A personal review from myself and your thoughts are invited from your local perspectives.
We all know that the way we as consumers shop has been in linear change in recent decades and even exponentially during and since the pandemic. If the press is to be believed then the UK the “high street” is under perpetual threat of demise from the ever-incoming ‘extinction-level-events’ from online convenience and price/value propositions.
The “on foot” shopping experience in the UK is sub-optimal to say the least, with occasional delightful exceptions: Apple Stores for example offer a sublime one-to-one retailing experience which is far preferable to even their online offering. Many other stores are populated with staff who simply don’t want to be there and attrition rates are increasing as employers wage a war on benefits and the so-called work/life balance.
The multiples/chains blame and bemoan the changing dynamic whilst seemingly unwilling or unable to dig deep enough into their own strategies, processes and culture to make any meaningful competitive progress. Meanwhile the online platforms continue to innovate to grow driving their brand extensions into new categories and even new sectors. The winners have become global ‘monsters’ such as Amazon who’s buying power and market presence provides them with what has become an almost unassailable dominance and who’s owners and shareholders are some of the wealthiest people on the planet.
We as consumers in turn bemoan our slavery to our laziness as we feed these corporate beasts, and like the on-foot retailers we seem to lack the motivation to change our shopping habits to sufficiently impact the high street enough to prevent closures and layoffs.
Interestingly it is the landlords who are suffering as the high street folds up it’s stalls and goes home; rents are extortionate so businesses simply walk away. Local councils lack the investment to prevent this trend and instead observe the decay with a neutered ambivalence hoping it won’t all go completely pear-shaped on their watch. Even in large towns and cities the “town centre” has become riddled with small business picking up peppercorn rents to fill units with their “everything for a £” bargain tat, all shipped in on freights from sweatshops in the Far East; worthless tat mostly.
Giant desolate hulls loom over the pedestrianised shopping centres, crumbling edifices of a bygone era when previous generations marvelled at their grandeur. In the UK alone we lost: C&A (albeit in the previous wave of change), Debenhams, Bentalls, Beales and even House of Fraser, who themselves swallowed up Dingles, Bobby’s and dozens of other individual department stores back in the 1980s. I won’t even go into the tragedy of raided pension funds and the associated human cost.
We are facing the end of diverse, quality “on foot” retailing. Even the homeless have moved out of the doorways!
So, what do we do?
I try to buy locally as much as I can but it’s difficult when the consumer choice has increasingly moved online.
Thoughts?
@divegeester
A lot of text, but I basically agree about shopping locally if we can. It may be more expensive but it gives a variety we should try to keep.
@divegeester saidI have to admit, good post. I think you're scratching the surface of a much broader move in societal evolution, if the principles you've put forward are extrapolated out to all human activity, signaling a seismic shift in human experience coming in the near future.
A personal review from myself and your thoughts are invited from your local perspectives.
We all know that the way we as consumers shop has been in linear change in recent decades and even exponentially during and since the pandemic. If the press is to be believed then the UK the “high street” is under perpetual threat of demise from the ever-incoming ‘extinction-level ...[text shortened]... ch as I can but it’s difficult when the consumer choice has increasingly moved online.
Thoughts?
@divegeester saidI left Britain in 1991 and the phenomenon in which city centres had been gutted was already hugely evident and a cause for great lament.
A personal review from myself and your thoughts are invited from your local perspectives.
We all know that the way we as consumers shop has been in linear change in recent decades and even exponentially during and since the pandemic. If the press is to be believed then the UK the “high street” is under perpetual threat of demise from the ever-incoming ‘extinction-level ...[text shortened]... ch as I can but it’s difficult when the consumer choice has increasingly moved online.
Thoughts?
It obviously had nothing to do with online shopping then, but the disappearance of shops and variety in the high street zone was dire; they were replaced with fast food outlets, charity shops and fly-by-night renters selling cheap books etc.
Gone were the butchers and the grocers and the haberdashers and the bakeries and cobblers and record shops and toy shops and hardware shops and all the rest of it.
Meanwhile, superstores and the like were cropping up on the outskirts of towns or in the suburbs.
That was 30+ years ago.
