If lots of high street shops go out of business.....

longtimelurker_2

Just a superficial comment:

Don't know about anyone else on here, but the shops that have folded so far have either been shops I thought were already closed (e.g. Adams) or I've not been into for years because of the dire service (e.g. Woolworths). I suppose what remains to be seen is whether shops we're surprised are failing start to close - is this just the beginning with the dross eliminated or is it much more?

beingjdc

Friend (well, ex-boss as much as anything) of mine runs a branch of a well-known electrical retailer, and they just had a record day for the time of year.

Zelie

beingjdc wrote: »

Yeah but that's why most people who talk about the average wage use the median rather than the mean, as I recall there's about £2.5k difference between the two for the reasons you describe.

No, not the mean average nor the median. The OP is talking about what 'normal' folks would have for his/her area. I'm guessing that's working class people rather than your doctors or your lawyers. There are few middle class people who would struggle for shoes - at worst a few economies. But those who actually are at the bottom of the heap generally earn a lot less than the statisticians say they do. And if choice is restricted then it is possible that those people will be worse off as they cannot afford what is left available.

Conor_3

sb44 wrote: »

If, for instance lots of high street shoe shop chains go out of business, we are going to be left with somewhere like Tesco and Asda to buy our shoes from. Not a lot of choice there is there?

Why do you think High St shops are failing in the first place?

Filey

Problem with Woolies is that they've never quite known what niche they are filling - a bit of this a bit of that, never quite hit the spot. Being very old I remember Woolies when I was .young. I used to haunt them as a child spending my pocket money buying pressies for my Mum and family, or after Christmas a treat for myself. Pic n' mix although it wasn't called that then. Cheap scents like Evening in Paris or Californian Poppy. Anyone remember them? Pin up pictures of film stars like Betty Grable and Heddi Lamarr. Even Sonja Heni., the skating queen. Don't suppose many of you peeps remember them.

But Woolies has struggled on all these years and never quite made the right commercial decisions. Sad to see them go, but c'est la vie, as they say. Time marches on!

edinburgher

In future, the internet will be my first port of call for anything but food and clothes. Even then, for expensive specialist stuff like outdoors wear I may well get them online. Got some great mountain biking gear from the USA at huge discounts a while back.

I'd say that it definitely is for me already Used to buy a lot of stuff from the US too, but rises in shipping costs, problems with GBP and taxation on more expensive items have put me off. That and the fact that HMRC never lets my beef jerky into the country

Why do you think High St shops are failing in the first place?

It's not simply because of the supermarket chains, as you would *seem* to imply. Poor planning, management and inability to adapt to modern business practices have also helped the demise. As seen with retailers that fail to carve out a niche for themselves in a crowded market such as Woolworths.

*Edit: like Filey said as I was typing this reply!

sb44

Conor wrote: »

Why do you think High St shops are failing in the first place?

Well a lot of companies are going/gone to the wall and there are more to come aren't there?

hethmar

I have to say the internet will be the death of many a retailer in the high street - as mentioned above - how much easier it is to sit at your screen, comparing prices and models and then getting an instant decision re delivery dates. I sorted through just about every bed retailer on here in an hour over christmas and found that I could order a bed for delivery on exactly the date I wanted and at a lower price than I could ever achieve on the high street - a lot less stress and a better result.

beaujolais-nouveau

!!!!!!? wrote: »

My advice is get your big ticket purchases in now.

Yes, I am trying to do this, too. New sewing machine - done; two new eglus - done; new washing machine to replace 25-year-old thing - trying to decide when is the right moment to do this.

1echidna

I feel actually that high street shoe shops will not suffer the carnage that some other types of shops suffer with internet shopping. Shoes are an item that most people like to try on before purchasing. I expect parcel delivery services will do rather well with the expansion of internet shopping. Reduction in choice with a very long term severe recession yes, but very significant only if things get very dire.