The death of the high street.

[Burwood]

eltawater said:

I don't think most of the posters on this thread fit into the core demographics of Boots on the high street

It's quite a useful destination for:

• Parents of young children (toys, baby food, vitamins, ointments etc)

• Make up counters

• Foreign holiday supplies (sunscreens, sunglasses etc)

• Photo printing

• The lunchtime office food rush

as well as the usual Pharmacy prescriptions. Don't forget there's almost always at least 1 Boots airside at major UK airports where you can bag a cheapish bottle of water and a sandwich compared to some of the hideously overpriced duty free shops.

Yes, you can get quite a few of these things at a large Tesco etc but quite often the range is very limited to a few aisles of products compared to a typical medium sized Boots.

It still makes a st load of money so it’s not going broke anytime soon

[snuffy]

Our Which Survey said : Smiths are st

Smiths said : Oh no we're not

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-48433692

[snuffy]

I popped into the Chester Smiths a couple of weeks ago and it's dreadful. Clutter everywhere. I just walk round it every once in a while to see if it's got better - but it never does.

[Truckosaurus]

The WHSmiths near my office does its best to discourage punters by often having charity chuggers loitering inside the doorway.

[Biker 1]

I can't remember the last time I went to Boots, WH smith or any other High Street shop.
As others have said - why bother driving into my local town centre which is some 4 miles away, to be greeted with ridiculous parking charges, policed by wardens behaving like vultures, & shops that are tired, with little choice & disgruntled staff?

[Biker 1]

Truckosaurus said:

The WHSmiths near my office does its best to discourage punters by often having charity chuggers loitering inside the doorway.

They seem to have a permanent installation of chuggers at my local Homebase. They rattle there collection tins right in your face, then look pissed off when you don't hand over cash.....

[snuffy]

Truckosaurus said:

The WHSmiths near my office does its best to discourage punters by often having charity chuggers loitering inside the doorway.

The Chester one used to have some energy or phone company just inside the doorway. If I saw that I never went in so I reckon it will have put others off as well. So that's a great business idea for Smiths then !

[jtremlett]

snuffy said:

Our Which Survey said : Smiths are st

Smiths said : Oh no we're not

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-48433692

Oh yes they are. Floors are usually covered in litter. Half the lights switched off. Can't buy a magazine without them trying to flog you over-priced chocolate and foisting a load of vouchers on you. I continue to go in there only because they sell the magazines I want to buy but always at the risk of catching some vile disease from the appalling state of the shops.

I get that the High Street has to cope with high rates, high rents, high parking charges and competition from the Internet etc. but some retailers just do nothing to help themselves either.

[BrabusMog]

Biker 1 said:

Truckosaurus said:

The WHSmiths near my office does its best to discourage punters by often having charity chuggers loitering inside the doorway.

They seem to have a permanent installation of chuggers at my local Homebase. They rattle there collection tins right in your face, then look pissed off when you don't hand over cash.....

A few days ago, outside Reading station, a very well-to-do looking gentleman got a sarky comment off of one of these chuggers when he said he was in a rush (I presume that's what he said). He turned around and went absolutely ballistic at them, it was bloody hilarious to watch lol! The chugger looked terrified

[Thankyou4calling]

Retailing has changed massively.

I’m 52

Back when I first started work in the 80’s I had more disposable than I do now!

I absolutely loved going shopping

The local high street was chock full of shops selling stuff you could only get I you went to town.

Shoes? Curtess, dolcis, saxone, Freeman Hardy Willis, Russel and Bromley, Faith . You actually went to a shoe shop FOR SHOES! Now? They’re gone.

It was wonderful walking from shop to shop, they all sold different things so you went in and tried things on

On a Sunday the shops were closed so it was nice ho window shop and see what you might get hen you were flush

W H Smith was a special shop. I used to go to Richmond, they had lovely pens, stationery you couldn’t get elsewhere it was great

Now the high street is tat. Full of shops selling tat.

But the Public gets what the public wants

They don’t want to go into Hepworths and buy a nice suit, they don’t want to go into Dewhursts and buy chops they don’t want to go to oddbins and buy a bottle

We want cheap. If something is 10p more people avoid it

I know there are exceptions

I still enjoy shopping

But it’s not what it was and nevervwill be .

[BrabusMog]

Thankyou4calling said:

Retailing has changed massively.

I’m 52

Back when I first started work in the 80’s I had more disposable than I do now!

I absolutely loved going shopping

The local high street was chock full of shops selling stuff you could only get I you went to town.

Shoes? Curtess, dolcis, saxone, Freeman Hardy Willis, Russel and Bromley, Faith . You actually went to a shoe shop FOR SHOES! Now? They’re gone.

