Tesco boss agrees Tesco boss blames business rates for retail woes - BBC News https://apple.news/AfL1HRKTLRbuOISKYKVAz9Q
I don’t think out of town retail is majorly the cause of the high streets down turn as they’ve co-existed without detriment for a long time. Councils hostility to vehicles in towns along with council business rates and ground rents take the majority of the cause. IMO.
This is a joint failure of central and local government and some businesses. The internet revolution has now been running for at least 20 years and has been treated by many in government (and "old" style businesses) as a passing fad that will go away. I have news for you, it won't, and it will get worse.......and change will happen faster....and faster, so plan for the correct infrastructure, regulations and business development in order work with the change. Try and make town centres more attractive and enticing places to be as bricks and mortar shopping is now much more a "leisure experience" than a necessity. Why anyone would shop in a dirty, expensive ghetto of a city centre is beyond me when you can purchase all of your needs on your phone, anywhere, anytime. Another example of clueless politicians and business leaders out of synch with the times.
It's easy to say oh it's the governments fault or it's the business's fault but in truth, it's ours. If you don't use the local pub and it closes, then it was the lack of customers that killed it guvnor. It might have some contributory factors but the largest is still, the customers have moved on.
i think you've missed the point. Yes, customers move on but with the scale and speed of change that online shopping has brought us, government and business need to have a strategy in place to deal with it on a national scale. Our towns and cities have evolved as brick and mortar trading centres over the centuries. Its taken 10 short years to threaten their existence in their current format. The changes within pubs (as an example) pale into insignificance compared to the transition that town centres are having to go though ie what do you actually do with an unused department store, how do planning regs support/encourage a change of use, what legislation needs to be in place etc etc. Customer behaviour drives the change but the administrative and business infrastructure needs to be in place to deal with the consequences and to establish a strategy to deal with future change of this nature. I would estimate that my online purchases are probably around 60% of my total (and rising)...and I don't think I'd be unusual in this respect. That's all "stuff" that I used to travel to buy, pay car park fees, pay for a coffee and a cake (or a pint) etc. That money no longer goes to the High Street (although it may still go to the same vendor). Multiply that by 10-20 million consumers and you have a major challenge on your hands at a national level (think of how long it's taken mining and heavy industrial areas (as an approximate comparison) to recover from the big shutdowns of the 80's and you start to get an idea of the potential scale of this issue.
I haven't missed the point at all, no customers, no business. The biggest reason why any business fails
The point I suppose is, what sort of council action can help keep town centres alive in some fashion? Relaxing terms of use, restructuring (reducing) business rates, etc? Perhaps there is nothing but the question needs to be considered.
Loz, I agree to a point but far too many ignore the marks and spencers example, no matter what they tried to do, if the customers are not coming in, your in trouble. Much of the approach again removes what seems to be the problem of personal responsibility or input Man lives in a small village with a combined post office, general store and off licence, the village also has a pub as well As he sits at home drinking his alcohol, waiting for his asda food delivery he texts his friend in the village His friend text's back, did you know the local store and pub are closing ? He replies why? His friend texts back, well with everyone using texts, whats's app and email, the post office is not doing enough business, with everyone buying food/drink from the supermarkets and not the store, the store is not doing enough business and with everyone buying cheaper drink and sitting at home drinking, the pubs not doing enough business to stay open He then texts back to his friend, effing government, ruin everything
I take your point - no customers = no shops - the point I and others are making is not that local government start herding folk into local shops against their will but instead look at other incentives for people to congregate in town centres. Attractions. Places of interest. Maybe water slides? Oh oh, I hope it's water slides.
will it be worked out per person by gers fin? oh please let it be, oh please Loz, possibly removing courts and have the stocks replace them? would see the towns fill up massively, get people out of their homes so exercising, people would buy more fruit and veg so local business improves.
hmm, a v,socialist approach, next you will be suggesting implementing a universal wage. tbh, i dont think i ever doubted you.
noobliz hadn't heard of gers last week, tho he did use it extensively before. maybe he was just loz on those days.
They play in blue, right? Also, have I got people on ignore? There's a bunch of screen names mentioned and I've never heard of/from them.
You must think I am stupid and gullible. Tony says they are geeeeerrrrrate! He also says people who disagree with him are stupid and gullible so I think he must be a Remoaner.
ffs not brexit again. let it go. tho, saying that. large internet retailers rely on international supply and trade? hmm.
