No Wonder the High Street is Dying

grizzly1911

chewmylegoff wrote: »

effing UK mail to get hold of it. some delivery services are fine, but UK mail are pathetically useless. they will only deliver on a weekday and will only deliver at an unspecified time between 9 and 5pm. often they don't actually come on the day specified at all, and on several occassions they have just stuck one of those calling cards through our letterbox without ever ringing the front bell, which i find perplexing.

amazon at least cuts through this problem as they just send it to you in the post and you can get it from the post office on saturday morning. no such luck with uk mail - their depot is in abergaveny or something idiotic like that.

basically if you could just get stuff in the post rather than having a courier deliver it, the internet would be fine.

Heard an interesting item on extra "shipping" costs to the highlands and islands in Scotland -including Skye which is now linked to the mainland. Most couriers charge more to take it over the bridge but will dleiver to Kyle Of Lochalsh for the same price.

If it is small enough for Royal Mail it will get there for a "standard" stamp fee.

We have some pretty good delivery drivers round by us from all of the big couriers and a very good post lady whose arms/bike seem fuller and fuller these days.

I want to know how they ship 15kg bags of dog food for "free" and undercut the high street by 25% or more:think:

Idiophreak

grizzly1911 wrote: »

I want to know how they ship 15kg bags of dog food for "free" and undercut the high street by 25% or more:think:

It's probably made of....cat food?

Conrad

HAMISH_MCTAVISH wrote: »

Briton


Seems quite obvious.... Buying cheaply comes with a price.

I've been arguing this for years and my left leaning apponents again and again simply refuse to cocede thier own shopping behaviours have a direct impact on the very things they claim to hold so dear such as improved employee benefits and wages.

Next time you see a heroic left leaning person claiming on Question Time they want better pensions and jobs for Brits, just ask yourself whether you think they will be buying Chinese tyres the very next day.

LittleMissAspie

lostinrates wrote: »

The main reason the high street loses my custom is because there is increasing no such thing as a local highstreet but a national one, in somecases a global one. When everything looks the same in the same stores in strees in different places what it the draw?

So true. I like to go on days out to towns I haven't been to before but I'm starting to wonder what the point is when all I see are exactly the same shops as the town I live in.

This is my primary reason for buying online, I can buy things online that I simply can't buy in towns. We went into Comet to look for a microwave and they had a tiny selection, none of which were red. I want a red microwave. So I go online and I find loads of red microwaves to choose from.

Likewise with cat food. I feed my cat Taste of the Wild, you can't get it in shops, nobody stocks it. We were in a Pets At Home the other day for cat litter, they only have the small 10 litre bag. Online we can buy a 30 litre bag.

When I was looking for a mokapot to buy I didn't want an aluminium one so I found a stainless steel one online. Couldn't see it in any shops so I went into a local independent tea and coffee shop. I asked if they could order one in for me and she took my name and number and said she'd call me to let me know if they could or not. Never heard from them, so I bought it online. I couldn't care less if that shop goes bust now after they ignored me like that.

Can't find shops that stock vegan shoes so I buy them online. Can't find shops that stock vitamin D tablets in 5000iu strength so I buy them online. Can't find a shop that sells soya candles so I buy them online. Went round all the bookshops in town trying to find a particular book, no-one had it so I bought it online.

I'm even sending money out of the country now, I spent months looking for a new purse because my current purse is well over 10 years old and really tatty. I can't find anything like it in the shops now so I've bought a handmade one from Etsy.

Now that I think about it, I really don't know why I bother trying real-life shops in the first place.

movilogo

I would love to buy from High Street shops, but can't afford the parking charge. That's why I prefer retail parks.

I still buy high value goods from shops where I can physically feel them before paying.

grizzly1911

Conrad wrote: »

I've been arguing this for years and my left leaning apponents again and again simply refuse to cocede thier own shopping behaviours have a direct impact on the very things they claim to hold so dear such as improved employee benefits and wages.

Next time you see a heroic left leaning person claiming on Question Time they want better pensions and jobs for Brits, just ask yourself whether you think they will be buying Chinese tyres the very next day.

No different to the motor industry and Japanese cars in the 70s.

Perhaps it also has something to do with the amount of disposable income being squeezed by higher and higher taxes and falling wages lower down the pecking order.

kabayiri

I think we need a counter argument here in support of the high street.

I always try and use the hardware shop in the village. He will sell me the 9 screws I want and not a mega multipack with 6000 screws thats on offer in Buy and Queue (and Queue and Queue). I have to listen to his stories, granted, but it's better than that awful Queue and the miserable looking shopgirl/lad in the large store.

I'll show the same support to the Aquarium shop, or butcher etc.

Then there is the specialist retailer, like hifi. Amazingly, English hifi is still alive and well and thriving in different parts of the world. Several decades after I bought some of my hifi bits I can still find a shop which will upgrade and service the equipment. I'd like to see someone trying to get their Binatone set top box serviced by walking into Currys. They would think you have gone mental.

Soon we will all be paying several hundred a year in CT for the privilege of accessing yet more landfill capacity. There will be moans aplenty from the very people who bought into the buy and throw away culture.

lostinrates

kabayiri wrote: »

I think we need a counter argument here in support of the high street.

I always try and use the hardware shop in the village. He will sell me the 9 screws I want and not a mega multipack with 6000 screws thats on offer in Buy and Queue (and Queue and Queue). I have to listen to his stories, granted, but it's better than that awful Queue and the miserable looking shopgirl/lad in the large store.

I'll show the same support to the Aquarium shop, or butcher etc.

Then there is the specialist retailer, like hifi. Amazingly, English hifi is still alive and well and thriving in different parts of the world. Several decades after I bought some of my hifi bits I can still find a shop which will upgrade and service the equipment. I'd like to see someone trying to get their Binatone set top box serviced by walking into Currys. They would think you have gone mental.

Soon we will all be paying several hundred a year in CT for the privilege of accessing yet more landfill capacity. There will be moans aplenty from the very people who bought into the buy and throw away culture.

I like some high streets k, i too like my local hardware store, my cookware stoe...its expensive but its there when i need something that day, and my green grocers. I also would like a fishmonger.....i miss that a lot, even the trailer that turns up once a week in a local town/village would be good. . There are two butchers i have found in nearby towns i would use but they are both rather dear, so have gone straight to farm because i have that luxury.

custardy

Road_Hog wrote: »

It's quite simple. Councils hate motorists. People with cars tend to spend more money than those on public transport. You have a boot, great for transporting weekly shopping or heavy items.

Councils will only be happy when the high street is devoid of cars and consists of boarded up shops, Poundland and charity shops.

so all online shopping is made by those who don't shop at poundland and charity shops?
Do all purchases require a car to bring them home?

lostinrates

custardy wrote: »

so all online shopping is made by those who don't shop at poundland and charity shops?
Do all purchases require a car to bring them home?

Mine do. Or more to the point, i do.