The High Street is really suffering...

bo_drinker

Cheap tat shops and hand car washes every fkn where, should be interesting come xmas, more tat no doubt. We have reached a new low, any lower and we will need a spade/.

Really2

Thrugelmir wrote: »

A lot of people start like yourself. Life isn't predicable though.

What if you split from your partner, lose your employment income through any number of reasons.

Life changes rapidly. What was manageable is not any longer.

Can't plan for splitting can you?

I have illness/critical and wage protection for redundancy etc.

£XX,XXX savings. and around 40% LTV


What else can I do?

Thrugelmir

Really2 wrote: »

Can't plan for splitting can you?

I have illness/critical and wage protection for redundancy etc.

£XX,XXX savings. and around 40% LTV


What else can I do?

Sounds like you are one of the minority sensible souls to inhabit the UK. :beer:

Really2

Thrugelmir wrote: »

Sounds like you are one of the minority sensible souls to inhabit the UK. :beer:

I try to be. I am a great believer you are responsible for what you do in life.

That includes debt.:beer:

fc123

Really2 wrote: »

Consumer debt is not down to house owners only. More young people (sub 25yo) have higher debts than ever before.

I would imagine less than 5% of under 25's are mortgage holders.

So many diff points on this thread.

I can confirm that under 25's...loads are up to their eyes in it.
Our son, aged 18 left school and was having a year out. The plan to save to travel a bit from following Jan before going to uni.
He earnt a bit by helping a family memeber out but wasn't properly salaried as such nor signing on.

He went into Lloyds (we didn't know) and walked out with a mastercard with £1500 limit. He spent it all. He then had to work all the following summer to pay it back.
That type of lending had to be sub prime.

It's quite common for under 25's to post on BR board with 30k of debt (incl car finance) but with very average incomes.

No way we could have borrowed sums like that years ago.

fc123

lemonjelly wrote: »

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/8177502.stm

Looking into the above article, consumer activity continues downward. Surely this will further affect confidence of individuals, and also investors.

In example, will shoppers go to a venue/mall/whatever where 20% of the units are vacant?

Also, will projects designed to improve the calibre of an area be put on hold, especially if it could appear that the area is going downhill?

I know my home town was reported on local news this morning with 1 in 5 of the town centre shops being vacant at the moment. In addition, a rather large development for the town centre was pulled, because allegedly the backers were struggling to obtain the neccessary finance.

So, many feel house prices are back on the up. How is the high street going to cope? Will it climb shortly, following the increases in house prices? Or is this a more real picture, & the HP data is flawed? Or is there another option I haven't covered here....

I shut my shop (after nearly 11 years in that location) this March having been an independent retailer for 19 years in large shops and a market trader (but in places like Covent Garden) for 5 years before that.

I had many reasons for choosing to shut and it wasn't a simple case of drop in T/O due to Cr Cr nor that we hadn't 'stacked it up ' in the 'good times'. The rent review increase based on false valuations that we couldn't disprove became the final clincher.

In a nutshell, we had 1000's of office workers relocated out of the immediate area which affected some more than others (depending on whether one was an 'everyday' type business or more geared just to the tourists) plus LL were still increasing rents at a ridiculous level.

The office exodus came just after Northern Rock event in 2007.

As a stranger walking around the area, you wouldn't know which indie shops were surviving by other means (and yes, some had well dodgy sidelines) nor that some, with local LLords, had had their rents cut by huge amounts (though cloaked) so they could trade it through.

A neighbour of mine was losing 90k pa dead but had a huge inheritance so propped up the business whilst he tried to let it...which he hasn't been able to do....LL won't take surrender so he will wait until lease ends next year and close.


I am now retailing in a totally different way, as the thread has discussed and it has been eye opening....but if I look back to how we have adapted to all sorts of things over the years, it is the right way forward for now.

There are so many reasons for the general drop in trade but the main one is there must be millions upon millions more sq foot of retail space than there was a decade ago. Masses more choice and places to spend incl the rise of online.

I can't remember when I stopped going to different places for shampoo, cleansers, reams of paper, new broom etc. I buy those types of things in Asda....but not much food.
I don't even have to go into town to go to the bank, People pay invoices by transfer, I can pay bills online etc all things that take footfall out of a town.

carolt

Very true - hadn't really thought about it, but one needs to shop much less than I remember doing say 20 years ago - now I do the vast bulk of my shopping online, and from less shops. Which means less impulse buys at other unrelated shops too, whilst passing...

Still buy most clothing in the non-virtual world, as I prefer to see sizes and fabrics to check they're right; buy stuff I need urgently and don't have time to wait for it to be ordered; would like to do more food shopping in shops, but find online a lot easier in reality.... but am actually struggling to think of much I buy regularly in 'real' shops.

Shame, as I do want them to survive.

Sorry about the clothing, FC - know others do buy clothing online; I just mistrust online sizing.

fc123

carolt wrote: »

Very true - hadn't really thought about it, but one needs to shop much less than I remember doing say 20 years ago - now I do the vast bulk of my shopping online, and from less shops. Which means less impulse buys at other unrelated shops too, whilst passing...

Still buy most clothing in the non-virtual world, as I prefer to see sizes and fabrics to check they're right; buy stuff I need urgently and don't have time to wait for it to be ordered; would like to do more food shopping in shops, but find online a lot easier in reality.... but am actually struggling to think of much I buy regularly in 'real' shops.

Shame, as I do want them to survive.

Sorry about the clothing, FC - know others do buy clothing online; I just mistrust online sizing.

We sell in RealLife Land too not from our own retail environment (which was very popular and fairly well know in the trade) but in lots of other places all over the country.

I don't 'do' shoes online but just picked up some unbelievable bargains for OH in aos sale.

Now I don't work in town, I spend even less....only going in for something specific. Perhaps the huge rise in working from home has played a part too.

lynzpower

we also need to shop less due to scientific advances- the loaf that lasts a week, naan breads can last 6 months in a cupboard!

Food preservation and the advent of freezers/microwaves/ long life pouches, also means you shop less often.

Pobby

On line shopping certainly is affecting many a business. Also many suppliers are offering third party shipping meaning that you don`t need to even stock the goods. The trick is how to get people onto your site.