The Death Of Our High Street

[marsh man]

Like many of our high streets up and down the country the once big stores are all but gone , today in our town is the final day of our last department store , the shop was known as Palmers until a few weeks ago when it was taken over by Beales , this was once a upmarket store where they someone working on the lift full time , who was smartly dressed , always friendly and called you sir , the store first opened 180 years ago and at Christmas it was like a wonderland for the kids with all the festive displays .

Over the last few years we, like the same as others have lost Arnolds ( Debenhams ) , B H S , Woolworths , Co Op , Marks + Spencer , Carpet rite , and many , many more .

Where will it all end ??

[JTaylor91]

When they find a way to match online prices. Most people vote with their pocket.

[The Heron]

As I was once told by the owner a large company it is all about the price nothing else people vote with there money. 

[captainhastings]

Yep its just down to money. But the country was much better place back in the eighties in my opinion. We had the little village shop, post office. Used to sell a rabbit on the way home and nip in for a mars bar. Lovely times. Just a barren village now with sod all

[Dave at kelton]

But it’s not about price any longer. It is about out of town experience, convenience and online. I have spent over forty years as a commercial property consultant and the High Street in its past form will never return. The best thing we can do is get all those unused shops into residential use to get the population back into the centre and not keep extending the suburbs. Only that will create centres of population that then demand retail services in a reduced form. I am afraid that Corvid 2 is likely to be the final straw.

[Walker570]

Yes, money to a degree but when I can sit here in my study and order almost anything and most delivered to my door the following day which saves me a 15 mile round trip minimum.

I do try to use my local shops in the three local towns as much as possible and pleased to say most appear to be thriving.  Use them or lose them basically. 

 

[Dibble]

I am a grumpy old man, here is one of my favorite rants......

Modern Retailers are rubbish....

In 1988 I got a temporary job working for Habitat on Briggate in Leeds, a lady called Pat worked there and she showed me the ropes. She had started aged her retail career as a teenager working for Leeds poshest department store (Schofields?) and had been taught to make the customer feel special.

I started to write a list of the hundreds of tiny things she taught me but Ill just give one example. When someone had paid you gave them the coins, waited until they had put them away before handing over the notes. Turned the bag so the customer could easily grab the handles then you said thank-you and smiled at them.

Retail has to be an experience

[adzyvilla]

Internet shopping has done for department stores, the ones that are left like John Lewis and Debenhams can't last much longer. It's an old fashioned business model that hasn't moved with the times. Coupled with extortionate business rates and rents, green taxes, and staffing costs, its an impossible task for them to thrive. My home town had a small department store that changed hands several times over the last few years limping along until it finally closed and is now a gym. Very sad indeed, but that is the price of progress. Soon the only shops in small towns will be charity, barbers and vape. 

[old man]

27 minutes ago, JTaylor91 said:

When they find a way to match online prices. Most people vote with their pocket.

And availability of choice in an instant?

[spurs 14]

Hi , marsh man I couldn’t agree more , we had a palmers on the high st in Newmarket until a few years ago ! High st looks sad now think it’s the same everywhere Woolworths , m&s , block buster , even things like kfc , wimpy all now gone 

Newmarket seems to be made up of estate agents ,coffee shops and betting shops !

 I can understand the online shopping boom but it’s sad to see the demise of shops you can go into and look round ,family run shops even big dept stores suffer 

 whatever will we do if one day the internet fails ? Or the postal service and couriers go on strike ? Didn’t someone say “ we reap what we sow “       

[oldypigeonpopper]

hello, i would like to see M and S do more in the food market, the Oxford store has 3 floors of clothing and home section yet the food side no bigger than a tennis court and gets very busy to full most days, and prices compare very well to the high end supermarket, that said there is a new Lidl to open soon here in Abingdon (2021 , as for the main Topic i remember in my early life going with mum to visit  large department stores now since long gone, 

Edited March 15, 2020 by oldypigeonpopper

[Farmboy91]

Partridges of Hadleigh is going to end up going the same way.

It's a real shame, it was the shop where you could buy just about anything no matter how obscure. Quite a few family members, myself included have worked there, the service was old fashioned and it worked.

I rarerly bother going into Hadleigh now, full of takeaways and an over priced co-op. I'm surprised it's lasted as long as it has.

Edited March 15, 2020 by Farmboy91

[ditchman]

34 minutes ago, Farmboy91 said:

Partridges of Hadleigh is going to end up going the same way.

It's a real shame, it was the shop where you could buy just about anything no matter how obscure. Quite a few family members, myself included have worked there, the service was old fashioned and it worked.

I rarerly bother going into Hadleigh now, full of takeaways and an over priced co-op. I'm surprised it's lasted as long as it has.

used to buy cartridges from there..........

 

1 hour ago, marsh man said:

Like many of our high streets up and down the country the once big stores are all but gone , today in our town is the final day of our last department store , the shop was known as Palmers until a few weeks ago when it was taken over by Beales , this was once a upmarket store where they someone working on the lift full time , who was smartly dressed , always friendly and called you sir , the store first opened 180 years ago and at Christmas it was like a wonderland for the kids with all the festive displays .

