Support our high street shops and save the planet

Takmon

HollyTrees said:

Pollycat said:

giraffe69 said:

This is a very poor soapbox to be on. Deliveries from online companies are, for the most part, efficiently done and save on energy use but because one lazy journalist writes an article spouting nonsense it turns up on a thread like this. I order some wine online which was delivered today. The van that delivered it was punctual and had many other items on board for other customers. Indeed the email I receive often say something like "Your delivery will between time x and time y and you are customer 37 of 88"  I didn't drive 17 miles each way to the Majestic warehouse to pick up my wine. That, like many other of these sort of purchases saves time, effort and energy.

I'd be interested to hear exactly what the OP heard.
The OP of this thread started a thread about the best face masks (since deleted) based on something he/she heard on the radio.

I happen to listen to a lot of these topics on Radio 4 on my way to work in the mornings, and late at night. 
These were all people being interviewed ie spoksmen for companies like Amazon, the delivery van companies etc.
They were on about if people think that doing all their shopping online is environmentally friendly they are seriously mistaken.
And went onto say for every item ordered another van is sent out which very often is seperate from another item that same person might have added to their Amazon basket. 
So they were urging listeners to support their high street stores if possible because if all we end up doing is everything online will be detrimental to our environment and pushing traffic levels up ie more vans. 
Thats all I know, so felt I should share it here. 

You seem to be one of these people who believe everything you hear on the radio/news and don't even question it even if it doesn't make sense which is very worrying how naive you are. 

During lockdown online shopping and food deliveries have increased substantially due to people not leaving their homes but traffic has dropped dramatically. When lockdown was in full force even with all these extra deliveries the roads were dead and there was hardly any traffic at all so that goes to show how little effect delivery traffic has on the roads. 
Like people have said deliveries are done as efficiently as possible to save costs and recent events have shown that the main cause of traffic is people like you who just go to the high street to browse and go clothes shopping weekly and other unnecessary trips.
So your really looking in the wrong place if you want to reduce traffic.

ComicGeek

It wasn't too long ago that you would drive into town to browse through the fully stocked shops, and then drive home to order the item cheaper on line for delivery the next day. Any improvement on that is a good thing, I can't remember the last time I actually bought something in a high street shop, probably at least a year ago.

I buy things in bulk, and get them grouped for delivery when buying through Amazon. Would be great if there was an electric vehicle making the deliveries rather than a 10 year old van pumping out diesel fumes, but that will come - high street shops will probably have died and then come back by then.

My wife goes clothes shopping but they never have good enough stock levels to have her size in stock - so the store then orders it online for delivery to our house, surely that's worse than just ordering online.

HollyTrees

But if you are out physical shopping its much more unlikely for a person to buy one item. The whole concept of shops are so you see other things that will tempt you into buying other things. 
I know for a fact if I go in ASDA with the aim just to get sandwiches, I end up buying a newspaper,  and God knows what else by the time I leave. Shops are designed this way I am certain of that.
But when you shop online it might be for one item, and its normally left at that, well it is from my perspective anyway. 
But the debate I heard was people dont realise when ordering one item will mean yet another van comes out for that which in reality isn't practical Thats all I heard. 

Pollycat

HollyTrees said:

But if you are out physical shopping its much more unlikely for a person to buy one item. The whole concept of shops are so you see other things that will tempt you into buying other things. 
I know for a fact if I go in ASDA with the aim just to get sandwiches, I end up buying a newspaper,  and God knows what else by the time I leave. Shops are designed this way I am certain of that.
But when you shop online it might be for one item, and its normally left at that, well it is from my perspective anyway. 
But the debate I heard was people dont realise when ordering one item will mean yet another van comes out for that which in reality isn't practical Thats all I heard. 

But the flaw in that argument has been blown apart by a number of posters.

Spank

HollyTrees said:

But if you are out physical shopping its much more unlikely for a person to buy one item. The whole concept of shops are so you see other things that will tempt you into buying other things. 
I know for a fact if I go in ASDA with the aim just to get sandwiches, I end up buying a newspaper,  and God knows what else by the time I leave. Shops are designed this way I am certain of that.
But when you shop online it might be for one item, and its normally left at that, well it is from my perspective anyway. 
But the debate I heard was people dont realise when ordering one item will mean yet another van comes out for that which in reality isn't practical Thats all I heard. 

Are you seriously saying that when you order an item they take it, put it on a van snd drive it to you on it's own?

