The reconstruction of the High street

[Rachie]

It is sad to me on some levels .I am not sure if I will find anywhere as well, but I don’t even need to know that there has been many changes to physical shops closing down in high streets and just operating online for some. This is in the UK. I would imagine that change has been happening in other countries. People will look for a bargain and order online which takes away customers in physical mortar shops. This then can lead to closure.

I have lived in my area for about thirty years and seen so much change. The collapse of several big chains to be opened with a coffee shop most often. For Gail’s replaced Laura Ashley in my area as just one example. Little old me still remembers Woolworth’s. I used to love going there sometimes on a Saturday for my one stop shop and well I still miss it. Sometimes it can be enough to put you off going in to town.

Now I said to myself just yesterday and even though my health is not yet there by any means somehow I wanted to see in person myself a Titan Slim phone to see how it feels in my own hand and to determine about the keyboard how well it operates. It would have been good to do so despite my health to have that fresh for a bit and a bit of pass timing as well and see some lights if I could have well. Now how many Youtube videos will I need to watch. Unfortunately right now there is a lot of special things going round in the air elsewhere. I have got my fully loads already been vaccinated shall we say for both conditions.

We did it to ourselves with our penny pinching and it has other advantages at times when you don’t want to go out. Surely to lose that option though can be difficult. Time and place.

There are probably a number of shops I miss and need to think about any list. If you have any shops you miss physical do share.

If you tried a Titan Slim feel free to pass comment as well. I feel it is the Titan Slim versus Blackberry Priv as well. I hear the Priv cannot even use the Intsagram app and as a sole writer on mine with no followers I would like that option so perhaps shouldn't venture away that Key One of mine.

Over to you

 

[Misty Avich]

I don't agree with the clothes shops closing, because I thought many people would prefer to go out to be able to see clothes for themselves in order to choose better. I know I do. Each time I've ordered clothes online I had misjudged and had to send them back. Sometimes I couldn't be bothered with it all (especially on the few occasions when Amazon wouldn't give me my money back) so have just kept them, which are cluttering up my wardrobe now. None of that happens when I get my clothes from a clothes shop.

The town where I live has always had every shop you ever wanted right on your doorstep, but then some genius decided to shut some perfectly good shops and move them out of the town centre to a place outside of town where you need a car to get to.

I'm still trying to figure out the logic here. So they want us to drive our cars less to help with global warming, yet they move perfectly good local shops out of the town where people are going to be driving in their cars to get to?

 

[Roisin]

It feels poignant, like we are bumbling along, reducing the options for those that come after us, while the options for large multinational companies remain almost unaffected.

 

[Gerontius]

I think walkable cities would help bring back the high street. If it's already somewhere people want to go, and easy to navigate on foot or on a bike, why not keep the good old stores where they are?

Am American so we have not got the same high street as you in the UK but we do have Main Street declining in a lot of towns..

 

[Neonatal RRT]

This is a phenomenon almost everywhere, I suspect. Online distributors/retailers taking over. A storefront lease is really expensive in some areas and is why prices are generally higher as compared to online. Plus they cannot compete in terms of scales of economy and the price drop that comes with that. AI and robotics will take over a huge percentage of businesses and the workforce. Great for the owners, but it puts a lot of people out of work. I see a world in the not too distant future where "universal basic income" becomes part of our lives. We will enter an era of abundance and things will be cheap, however, if there isn't a certain amount of cash flow for everyone, then the economy will collapse. It will be an entirely different world. The list of pros and cons is long, and will be quite disruptive. As an investor, I am excited. As a human being, I am preparing for a lot of upset people during the transition.

 

[Misty Avich]

I'm worried the economy will collapse. I'm very poor and living in poverty as it is. What would happen to me?

 

[FayetheAspie]

I lot of our local shops have closed as well. One of the ones that I miss is the local Hallmark gift shop. It was a nice place to find interesting little gifts for people around Christmas time as well as a good place for buying greeting cards. You could even find greeting cards in several different languages and languages fascinate me so I liked that. It seems like everything is becoming nail salons, vape shops, tattoo parlors, pubs, and the like around here and we're not even in a major city. It's sad.

 

[TBRS1]

It's unfortunate that people who live where they can buy things in local stores are losing that.

Where I live, if you can't get it at Big Store, you have to drive 5 hours to get to the Detroit area (or other urban location).

So for me, buying on line means I can have some choices about what I buy. Big Store doesn't sell much I want, other than food and cheap shirts.

 

[Neonatal RRT]

I'm worried the economy will collapse. I'm very poor and living in poverty as it is. What would happen to me?

