Supermarkets & the high street

Mrs_Arcanum

Our local councils sacred cow is free parking and our shops seem to be managing. However, rents/rates for retail premises may have something to do with shops struggling as well.

Until someone in the chain of what is affecting prices realises putting prices up will end up reducing income the decline will continue.

A._Badger

Pennywise wrote: »

The vast majority of people aren't struggling at all. Most people still have jobs, still get annual pay rises, etc. Even most of those on benefits are getting annual increases. OK, inflation and food/fuel prices are an issue for those already on the bread line, but the vast majority aren't. I've just come back from a week in London - Legoland with its way overinflated prices was just as busy as ever - as was Oxford Street. You could barely move in Hamleys. Tourist buses were full (at over £20 per person). Not just foreigners either - lots of British families. Long queues everywhere for over-priced fast food and souvenirs. At the end of the day, it's a small proportion of people who are feeling the pinch - those who've lost their jobs or who were already on the breadline. Our economy is bigger than it was in say 2005, and I don't remember that year being a financial catastrophy. We're just going through a correction - most people are fine, a minority are, sadly, badly affected.

Similarly, I walked through Soho on a warm evening a couple of weeks ago (no, I wasn't soliciting!) and it was heaving with people - mostly young - spilling out of the pubs and cafes, clutching iPhones in one hand and expensive drinks in the other.

I've known the West End for a long while and I can't recall being struck by quite such conspicuous consumption.

Loughton_Monkey

We should remember that neither the "High St." nor the "Megatesco Mall" do sweet FA for the British Economy as a whole. All they do (usefully) is redistribute the wealth.

All of us need to buy essentials. This is the function of the Megamall in the outskirts, where we can all drive, park easily/free, and pay decent prices for decent products. High Streets also have a place. Not to compete with the Megamall, but to offer serene and stress free places to buy your £3.50 Cappucino, your candlelight meal, and (if the meal goes well) make impulse purchases like condoms or flowers!

All we are doing here is letting the 'rich' [a euphemism for those in work] spend their hard-earned buying a 36 pence [cost] latte for £2.50, thus allowing some kid to earn minimum wage, and some entrepreneur to get some return on his dosh.

For the life of me, I cannot work out why Local Authorities have not cottoned onto this, and persist in high parking charges, double yellows etc., whilst still bleating about why they cannot attract more shops to 'compete' with the Megamall.

I will shortly be sojourning for 8 weeks in sunny mainland Europe where they tend to understand this very well. I have recently returned from a 5 week sojourn in even sunnier Florida, where perhaps they lost the plot many years ago, since they don't have anything you could call a "High Street".

Full marks to any council who provides huge mega-sites for the Tescos and Debenhams of this world. Chuck in the '9 to 5' leaches of society [Estate Agents, Solicitors, Accountants etc.] to the same retail park. Then redesign the 'High St' to provide oodles of free parking, pedestrianisation in the middle, and make it an attractive place to 'be' night and day.