Supermarkets & the high street

Tr1pp

The morrisons where I live used a compulsory purchase order to remove people who were living on the are they wanted to build on. they knocked down the houses and put up a large store, they also wanted to knock down the small church to make space for petrol pumps but failed at that. lots of shops buthchers and grocers couldnt compete (even though butchers meat tends to not be pumped full of water so is technically better value in my mind...but I digress)

the big supermarkets arent totally responsible for the demise of local high streets but they play a big part and along with coffee shops and pawn shops are quick to pounce on any building that becomes available as a result of an independent store going under. depressing walking around most local high streets...only so much coffee I can drink.

VfM4meplse

The plethora of food stores in urban areas is unnecessary, and the market is over-saturated IMO. All it does is put temptation to over-indulge in people's sights and contributes to the obesity epidemic. It's as if people think about food 24/7. Maybe we need more of a rationing mentalility?

pqrdef

Tr1pp wrote: »

(even though butchers meat tends to not be pumped full of water so is technically better value in my mind...but I digress)

Oh I keep promising myself to visit a proper butcher. But while I'm in the supermarket picking up onions and crisps and bin bags and spaghetti sauce, I pass the meat shelves and think what the hell and the mince goes in the trolley, what the hell, job done, can go straight home now.

A._Badger

pqrdef wrote: »

And yet they often don't charge nights and Sundays, even though they could. And some places that do have enough space do have free parking, even though they could charge if they liked.

Oh, really?

http://www.taxpayersalliance.com/tag/parking-charges

You wouldn't happen to work for a local council, would you?

HAMISH_MCTAVISH

Graham_Devon wrote: »

Usual whinge article here, written by people who no doubt shop at supermarkets instead of the expensive deli:

Precisely.

Successful pubs, or deli's for that matter, don't get turned into supermarkets.

If people don't support their local pub, deli, or anything else.... it will close and turn into something more commercially viable.

Generali

I know one of the pubs in the article, The Red Lion in Milford. I can't imagine too many even noticed that it closed and that fewer still miss it.

It gets 4.7/10 on the Beer in the Evening website:

http://www.beerintheevening.com/pubs/s/40/4087/Red_Lion/Milford

In the end you get the High Street that you want. If you want to spend all your money in Tesco then you'll get a Tesco. If you want to drink cheap lager then someone will sell you that. If you want organic unwaxed lemons washed in virgin unicorn tears then you'll get a shop selling that.

It's the part of this website (and many others) that people miss. If you want to buy your books as cheaply as possible, more expensive ways of buying books like nice little village bookshops or companies that pay tax or pay above the minimum wage will close.

HAMISH_MCTAVISH

Generali wrote: »

If you want organic unwaxed lemons washed in virgin unicorn tears then you'll get a shop selling that.

:rotfl:

It's the part of this website (and many others) that people miss. If you want to buy your books as cheaply as possible, more expensive ways of buying books like nice little village bookshops or companies that pay tax or pay above the minimum wage will close.

Yep, that about sums it up.

Martin Lewis is probably responsible for more independent shops closing down than Tesco ever was.

Which is not necessarily a bad thing.

If people really do want something other than "cheap and mass market", then enough of them must be willing pay the price for it for those shops to survive....

Which int he case of the ones that close, they clearly aren't.

wymondham

People bang on about the high street and superstores etc, but it's the people who desert the highstreet and go to the stores - the stores do not force people to go to them...

Puddleglum

I've just got back from a visit to DM in the northeast of Scotland. The two towns close to her have now got large supermarkets where once there were none. The attitudes of the denizens of the area must have changed so much since I used to live there that they could almost be different people! How did we manage before?

Yet in both cases the local shops have mostly survived. A gentleman's outfitters has become a tourist information centre. A convenience store has become a bookies. Little specialist shops though are holding their own. One shop in a different town has made a feature of their carrier bags which are so distinctive that I have packed the presents for the people who looked after our cats into one.

I think that we can keep our little shops as long as we identify local needs that the supermarkets cannot meet. Adapt to survive.

pqrdef

A._Badger wrote: »

You wouldn't happen to work for a local council, would you?

No. But I've been to places that needed parking controls and didn't have them, and I've driven round in circles three times without finding a space and given up and gone away.