Even the wealthy and the politicians will not let that happen. Too much money in their pockets they could lose, like millions and billions of dollars, and they won't let that happen. The middle and lower classes do the overwhelming amount of consumerism and drive the economy. The rich cannot be rich without people buying their goods. I think there will be some anxiety, then a push for solutions, like a universal basic income, which has been talked about for about a decade now. There will be a time for it. As I suggested, things will become less expensive once production can be scaled at a much lower cost. The difference being that we will be in a situation where home delivery simply becomes the norm and I still think there will be a need for the local "mom and pop" markets.

At this point, it is a wait and see situation, so no need for anxieties just yet.

 

[Outdated]

We will enter an era of abundance and things will be cheap,

This depends very much on how seriously consumers take their role, prices only stay low when consumers refuse to spend more. So many people are happy to pay extra for convenience and that encourages business owners to raise prices.

The list of pros and cons is long, and will be quite disruptive. As an investor, I am excited. As a human being, I am preparing for a lot of upset people during the transition.

We've gone through massive changes in Australia in the last 20 years, online shopping really took off here and we've had to develop a whole new legal framework to protect both the e-commerce industry and consumers. We've already introduced the new law, next year it becomes illegal here for credit card companies and banks to charge people a surcharge for using their cards.

We have very much become a cashless society since covid, cash was seen as another way of spreading the disease and quite a few businesses now refuse to accept cash, we've recently just legislated about that too, cash is still legal tender in this country and accepting it is a legal obligation.

Cash is still king in regional areas though, many remote places simply don't have good enough comms systems to use EFTPOS and can only deal in cash. With banks closing nearly all their branches in remote areas it's the banks that are missing out here, shop owners can't take their cash to a bank because there isn't one so they have to keep it themselves.

As for the death of the High Street, that happened for a while and then bounced back. A lot of online retailers are a rip off and it's often cheaper to shop locally. Nearly all of our local shops also have an online presence and online ordering, this makes it a lot easier for people to find the best prices and shop accordingly.

 

[Rachie]

I read every single reply and it is very interesting all of them.

I live in the suburbs of London. It is a high street where I live. Full of uncountable coffee shops and other places to eat and supermarkets. In the past I would have done with pottering around Woolworths for a few naughty pick and mix music and just a walk around about Christmas things and spend a bit. Probably Laura Ashley next Christmas themed coffee shop and perhaps a supermarket and I would be done and close to home.

I didn't see the Titan slim on the Jobn Lewis so decided to call them and they told me they don't sell this phone. I called Selfridges and these are among the big 2 we call them in London up London. Nobody picked up the phone and I couldn't find it on the website. Sad it could have been a sale on the spot if I liked it. It is not a known past brand sale to me.

Couldn't believe it. I saw the Carphone Warehouse on the website the opening times etc. I triple shook my head like three times in amazement. Like Laura Ashley has come back just online but it has never been the same.

So it is day out if I want to up London my local town would have trumped unless had a shop the phone could have been bought then I would have been on my way.

 

[Misty Avich]

I am clueless with purchasing and setting up new phones, I need a phone shop to do that for me. I get stressed out doing things myself online.

It's funny how all these shops are closing because "everybody goes online now", yet whenever I go into town there are always crowds and crowds of people with full shopping bags and queues in almost every shop. I think the closure of these shops is down to greed, not the internet.

 

[Raggamuffin]

I remember Woolworths. Used to get sweets and toys there. And video games as I got older. We're going back to the early 90s with those memories.

Ed

 

[Outdated]

I remember Woolworths. Used to get sweets and toys there. And video games as I got older. We're going back to the early 90s with those memories.

We have Woolworths here but it's not the same company as in the UK, here it's one of our leading supermarket chains.

https://www.woolworths.com.au/

We also have Kmart, once again not the same company as in the US but it uses the same logo, Target too.

Kmart Australia - Low Prices for Life - Kmart
https://www.target.com.au/

 

[thejuice]

Landlords need to get real and reduce rent for once.

 

[Rachie]

I remember Woolworths. Used to get sweets and toys there. And video games as I got older. We're going back to the early 90s with those memories.

Ed

Yes Woolworths was a really old memory. I just miss it still and my old high street. My dad's shopping centre he lives in ilford in Essex has just recently lost Marks and Spencer and Wilkinskon. Most of the poundland's have shut and they are limited where they can shop for food now. I thought about teaching older people how to order online at my local library because of such changes but they are shut right now for reinovation.

I was even thinking about Wimpy today lol. bender in a bun back in the day with knickerbocker glory and pepsi float.

I am glad that we can order so easily online, but I do miss having some shops around now as well and especially for technological things and this time of the year.

You can preview things like in Argos but they are limited in range and it is not quite the same as a day out in some caes in Sainsbury's.

 

[Misty Avich]

Yes, as humans we need a community and I don't think it's healthy for everyone to feel they have to do everything behind a screen. That's why cinemas didn't go extinct after people started getting video players in their homes, because people still like coming out and doing things socially. I mean, we all have stoves in our homes but that doesn't make us all stop dining out at restaurants.