The demise of the High Street

[Nick Clarke 3Participant @nickclarke3]

As far as model engineering is concerned the town centre is no longer any use at all. When I first started as a teenager in the 1970s Reeves were in town, Kennions were too, although I never went to see them as living in Nottingham it was just too far.

Pools Tools were right in the centre of Nottingham, just a two minute walk up from Slab Square so tools were available easily. Cheap tools are available from Machine Mart and Toolstation, but branded stuff. or more specialised items are mail order or internet only.

Metal was a little harder as Carr's had moved out of town when I was very young and by the time I wanted them they were a 4d bus ride from the city centre, although as it was the same route as I used to get home from town, not too bad for me personally.

Even living in Birmingham as I do now there is only one non-ferrous supplier near town (Keetleys – V.Good) and for steel, tools etc it is always a drive.

The only metal one can guarantee is available in all parts of the country is the frighteningly expensive stuff that Homebase et al sell, and they are not always on a bus route in town.

 

Edited By Nick Clarke 3 on 03/12/2018 18:40:31

[John HaineParticipant @johnhaine32865]

Kennions were a LONG walk from Hertford town centre! One day I decided to walk there having seen their advert in ME. Very footsore by the time I arrived. Very grumpy guy that kept it too, I never went back.

[alan-lloydParticipant @alan-lloyd]

Shit 'ole part of town that was in

[BazyleParticipant @bazyle]

Ron made a good observation about Butcher filling a road. 40 years ago at the edge of London the nearest line of shops along the main road had 3 butchers and 2 bakers plus a mini supermarket which under it's fifth reincarnation is the only one still open. These shops were a remnant of necessity before refrigeration and industrial baking. They became obsolete like the candlemaker a century before.
High streets grew out of markets just as a place to meet a few times a year to get 'exotic' goods you didn't make yourself. In the middle ages I doubt most of the occupants of a village went the 3 miles to town every year, certainly not if it was 10 miles. Todays equivalent in terms of travel time is over 100 miles. How often do you go 100 miles to shop?

So why do we want high streets at all in the 21st century?

[Gordon AParticipant @gordona]

With the rise of internet shopping and demise of the high street, how long will internet prices and delivery costs stay low?

[Barnaby WildeParticipant @barnabywilde70941]

I've been around long enough to have seen the way progress affects us first hand & not just from the stories told to me on my grandma's lap about just how good the world used to be.

The High St that you lot are mourning is not the High St of my Gran. It has never been the same High St for a period much longer than a few years.

I remember the first supermarkets & I remember the first of what we what we then called a 'hypermarket'. I remember the devastation to the High St that each transition caused. I remember the shopkeepers angry interviews in the local newspaper & I remember the many arguments fore & against them.

The High St isn't dead, it;'s just in a very uncertain time of transition. It will redefine itself & settle down to its next period of economical existance.

My granny was freed from the chore of making her own butter & cheese because she could walk 500yds down t'lane & buy it from a shop that had it reliably delivered twice a week. That shop has been a very desireable house in centre of t'village for 80yrs, her High St moved 5 mls away 100yrs ago. Me mams High St moved just the same & I can remember her moaning & whingeing about the distance she then had to travel.

The High St isn't dead, it will never die. It might move a little bit further away & you might not recognise it from your youth. It has NEVER been a very stable place, it has ALWAYS had to reinvent itself every decade or so since the first caveman ever spread a blanket & sold his surplus goods at the side of the road.

[Peter G. ShawParticipant @peterg-shaw75338]

I've lived at my present address now for 23 years and during that period my visits to the local town have gradually decreased whilst at the same time, my internet ordering has gradually increased. These days I only go into town if I HAVE to, eg to visit the doctor/dentist/hairdresser/optician. What I then do is to tie those visits up with as many other visits as I can manage, eg library/chemist/"hole-in-the-wall" (only that might be reducing somewhat as our village shop has just closed) etc.

I do follow a regime of trying to use the local shops as much as possible, eg electrical spares and our local hardware shop, and generally keep spares so that I do not have to charge into town on an emergency mission.