@divegeester saidThe world is changing... thank God. Start thinking global instead of local.
A personal review from myself and your thoughts are invited from your local perspectives.
We all know that the way we as consumers shop has been in linear change in recent decades and even exponentially during and since the pandemic. If the press is to be believed then the UK the “high street” is under perpetual threat of demise from the ever-incoming ‘extinction-level ...[text shortened]... ch as I can but it’s difficult when the consumer choice has increasingly moved online.
Thoughts?
@josephw saidIt means that the elites are now spread out all over the globe instead of being concentrated in the imperialist countries... I love it.
Yeah, the world is going global. The elites will provide the menu. And you, the loyal consumer, will have "stuff" shipped to your door.
Have any idea what that means?
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Mom and Pop shops hire family members and that doesn't help the community. It only helps that family.
I remember looking for work and getting a job in a Mom and Pop shop was impossible so I hope all of the big companies run them out of business.
COVID helped shut down a lot of those nepotistic snobs.
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@divegeester saidmiddlesbroughs shopping centre on linthorpe road is now all takeaways, binns,debenhams, all the department stores gone ,boarded up only m&s and boots survive, its little better on the retail parks where parking is a major issue, we do have a local shop(now a tesco mini) and a larger local precinct 1 mile away but no butchers or greengrocers anymore, its teco or nothing.I can see no way back for retail in reality, we do most of our shopping online I dont have to feed my car every week its every 2 months or so.
A personal review from myself and your thoughts are invited from your local perspectives.
We all know that the way we as consumers shop has been in linear change in recent decades and even exponentially during and since the pandemic. If the press is to be believed then the UK the “high street” is under perpetual threat of demise from the ever-incoming ‘extinction-level ...[text shortened]... ch as I can but it’s difficult when the consumer choice has increasingly moved online.
Thoughts?
- Joined
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- Moves
- 20590
@great-big-stees saidwell its always been the way ,when times are hard you spend with your head not your heart.
Our “main/high” street has shops that come and go. People opening in hopes that folks/neighbours will support then and for a time they do but when push comes to shove the almighty dollar (or whatever the currency where you are is called) takes precedence.
@divegeester saidSo, what do we do? I try to buy locally as much as I can but it’s difficult when the consumer choice has increasingly moved online.
A personal review from myself and your thoughts are invited from your local perspectives.
We all know that the way we as consumers shop has been in linear change in recent decades and even exponentially during and since the pandemic. If the press is to be believed then the UK the “high street” is under perpetual threat of demise from the ever-incoming ‘extinction-level ...[text shortened]... ch as I can but it’s difficult when the consumer choice has increasingly moved online.
Thoughts?
I've noticed this too, but I doubt things will change much. Rising fuel costs coupled with less expensive online prices and home delivery spells doom for many brick and mortar shops.
@badradger saidFuel cost is indeed a factor.
middlesbroughs shopping centre on linthorpe road is now all takeaways, binns,debenhams, all the department stores gone ,boarded up only m&s and boots survive, its little better on the retail parks where parking is a major issue, we do have a local shop(now a tesco mini) and a larger local precinct 1 mile away but no butchers or greengrocers anymore, its teco or nothing.I ca ...[text shortened]... y, we do most of our shopping online I dont have to feed my car every week its every 2 months or so.
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@mchill saidI dunno, don't you have real markets? Local shops? Or do you all live (or rather, merely survive) along stroads?
I've noticed this too, but I doubt things will change much. Rising fuel costs coupled with less expensive online prices and home delivery spells doom for many brick and mortar shops.
In my town, I can, and do, buy my veggies from the market, and I still have at least some local shops, including grocers, bakers, and butchers. I count myself lucky my local language isn't English.
@lipareeno saidRight! End individual entrepreneurship, personal liberty and creativity, and return to land barons, feudalism, indentured servitude and slavery to stuff.
Mom and Pop shops hire family members and that doesn't help the community. It only helps that family.
I remember looking for work and getting a job in a Mom and Pop shop was impossible so I hope all of the big companies run them out of business.
COVID helped shut down a lot of those nepotistic snobs.
Great idea. 😔