city centre.

As does Bristol. I’ve just been there to drop off a DPD parcel to send my Rab jacket off for washing.

I assume their business model for this is that I’d then buying something electricky. Looked at a few camera bags. They were all covered in dust so I left. Now, fairly obviously, I’m back on the internet…

You can add my local plumbers merchants to the list of shit shops. Needed a generic 40mm tap cartridge – guy looks at it and announces that it’s “unique” and that I’d be better off fitting a new tap for “only £79”.

Which was surprising as the generic cartridge from Screwfix worked perfectly and cost six quid.

First against the wall etc…

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.

I’ve made that mistake before. I thought there might be a discount involved as I was buying 4x 42″ TV’s, but nope, just an hour of my life gone. It went on so long I became convinced I’d been rumbled for using the company credit card and the police must be coming or something!

Surely there must be a point?

Just back in from my local high street. Fancied some asparagus and jersey potatoes for dinner. Just been reamed for £25 for both for family of four at ye olde greengrocer’s. ****sake. And we live in the vale of Evesham! For that kind usurious tosh they deserve to go to the wall.

I’ve made that mistake before. I thought there might be a discount involved as I was buying 4x 42″ TV’s, but nope, just an hour of my life gone. It went on so long I became convinced I’d been rumbled for using the company credit card and the police must be coming or something!

Surely there must be a point?

If there is, I’m yet to discover it. The staff seem completely disinterested in it, they make a few offers of ‘tech advice’ but we never got any.

Well it’s free next day delivery

But it’s not free is it? You have to pay for Prime. What a stupid comment.

women’s hats, plumbing supplies, lingerie, and choose from two shoemakers.

Sounds like a recipe for a wild night.

For that kind usurious tosh they deserve to go to the wall.

You took out a loan to buy some veg?

But it’s not free is it? You have to pay for Prime. What a stupid comment.

Pretty sure everyone knew what I was talking about. Your comment on the other hand was utterly unnecessary and added no value whatsoever to the discussion, and on top of that makes you look an arsehole. I think your comment was much stupider.

You took out a loan to buy some veg?

it feels like it!

@Stoner
I’d just like to clarify this – you paid £25 for enough potatoes and asparagus to feed four people?

asparagus

Broccoli is cheaper. Or spinach.

I’d just like to clarify this – you paid £25 for enough potatoes and asparagus to feed four people?

to be fair there was enough left for lunch for two today.

But yes. I feel properly done over.
Its the English disease though. You dont want to cause a scene when dear ol’ lady tells you “the asparagus comes to £14”. You mumble, “Oh well, that’s OK, it is a treat…”. And then complain about it a few hours later to wierdos on the internet.

Its the English disease though
I had a similar moment buying olives from a market stall… “£9 please”… “Lovely. Thanks”.
Cough splutter! Did I just pay NINE QUID for a pot of olives?!

Im feeling better already

Oh dear, my middle classness has just been confirmed when seeing that some see asparagus as a treat.
I get all my asparagus from Amazon anyway, using Prime ‘free’ delivery.

Shops will die out if they are offering things people don’t want (not enough choice, higher price etc,.) but they just need to be replaced by others things rather than retail (barbers, coffee shops, micro pubs, skateboard shops with mini ramp inside and so on.)
A high street full of that rather than the token butcher, baker and candlestick maker is not a bad thing.

Were the nine quid olives nice Dezzy?

Or did they still taste of washing up liquid like all the other cheaper ones? 😉