The major problem is that using the internet, I usually get a photo of what the item is before I buy, whereas if the local hardware shop hasn't got it in stock, although they will order it, it often means I'm buying blind, and indeed I got caught a few weeks ago when I finally decided to buy a new Millenicut file. I thought that I would buy the half-round file expecting to also have a flat surface on one side – only to find that the half-round was indeed just that, a half-round chunk of metal with no flat side! I then had to buy the matching flat file. I've also found that, for example, inkjet cartridges are usually more expensive from the local shops than via the internet.

Banking is all internet now, and any odd cheques/bank drafts that I may receive I post off to my nearest bank branch, not that I get many these days.

It's a shame, but its progress. And would we really like to go back to 60 years ago?

Peter G. Shaw

[Harry WilkesParticipant @harrywilkes58467]

Hands up I'm a online shopper parking near my town centre is both crap and expensive, Argos moved out of the town centre onto a edge of town shopping park moved next to Maplin so if I wanted to make a purchase from either it would cost an extra £1 for the pleasure of spending my money so I stopped using either unless they offered free postage

H

[Halton TankParticipant @haltontank]

There are many reasons for the decline of retail shops in the high street but I think that the main reason for downward trend was the ending of the Retail Price Maintenance in the mid sixties. Before that the price of an item was determined by the manufacturer and it had to be sold at that price irrespective if it was by a one man business or large high street chain. With the ending of RPM, yes there was drop in price for a lot of items for a while but then prices rose rapidly in the years after (just like with the privatations of the utilities). In the days of RPM stayed steady for years on end.

Also shops now tend to be owned by property companies and it seems that they prefered to lease shops to big chains rather than sole traders, though I gather now they are starting to feel the pinch with number of the 'big boys' going under.

[steamdaveParticipant @steamdave]

Seems like it's not too bad living in deepest, darkest West Cork. Skibbereen and Clonakilty are thriving little towns.

Plenty of independent small shops, free parking (2 hour limit) and a very good local market on the weekends. Lidl and Aldi have made an appearance but they do not seem to have taken away too much trade from the smaller independent shops. No Tesco, M & S or other multiples.

Only thing lacking is a decent tool shop!

Dave
The Emerald Isle

[Nicholas FarrParticipant @nicholasfarr14254]

Hi, the talk about car parking reminds me of a joke I heard many years ago, which is a play on words and expression.

 

"What would you do if you saw a Spaceman?"

The answer is; "Park in it Man!"

 

I found very strange how many people would say they would run like hell.

All our car parks in town are 24/7, although most of them are cheaper from 5:00 in the evening until 8:59 next morning, but some have a few 20 minute free parking bays.

Regards Nick.

 

Edited By Nicholas Farr on 04/12/2018 07:58:18

[AJWParticipant @ajw]

Holidayed in Jersey this year where I was palmed off with an old ?5 note. Didn’t think much of it at the time as they still use ?1 notes – new plastic ones!
Anyway, when I realised the fiver was no good I took it into an enormous HSBC bank in St Helier to change.
The lady in this mainstream High Street bank informed me that they couldn’t help as they don’t deal in cash and don’t have a cash desk!
Another paragraph in the demise of our High Street’s.

Alan
Don’t know what happened to the ‘pound’ sign!

Edited By AJW on 04/12/2018 09:15:02

[Peter G. ShawParticipant @peterg-shaw75338]

Forgot to mention parking.

All our towns are currently parking meter free zones although the County Council would dearly love to bring them in. They did try a few years ago but the outcry was so great that they backed off. Unfortunately, there is a recent report that they are looking into it again with the council saying that as usual, they are looking at all options!

Town centre parking is either in pay car parks, except for those run by the likes of Aldi, or on street by means of Parking Disks. Lengths of on street stay vary from 1/2 hour up to 2 hours depending on how far out one is prepared to walk, and the town concerned. In my case, a 2 hour park is sufficient time for me to walk into town, visit the few establishments/shops I have to visit, have a cup of coffee, and walk back to the car. It means I get to do my daily exercise at the same time as shopping.