You can't be that daft. As others have said it's loaded in a van with 10's or hundreds of other parcels that are being delivered in your local area.

LilElvis

HollyTrees said:

But if you are out physical shopping its much more unlikely for a person to buy one item. The whole concept of shops are so you see other things that will tempt you into buying other things. 
I know for a fact if I go in ASDA with the aim just to get sandwiches, I end up buying a newspaper,  and God knows what else by the time I leave. Shops are designed this way I am certain of that.
But when you shop online it might be for one item, and its normally left at that, well it is from my perspective anyway. 
But the debate I heard was people dont realise when ordering one item will mean yet another van comes out for that which in reality isn't practical Thats all I heard. 

Speak for yourself! On Amazon this weekend I searched for Absolut Vanilla Vodka .... and then saw they did a strawberry flavour, and added that to my basket too .... and then Tia Maria because I decided an espresso martini was a good idea. So a £16 purchase became a £45 one. Similar happens far too regularly when I'm shopping online - find the one item I was looking for and then continue looking at items for sale and double/ triple/ quadruple my order.

IvanOpinion

LilElvis said:

HollyTrees said:

But if you are out physical shopping its much more unlikely for a person to buy one item. The whole concept of shops are so you see other things that will tempt you into buying other things. 
I know for a fact if I go in ASDA with the aim just to get sandwiches, I end up buying a newspaper,  and God knows what else by the time I leave. Shops are designed this way I am certain of that.
But when you shop online it might be for one item, and its normally left at that, well it is from my perspective anyway. 
But the debate I heard was people dont realise when ordering one item will mean yet another van comes out for that which in reality isn't practical Thats all I heard. 

Speak for yourself! On Amazon this weekend I searched for Absolut Vanilla Vodka .... and then saw they did a strawberry flavour, and added that to my basket too .... and then Tia Maria because I decided an espresso martini was a good idea. So a £16 purchase became a £45 one. Similar happens far too regularly when I'm shopping online - find the one item I was looking for and then continue looking at items for sale and double/ triple/ quadruple my order.

You forgot to mention the cherries and little umbrellas

ssparks2003

There are two separate issues here that someone is trying to hammer together to give a solution. The first issue it the environmental impact of all the stuff we buy, its not just the delivery van coming out from the delivery hub that is the issue,  all the things we must have come with an impact on the environment. Fast fashion is one of the worst offenders in this regard, and it does not matter weather you are buying on the highstreet or online, it is incredibly wasteful. 

The second issue is our highstreets, nearly everywhere you go is now a cookie cutter repeat of the last town, the same shops selling the same things, serving the same coffee and selling the same pre packed sandwiches. The only place you can find variety or anything outside of the normal is online. Being a larger gentleman I have to buy shoes and clothes online, because the cookie cutter shops do not cater for me. My hobbies, not being watching football or playing computer games are only supported by online shops. Basically if the highstreet wants my money they need to give me what I want, and they don't. 

elsien

I prefer (or did till I had to start queueing/wearing a face covering) going to shops in person and checking the quality of what I was buying. Too much faff to order online then sent it back when it's not right.
But my town doesn't have a high street as such. It has a shopping centre with some of the usual chains and a lot of empty spaces. The high street was demolished to build the shopping centre and the few shops not in the centre are takeaways, charity shops and hairdressers. I can only think of 1 independent shop that has survived and that is a sewing shop/haberdashery.
There isn't a greengrocer, butcher or any of the useful things I  might want to use. I have to go to the out of town supermarkets for those. The shopping centre wanted a supermarket on site but none of the big 5 wanted to oblige.
It's not as simple as saying use it or lose it because in many places the high street has already effectively gone.

Takmon

HollyTrees said:

But if you are out physical shopping its much more unlikely for a person to buy one item. The whole concept of shops are so you see other things that will tempt you into buying other things. 
I know for a fact if I go in ASDA with the aim just to get sandwiches, I end up buying a newspaper,  and God knows what else by the time I leave. Shops are designed this way I am certain of that.
But when you shop online it might be for one item, and its normally left at that, well it is from my perspective anyway. 
But the debate I heard was people dont realise when ordering one item will mean yet another van comes out for that which in reality isn't practical Thats all I heard. 

The last two times i have been to a high street i have bought 1 item because that's all i wanted and sometimes i have been and bought nothing because they didn't have what i wanted. You seem to get very drawn in by stuff if you can't control yourself and buy stuff just because you see it, just like you listen to something on the radio and get drawn in and now think 1 van i sent out per 1 item ordered online...