What does your high street look like?

bo_drinker

Scudlink wrote: »

Things must be looking up, as our 4th Subway fast food outlet in the town is opening soon. :rolleyes:

We have 2 of them. 2nd Costa coffee coming as well, never been in either probably never will.

The_White_Horse

Watford town centre was dead today.

hethmar

Our little town now has a huge gaping hole where the largest retailer - woolies has closed. Opposite that there is a clothes shop shut down, next to it an off licence closed, over the road a florist closed - and a large pub closed. Sad.

However I was in Woolwich SE London yesterday and the high street was packed and bustling.

mak1_2

Scudlink wrote: »

Things must be looking up, as our 4th Subway fast food outlet in the town is opening soon. :rolleyes:

i don't know how these subways stay open, everyone that i have seen either one or two customers or none, there prices are sky high too.

whathavewedone

Woolies has left a big hole in our town centre.

Apart from that one small estate agent has closed down so far and a Thai restaurant which has been replaced with a greengrocers which actually seems to be really busy - surprising as we have a big Waitrose, Sainsburys and Iceland. A pub closed down last year as well - the landlord blamed the smoking ban.

Our town centre was a bit rubbish to start with (especially compared to nearby Tunbridge Wells) but there are a few posh shops - eg a shop that does food for dinner parties, some interior design shops etc plus a Cafe Nero and Starbucks. I can't help but wonder how long the posh shops will last, leaving us with Mcdonalds, Subway, Greggs and about a trillion charity shops and pound shops.

I think the coffee shops will survive. The area I live in is quite mixed in terms of social class but it does seem to attract families- the young mums pile into Mcdonalds with their babies and toddlers, the older middle class mums pile into Starbucks and Cafe Nero and both are always busy.

Wetherspoons is always rammed too, in fact during the week you can hardly get past it for all the disability scooters parked outside on the pavement.

The town centre is nearly always busy but people come to go to the park so aren't necessarily spending.

MoaningMyrtle

The Charity shops all seem busy, we have Woolies closed, Tchibo closed, Cardfair closed, a couple of pubs closed, Superdrug trying to sell a lot of really tatty old stock along over-priced new stuff. A few private shops eg a juice bar/organic cafe and assorted boutiques/gift type shops have closed down.

Subway are franchises aren't they?

A_fiend_for_life

Quite a few closures here: a couple of pubs, several local shops, a couple of pound shops(?), another bookshop, one small shopping centre has half of it's premises vacant. Ah the green grocer disappeared in summer. Seeing that woolies has had it's clearout and primark have posted high profits / turnover (?) I wonder what the effect will be on local clothes shops. The smaller shops have had a harder time of it so far. Shame the local authorities don't reduce the business rates - they're 2k per month here.

hullight

Pretty empty here! Off the top of my head, this is a list of the ones that have gone fairly recently:

• Burger King
• Zavvi
• Woolworths
• Whittards
• Officers Club

Then we have the shops that had stores in the city centre but have moved them to the new shopping centre near the train station:

• Next
• Adams (soon to go anyway?)
• Argos
• Topshop
• TK Maxx
• Sports Direct

All of which leaves the high street looking like a ghost town.

POSSETTE

In Derby last year we had a new Westfield centre open.It is really nice inside but there are a lot of shops now selling up in there.In my local town a few new shops have opened and mainly estate agents have closed down.

If it helps, we are not the only country like this..i just came back from Paris on sat, they are the same, loads of sales in every shop,and a lots cloing down..i got a nice bracelet from a close down for 3 euro instead of 20e.!

Thrugelmir

Hopefully in the longer term, the local High Street will change for the better.

Once EA's , Banks etc vacate their premises. Small businesses will have the opportunity to return, after being priced out in the property boom.

All these new malls are so similar..... same shops, same products, same prices.