It was wonderful walking from shop to shop, they all sold different things so you went in and tried things on

On a Sunday the shops were closed so it was nice ho window shop and see what you might get hen you were flush

W H Smith was a special shop. I used to go to Richmond, they had lovely pens, stationery you couldn’t get elsewhere it was great

Now the high street is tat. Full of shops selling tat.

But the Public gets what the public wants

They don’t want to go into Hepworths and buy a nice suit, they don’t want to go into Dewhursts and buy chops they don’t want to go to oddbins and buy a bottle

We want cheap. If something is 10p more people avoid it

I know there are exceptions

I still enjoy shopping

But it’s not what it was and nevervwill be .

Is this some kind of haiku

Regarding oddbins - people do want off licences, and do use them, Oddbins and Thresher had such st business models and didn't move with the times to become mini grocery stores, so they went pop. Woolworths was essentially Amazon that also sold pic n mix so, again, went pop. W H Smith are intriguing, I thought they'd have gone by now but seem to be clinging on.

[Thankyou4calling]

Haiku!

I had to google that.

Used to love Woolworths, I guess Wilkinson’s is as close as you get now.

Off licences are dead ( in comparison to 20 years ago) supermarkets have killed em

[BrabusMog]

Thankyou4calling said:

Haiku!

I had to google that.

Used to love Woolworths, I guess Wilkinson’s is as close as you get now.

Off licences are dead ( in comparison to 20 years ago) supermarkets have killed em

There were two Thresher's near where my folks live, both have been replaced since they went under. One is a proper independent offy that carries similar stock to a Tesco Express, the other is a Today's Local (I think these are a franchise?) which also does the same, and both appear to be thriving. Saying that, as much as I like to use a small shop, big Tesco had 10 cans of San Miguel for £7 the other day, so I stocked right up!!

[JagLover]

menousername said:

Mixed use retail and residential i am not sure will work. It will only support retail needed by the residents - small convenience stores or express super markets. There will be glitzy ideas of middle class suburbanites and a cafe bar culture at planning approval stage, but it will not support that and the retail space will turn into pizzas and kebabs. Parking will largely be permit-only with one allocated space for every multi-bedroom unit, therefore entirely insufficient. People visiting from outside to shop or eat? I cannot see it unfortunately.

Depends how mixed we are talking about.

On the outskirts of Swindon they built an out of town shopping complex, on a dual carriageway on its edges, but lots of residential units were built around it, or further out. I can therefore walk down to an M&S, Next, Asda and (before it shut) a Homebase.

[So]

Thankyou4calling said:

Retailing has changed massively.

I’m 52

Back when I first started work in the 80’s I had more disposable than I do now!

I absolutely loved going shopping

The local high street was chock full of shops selling stuff you could only get I you went to town.

Shoes? Curtess, dolcis, saxone, Freeman Hardy Willis, Russel and Bromley, Faith . You actually went to a shoe shop FOR SHOES! Now? They’re gone.

It was wonderful walking from shop to shop, they all sold different things so you went in and tried things on

On a Sunday the shops were closed so it was nice ho window shop and see what you might get hen you were flush

W H Smith was a special shop. I used to go to Richmond, they had lovely pens, stationery you couldn’t get elsewhere it was great

Now the high street is tat. Full of shops selling tat.

But the Public gets what the public wants

They don’t want to go into Hepworths and buy a nice suit, they don’t want to go into Dewhursts and buy chops they don’t want to go to oddbins and buy a bottle

We want cheap. If something is 10p more people avoid it

I know there are exceptions

I still enjoy shopping

But it’s not what it was and nevervwill be .

Do you remember when all this was just fields?

[Cheib]

anonymous said:

[redacted]

Yup, those outlets are (or were) very profitable....your average high st one hasn’t been profitable for many years. The distribution business (newspapers and magazines) also used to be profitable.

Their biggest issue is that the amount of square footage they have...most of their stores are simply too big...so they end up stocking lines that they don’t really want to stock just to fill the space.

[Cheib]

Carphone Warehouse is a business that saved itself by merging with Dixons.....if it had stayed independent reckon they’d be in trouble because of how that business model has shifted. Their business model now revolves around guaranteeing the networks X amount of customers/business in return for which they get a discount which is their margin. So in a market where prices are falling they have to guarantee business/pricing to get those discounts.

[BrabusMog]

Cheib said:

anonymous said:

[redacted]

Yup, those outlets are (or were) very profitable....your average high st one hasn’t been profitable for many years. The distribution business (newspapers and magazines) also used to be profitable.

Their biggest issue is that the amount of square footage they have...most of their stores are simply too big...so they end up stocking lines that they don’t really want to stock just to fill the space.

Just googled Chappell, he rents a mansion in Dorset and leases a FFRR how prudent.

[BrabusMog]

Good point, he sounds like a man who takes his responsibilities seriously

[Borghetto]

snuffy said:

Our Which Survey said : Smiths are st

Smiths said : Oh no we're not

Oh yes they are