Is The High Street A Thing Of The Past Because Of Covid-19?

The high street is fucked. I have tried to buy for e.g. pushbike tools and trailed round several bike shops with no success. Next day delivery from Amazon.
My neighbours have been using click and collect for the first time this year and have told me they will not be bothering food shopping in person again.
And it goes on.
It is so easy to order from your couch, and you know you will get whatever you are ordering.
In my area the town centres are only occupied by tumbleweed and druggies.

 

And I suppose that they are hard to tell apart!

 

I’m somewhere in the middle

I hate shopping passionately. However there is some stuff that I won’t buy online without seeing

 

Yes and no:
Clothes - I still want to try on before I buy, I know that’s not been possible during covid, but welcome its return. It’s a pita returning stuff that I decide I don’t want/like/doesn’t fit. Although as the high street declines that will become harder?
Food - still not encompassed that one, probably because I’ve assumed getting a delivery slot will be a nightmare during covid and too tight to pay for the delivery.
DIY - usually because most tasks are small jobs done on the spur of the moment or a matter of emergency and want the bits within the hour.
Other than that, everything else I can and do usually buy online.
I was doing that before covid set in, primarily because I know what I’m after, search for it, find it, click buy, job done.

 

Yeah, you just like flexing your muscles in the changing room mirror.

 

£5bill coming to a tory marginal near you. it's what they do.
give the £5bill to convenience + coffee shops, street entertainers and turn the empty larger shops into places of interest and housing. sorted.
Vote Blob.

 

I fear my local town is in for a shock. It’s known for bad traffic congestion and parking is limited and quite expensive. The high street is quaint and is an attraction in itself. But not enough to get me and the family in for a shop now covid has provided I can have pretty much anything reliably delivered next day to my door allowing me to go for a ride or take the kids out.

The gov (and pension funds invested in commercial property) could be in for a shock when the public coffers don’t start adding up as units remain empty and various taxes don’t materialise. And then knock on effect for coffee shops etc that rely on the passing customer.

Hoping there’s some clever and forward thinking on regeneration going on in the background......

 

Bournemouth has gone that way but is has been fucked from both ends. The internet from one end and the local council from the other! They have progressively sold off the car parks for development and increased the fees in the ones that remain and metered all the streets to make up the shortfall in revenue lost from the ones they sold off. Then they have done the same to the retail units, increasing rates to businesses to cover the loss from the empty ones. With recent closure of some of the biggest names who occupied the biggest stores I’d guess it’s probably around 70% empty now of actual shops that anyone would actual want to make the effort to visit?
The council concentrate on holiday makers, students and the hen/stag trade now.

 

Hen/Stag do to Bournemouth, you have to be a special type of person to plan that.

 

I'd say the High St was always gonna be screwed with big tech taking over the civilised world. Covid has merely accelerated what was already in the post. Covid has given big tech a leg up and undermined the masses. Maybe that was all part of the plandemic??

 

High St shopping was already on its knees. The rating system is so archaic its a joke. They need to increase taxation on online shopping warehouses to bring it inline.

The Government has a £45 billion annual deficit to fill. The only way to do that is to increase taxes significantly.

 

Two things need to change:

1) Make the Amazons of this World pay a fair share of tax and make them properly employ their delivery drivers - who are just exploited.

2) Sort out the rate system that hammers shops. Here, there are many empty shops with only charity shops (who pay no rates) able to occupy them - and they struggle. Councils have been taken up the backside and so they try and make up on business rates. This is why high streets are deserted. And shops need to change mindset - not got something in stock? No problem and it will be delivered to the customer's house as soon as - rather than the "not in stock, but we can order it and you can come back next week", so the customer goes home and orders it from Amazon and they have it next day.... and then the habit is started!

 

actually I think Argos have done well against the online onslaught, offering same day delivery, see their vans around a lot so people obviously use it?

 

£5bn ? Drop in the ocean and likely to line the pockets of those who need it least. I have just had to buy something using the internet because the local (physical) store doesn’t have in stock. I fall in to the group who like to see what they are buying although I dislike shopping with a passion. Buying bike bits is not shopping, it’s therapy Andy

 

I've been using Argos for some off my mail order crap. Surprisingly efficient...

 

I just had an Amazon order delivered. Sunday is just another day of the week, according to Amazon (all were free delivery because I was in no hurry for anything). I don't feel guilty because nothing that I bought is available within 10 miles and I am restricted to my pathetic walking distance. My nearest town might of had one of the items, but I would of need to get a taxi there. And no way Jose on a Sunday would anything of been open. I want shops to survive but they have to wake up. My local CoOp is open today until 9pm. They've got the gig, so why do so many shops not get it?

 

You can't move for coffee shops and nail bars/beauty salons round here so they must be doing something right that doesn't include working 15 hour days.