Over the last few years we, like the same as others have lost Arnolds ( Debenhams ) , B H S , Woolworths , Co Op , Marks + Spencer , Carpet rite , and many , many more .

Where will it all end ??

spent many a sat morning in the coffee shop in palmers......

[Farmboy91]

Just now, ditchman said:

used to buy cartridges from there..........

They stopped selling them a while ago to mate. I suppose with the small farms being brought up, less and less individual farmers were coming in. They weren't particularly cheap of late anyway.

Got a few boxes of fourlongs with partridges price label on from when my great grandad worked there.

What decade was you going in there?

[old'un]

 

I think the car, parking and out of town shopping as also been a big factor in the demise of the small high street shops.

If the wife drags me on a shopping trip (not groceries) we head for Merry hill, Kidderminster or at a push Worcester, where there’s plenty of free parking or all-day for a few quid.

[Davyo]

I miss the high street,when I was a kid we had a bakers,ironmongers,butchers, green grocers,and even a toyshop (I can smell the airfix glue now lol).The biggest store was Liptons,but for white goods you had to either go to Joplins in Sunderland or a big Co op store.There used to be a store on the our high street that you could get kitted out for school.

 I wish they would come back,but retail outlets and the ASDA's and the likes put a stop to that.I think the future for even the retail outlet & the ASDA's is hanging on a thread now.Everythings on line now and as said,you can sit at home in your pants and buy anything.

There are even car sites now for example,Bristol Street Motors where you can buy a car online and have it delivered.

It's a shame but we all let/helped it happen.

[ditchman]

29 minutes ago, Farmboy91 said:

They stopped selling them a while ago to mate. I suppose with the small farms being brought up, less and less individual farmers were coming in. They weren't particularly cheap of late anyway.

Got a few boxes of fourlongs with partridges price label on from when my great grandad worked there.

What decade was you going in there?

late 60's............there were 4 blokes working in there with brown stock coats and wooden floors they sold everything ....nuts bolts nails gate hinges...chicken feed ammo.........

used to get my fishing stuff from a tiny shop right at the bottom of the high street.........

[Farmboy91]

15 minutes ago, ditchman said:

late 60's............there were 4 blokes working in there with brown stock coats and wooden floors they sold everything ....nuts bolts nails gate hinges...chicken feed ammo.........

used to get my fishing stuff from a tiny shop right at the bottom of the high street.........

My great grandad would have been working there at the time, he was a welder there for years. 

I'll ask about in the family about the fishing shop, way before my time 😂

[oldypigeonpopper]

23 minutes ago, ditchman said:

late 60's............there were 4 blokes working in there with brown stock coats and wooden floors they sold everything ....nuts bolts nails gate hinges...chicken feed ammo.........

used to get my fishing stuff from a tiny shop right at the bottom of the high street.........

hello, same here Simon called Beadles,  

[Dave at kelton]

1 hour ago, oldypigeonpopper said:

hello, i would like to see M and S do more in the food market, the Oxford store has 3 floors of clothing and home section yet the food side no bigger than a tennis court and gets very busy to full most days, and prices compare very well to the high end supermarket, that said there is a new Lidl to open soon here in Abingdon (2021 , as for the main Topic i remember in my early life going with mum to visit  large department stores now since long gone, 

Abingdon when we moved down in1982 was a super little market town, local traders etc, now wrecked. I am pleased to have moved away where I can support local butchers bakers and greengrocers. I only hope they survive the current problems.

[oldypigeonpopper]

6 minutes ago, Dave at kelton said:

Abingdon when we moved down in1982 was a super little market town, local traders etc, now wrecked. I am pleased to have moved away where I can support local butchers bakers and greengrocers. I only hope they survive the current problems.

hello, there is a local farm shop for butcher/baker/greengrocer but must be the most expensive in uk but it is always busy, town centre is like most now, 1 large coffee shop

[Dave at kelton]

Your dead right but it is farmshop, I assume Millets, so no town centre offering. As you say one large coffee shop now

[oldypigeonpopper]

Just now, Dave at kelton said:

Your dead right but it is farmshop, I assume Millets, so no town centre offering. As you say one large coffee shop now

hello, yes Millets farm shop, there is still a butcher in town but down a side street and many do not know it is there, even the monday market has gone from 20 stalls to about 8

[The Heron]

My nearest city is £10 in diesel and up to £10 for parking the Internet is free postage delivered to the door like my earlier post it is all about the money. 

[bruno22rf]

It's not a difficult choice really - best price and next/same day delivery whilst sat in the living room with a Coffee or 20 minute drive only to sit in a traffic jam, face a limited choice of over priced tat only to return to your Car and find a £70 fine because one of your wheels in on the line rather than between them - that's after being charged a kings ransom to park in the first place if you are lucky enough to find a bay. Most town markets now smell of cigarettes and frying Onions to add to your misery.