The changing face of the high street

Jimuth

When out this morning I was wondering what my local high street would look like soon...

Reasonably sized town (20K or so people) - main high street has:

Halifax
B&B (part of an estate agent)
Natwest
Barclays
HSBC
Lloyds
C&G
Abbey

and more than a dozen estate agents - 2 closed now.

If one of the two of C&G or Halifax close, and a third of the estate agents close, that's going to be one miserable looking high street.

There's also a large woolworths - which given some reports, may not be the most likely to survive outfit either.

I was curious to know what other people thought would replace these when they go? In the past we've had internet cafes and mobile phone shops take up the place of recession-closed shops, but in these internet/direct shopping days I'm not sure whether they'll be replaced by shops anymore.

Perhaps more 2nd hand or charity shops?

Does it matter to you if your local high street becomes half-empty? I remember in the 90's how miserable it was with a lot of boarded-up shops.

PasturesNew

Charity shops.

Chris2685

High streets suck, the less I have to go there the better! All shopping online is the way of the future.

napoleon

Every 2nd shop in the high street near me is a flipping Estate Agency. The sooner they close and revert to the family businesses, etc that they were before the better.

Pennywise

napoleon wrote: »

Every 2nd shop in the high street near me is a flipping Estate Agency. The sooner they close and revert to the family businesses, etc that they were before the better.

That'll never happen I'm afraid. The family business shops closed for a reason - i.e. out of town shopping areas, very high overheads, internet shopping, national minimum wage, excessive tax, bureaucracy & regulation. My town's High Street is nothing but banks, estate agents and charity shops - no wonder it is dying - more charity shops on the way I think!

dubsey

One end of our high street is all estate agents, only broken up by small solicitors offices. Three of those EA's have closed this year, along with a shoe shop and a small independent clothing shop. Loads of banks, few bakers and a Wimpy, even MacDonalds has moved out of the high street. We already had loads of charity shops and our branch of Woolworths already looks like a bring and buy sale area!

We do have a lovely music shop which we visit for reeds (clarinet for DD) and we've bought some musical instruments from them. I would hate to lose that shop, bit scarey that it's always empty.

martinman3

Jimuth wrote: »

I was curious to know what other people thought would replace these when they go?

After some time, soup kitchens and shelters for the homeless.:(

jamescredmond

samaritans drop-in centres.

form an orderly queue.

dad-of-4

to be honest i think the retail parks will be under bigger threat than the high street,

BlondeHeadOn

No-one is going to have any money to bank or spend anyway, so we won't need any shops on the high street...........

Sorry, too much doom mongering, it will all turn out fine and dandy after the Americans agree a bail out..... won't it?............?...........?.......

wymondham

All the banks wll merge into one - 'Bank of Labour' - specialists in bad debts