Is the high street doomed ?

[adam2]

I think that most high street stores are doomed.
The future of most shopping is on line, there will always be SOME demand for actual shops where goods can be inspected before purchase, but I believe that this will be a very small part of retail trade.

And of course fleabay have largely taken over from car boot sales.

[fuzzy]

Poundstretchers always seemed a mixed bag.
You have to discriminated at these shops. Poundland [are they still there?] for male reading glasses, poundworld for Uhu glue, PVA glue, 'travel' socks [make excellent winter warmers]. B+M for posh dried cat food.

If car-based out of towners discounts are going to shrivel, then stock up on amazingly cheap 'sleep aid' valerian tablets and real cough medicine [take with 1 paracetamol for a knockout] in those places before they go. A lot cheaper than NHS prescriptions.
The high street was murdered by business rates and rents.

[Little John]

The local shops were murdered by high street chains, which were murdered by out of town shopping complexes and supermarkets which are being murdered by online retailers.

Meanwhile, everyone is losing their jobs and/or working all the hours god sends for a pittance.

At which point, the entire system gets murdered

[fuzzy]

Not long now then..

[Little John]

Indeed, I don't think it is long before proper trouble begins to hit our streets. And I don't mean shops closing down. I mean shops burning.

That's why there has been a sudden crack down on free speech on social media over the last few weeks as well as a ratcheting up of the "Russia did it" bullshit.

Our dear leaders know it is coming as well.

[RenewableCandy]

Our little Co-Op shop is either:

1. Thriving so much it can afford a total refit, OR,
2. Being run by someone whose lack of attention might finish it off.

I hope to feck it's the former. Aldi's nearly 400 yards away and I'm a lazy git.

[Little John]

You live where the wealth is concentrated. So, this doesn't affect shops where you are.

Yet.

[frank_begbie]

If you sell food you have a chance of survival.

Anything else and it's just a matter of time.

[clv101]

One sad aspect of the 'death of the high street' is the associated de-skilling. It used to be the case that the high street was full of specialist shops, which held good stocks and were staffed by product experts.

These days high street shops tend not to have much stock and don't tend to have product experts on hand. Our communities have been hollowed out, de-skilled.

But, thanks to the Internet, we're all experts now?

[cubes]

Thanks to the internet you can at least get some sort of help. However, the small specialist owner-run shop is sorely missed.

[adam2]

Yesterday evening I was invited to an informal meeting of local traders, primarily to offer advice and suggestions regarding energy saving.

The other subject discussed was the decline of the traditional high street, one reason given for this being the great increase in shoplifting.

It was stated that theft of goods worth less than £100 has been decriminalised and is no longer an arrestable offence nor a matter for police investigation.
There was very considerable anger and ill feeling regarding this from several shop owners who have suffered repeated thefts, often committed by the same people.
Increasingly the thieves are said to make no effort to conceal the stealing, but simply walk out after helping themselves.

Any effort by the shop keeper to prevent the theft, or deny access to the thief, or to eject them from the premises, is likely to be regarded as an assault or false imprisonment, and DOES get a prompt police response.

There was a general view that the "system" was biased in favour of thieves and against traders.

[Little John]

We are in a transitional phase in our society. The state no longer has the resources to deal with low level disorder and crime. And so they are just ignoring it. However, the organizational structures in our society are now so completely and rigidly centralized that it is impossible for these problems to be dealt with locally, let alone by the individual, for fear of state reprisals.

Eventually, the tensions will become sufficiently high that something will have to give and the local capacity to deal with this kind of stuff will, either formally or informally (by turning a blind eye), be handed back to the locals to deal with. But, we are not at that point yet.

This kind of arrangement was still in evidence, to some extent, when I was a lad. I remember me and a mate, back in the mid 70s, were out gaffing for salmon on a private river. We were caught in the act in the middle of the night by the local gamekeeper. He gave both of us a thump and told us to piss off home and not do it again or it would be off to the police station with the both of us. It we had gone to the police to report the gamekeeper for assault, we would have been laughed out of the police station and probably given another thump on the way out.

[vtsnowedin]

Yesterday evening I was invited to an informal meeting of local traders, primarily to offer advice and suggestions regarding energy saving.

The other subject discussed was the decline of the traditional high street, one reason given for this being the great increase in shoplifting.

It was stated that theft of goods worth less than £100 has been decriminalised and is no longer an arrestable offence nor a matter for police investigation.
There was very considerable anger and ill feeling regarding this from several shop owners who have suffered repeated thefts, often committed by the same people.
Increasingly the thieves are said to make no effort to conceal the stealing, but simply walk out after helping themselves.

Any effort by the shop keeper to prevent the theft, or deny access to the thief, or to eject them from the premises, is likely to be regarded as an assault or false imprisonment, and DOES get a prompt police response.

There was a general view that the "system" was biased in favour of thieves and against traders.

And you call yourselves civilized? That is nothing less then anarchy and if not reversed will destroy your economy.

[careful_eugene]

Yesterday evening I was invited to an informal meeting of local traders, primarily to offer advice and suggestions regarding energy saving.

The other subject discussed was the decline of the traditional high street, one reason given for this being the great increase in shoplifting.

It was stated that theft of goods worth less than £100 has been decriminalised and is no longer an arrestable offence nor a matter for police investigation.
There was very considerable anger and ill feeling regarding this from several shop owners who have suffered repeated thefts, often committed by the same people.
Increasingly the thieves are said to make no effort to conceal the stealing, but simply walk out after helping themselves.

Any effort by the shop keeper to prevent the theft, or deny access to the thief, or to eject them from the premises, is likely to be regarded as an assault or false imprisonment, and DOES get a prompt police response.

There was a general view that the "system" was biased in favour of thieves and against traders.

And you call yourselves civilized? That is nothing less then anarchy and if not reversed will destroy your economy.

Our government seems to think its ok to cut police numbers despite a rise in crime. It beggars belief that the police would take no action for blatant theft but would investigate someone who was actively trying to prevent theft.

[woodburner]

And you call yourselves civilized? That is nothing less then anarchy and if not reversed will destroy your economy.

Permitting teachers to carry guns to shoot errant students is not anarchy as it’s permitted. I think your comment is a bit rich. The US approach is to shoot everybody, but that is not the only thing that will destroy your economy. Feeding people the wrong stuff so much more is spent on sick care looks like a sure fire way of eventually destroying the economy too.