Mary Portas - Car Boot Sales

Graham_Devon

Would offices be a better bet for landlords? I'm noticing some of them cropping up in the high street, taking over shops.

The posh type offices, where you can see in, with nice lighting etc. Bit like an advert for the business. Got a fair few holiday home types down here. But also solicitors taking over what used to be shops, and making a posh front of shop as it were. We recently got a shop which is mail order only, but really kitted out with the lighting effects, with nothing but a couple of desks. You can't actually buy anything in there, but the website address is prominent.

Just wondering if this is in part due to landlords preferring this sort of business?

Having said all that, Travel Agents seem to be dissapearing.

Edit: And another type of shop which seems to be making more of an appearance in the actual high street. Betting shops. Didn't generally used to see them in the main streets...not that I remember anyway, was always side streets. But now appear to be buying up shops in the main shopping areas.

pqrdef

nearlyrich wrote: »

if only I could predict what comes next after the internet I could make a fortune.

Soon Google will know more about you than you do, and all the stuff you want will be delivered to your door without you having to order it.

pqrdef

When I were nobbut a bairn, my mother would shop in a thriving town centre in its heyday. She would go into a shop, stand and wait to be served, then ask for a pound of cheese or a quarter of yeast, which would be weighed out, inaccurately. Then a price would be quoted, and she would fish in her purse for the approximate money and hand it over to the assistant, who would go away and come back and count out the change. Then she would cross one item off her shopping list and go and repeat the whole palaver in the next shop. This would occupy three mornings a week, every week.

It was a ridiculous way to shop, and good riddance. But it still informs a vision of the high street.

Planners are obsessed with shops. If you want to make something, you're supposed to get a unit in a corrugated shed in an industrial "park" on the outskirts, because town centre space is sacred - it's for shops. Do they ask what commodity it is exactly for which the high street shop provides a more effective outlet than the mall, the retail park or the internet?

But if not shops, what do you line the streets with? Well, who needs streets? Last time I walked down a shopping street, the pavement was covered with squashed chewing gum, interspersed with spittle and phlegm. Don't get this in malls. A street has its uses for getting from one end to the other, but what makes anybody think it might be a good place for shopping?

Trouble is, we want thriving high streets because we're in love with the idea of high street shopping, but how often will we actually use them? When we need stuff, we'll still go to the carefully planned out-of-town centre that does it right and makes it all efficient and painless.

Kennyboy66

Graham_Devon wrote: »

Edit: And another type of shop which seems to be making more of an appearance in the actual high street. Betting shops. Didn't generally used to see them in the main streets...not that I remember anyway, was always side streets. But now appear to be buying up shops in the main shopping areas.

This is because a few years ago Labour allowed FOBT's (fixed odds betting terminals in shops). They are like mini casinos where you can gamble up to £500 or a single roulette spin.
They are like the crack cocaine of gambling and it really was despicable of Labour to be bought off by the gambling industry.

The FOBT's seem to work best on high streets (footfall), and the majority of bookies shop (as opposed to online) profits come from these machines (the average profit per machine in a Ladbrokes is £866 per week - they are allowed 4 per shop). Many bookies would be happy to open shops, put 4 of these machines and take no bets over the counter. They just need someone to empty the machines twice a day.

I've always thought that the only businesses Labour helped in 13 years were city centre vertical drinking bars, the bookies and lap dancing establishments.
Shameful.

lostinrates

the thing is thinking about places with healthy highstreets they also seem to have healthy markets (with a mixture of tat, interesting stuff and good food)

Mallotum_X

I had wondered why so many betting shops were turning up in every parade of shops - not just the town centres but local shopping areas too. Thanks for the explanation.

fc123

Graham_Devon wrote: »

Are Farmers markets actually lower cost?

Never been to one. Not sure if there is one anywhere near to me, which is bizzare, considering the amount of farms.

All we have is a multitude of farm shops. They are OK, but don't really sell that much stuff. Half of the she;ves are filled things such as Olive oil bottled with multicoloured pasta, for £8.99.

While, to be fair, the meat is better quality, so it should be, for the price.

Maybe I'm not exploring enough. But most farm shops I have been too, seem to be excuses for selling Dandelion and Elderflower cordial at £3.95 for a 500ml bottle.

Even eggs, I remember not too long back, were £3.15 a dozen. Free range see....so free range you can actually see them running around, which again, is nice, but bloody expensive.

Certain stalls at them are way cheaper and I go to a SE London one in a 'posh' suburb that has a blend of 'foodie' stalls (like the jars of oil and pricey prepped food) and a some great cheap veg stalls.

The meat isn't that more expensive than Asda if buying like for like (ie; organic FR chicken), if anything I would say it is cheaper.
You are going to pay a bit more for UK outdoor reared pork joint (about £10) but in my local Asda, you can only get Danish/EU cruelty pork by the slab anyway...probably about 30% cheaper by the kg I think.

I buy bacon bits that are a fraction of the price of rashers and all UK outdoor reared plus same guy does sausages at about same price as Lidl (but, again way better quality pork and ingredients)


Organic eggs cheaper than Lidl organic but more expensive than asda battery.
Amazing properly proven bread and so on
I spend about £40 pwk there and it does us in meat/veg/ bread/ dairy for 6 days (4 or 5 adults including a lean zillion calorie a day 25 yr old)

There must be farm shops near you Graham....esp if you live in Devon.

Murtle

The farm shops near me, outside of London are hugely overpriced. Maybe it's the petrol costs to get from the farm.

I wish rents would be lowered and we could have lots more independents, I'm sick of big chain shopping.

ChiefGrasscutter

Murtle wrote: »

The farm shops near me, outside of London are hugely overpriced. Maybe it's the petrol costs to get from the farm.

Most probably becuase the farm shop thinks it can charge a lot for those people who think by shopping there they are 'shopping locally', 'ethically', 'sustainably' and brag about it to their friends.
I shop locally - it comes from my local Tesco.

lostinrates

Murtle wrote: »

The farm shops near me, outside of London are hugely overpriced. Maybe it's the petrol costs to get from the farm.

I wish rents would be lowered and we could have lots more independents, I'm sick of big chain shopping.

I find this too. we had a very good genuine butcher/farm shop near us where we used to live, here the few I'e seen are our ''lifestyle'' shops....some local produce but lots of crackers that are cheaper at aitrose (and in fact, cheaper at Harrods food hall) and fancy pasta and jars of expensive preserves