Peter G. Shaw

[SillyOldDufferModerator @sillyoldduffer]

Here's a working High Street:

And a few years later here's one in trouble:

Quite fun to see two American Gas Guzzlers in shot. Both unsuitable for British roads. Petrol was expensive here, smog already a problem, and our good road surfaces didn't require cars to have super-soft suspensions. Also, being narrow and bendy British town-centres favour slim cars that can go round corners.

I expect the High Street will be back in more or less traditional form as soon as oil runs low and motoring becomes expensive again. No problem parking when most people can only afford to travel by bus and push-bike!

Dave

[here againParticipant @hereagain]

20 % tax on internet sales is being considered too.That might help the High Street!!

[Chris TriceParticipant @christrice43267]

20% on top of VAT?

[Rik ShawParticipant @rikshaw]

" Nobody, absolutely nobody, cuts hair any longer where I live!"

Surely a few cut it shorter don't they ?

Rik

[BazyleParticipant @bazyle]

That must be the only town in England that doesn't have a hairdresser every fifth shop. Barbers are admittedly rarer but as one doesn't need to visit them more than a couple of times a decade it doesn't much matter. I'm more concerned about finding NHS Dentists.

[martin perman 1Participant @martinperman1]

Posted by Bazyle on 04/12/2018 18:30:56:

That must be the only town in England that doesn't have a hairdresser every fifth shop. Barbers are admittedly rarer but as one doesn't need to visit them more than a couple of times a decade it doesn't much matter. I'm more concerned about finding NHS Dentists.

In Sandy Bedfordshire there are three Barbers within sight of each other and two of them are almost on opposite sides of the street and that doesn't include hairdressers all in a town that takes just over five minutes to drive through.

Martin P

[not done it yetParticipant @notdoneityet]

Well done Rik, I wasn’t expecting it to take a whole page before someone (t)wigged it!

I couldn’t resist suggesting a hairdresser appointment as the reason for Ron’s longer stay in town, so that one followed on…

[Dave HalfordParticipant @davehalford22513]

Turkish barbers, apparently men with beards are no longer able to trim their own growth so where we once had 2 barbers we now have 4.

[Gordon AParticipant @gordona]

Saw a busker in Solihull today with a sign "Cash or swipe". You can see where it's all going.

[JonParticipant @jon]

Posted by Gordon A on 04/12/2018 20:00:37:

Saw a busker in Solihull today with a sign "Cash or swipe". You can see where it's all going.

Hope you didnt swipe him.
All the same those pleading poverty having and contracting mobile phone usage.

Must admit i was early on the act 2000 anything can be delivered. Dare say last 5 years have given retailers another nail in the coffin as some people like to use them horrible mobile phones.
For the first time in years i visited an out of town retail site Sat, out of 9 there last time only 3 exist.

If i wanted a part local it would take me around 2hrs to do 16 mile return. Same with bank/s thats 1 3/4hr gone paying in but thats incompetance another story.

[Stephen FollowsParticipant @stephenfollows82099]

Bookmakers and charity shops abound!

[V8EngParticipant @v8eng]

 

I really hate the gradual demise of the High Street. Give me a store (buy and take home) in preference to buying online and delivery any day.

Recent events with deliveries (stuff not available locally) to my house are:-

Lithium ion laptop battery left under my hedge when I was at home, but apparently placed in my hands and signed for. Had to use my CCTV to see where he had put them after checking why the delivery appeared not to have been made (driver made no attempt to walk the 20 metres to my door).

Battery charger left on my rear doorstep in the rain when I was out for the day, again signed for by me of course.

Most recently I waited in all day for a pre-arranged delivery which did not arrive, when I contacted the manufacturers they arranged a replacement to be sent (wonder where the original went?) one week later I was informed that the delivery was on its way and that I would be informed before the day. Very next day (just as I was leaving) a driver was at my door with my parcel and no warning given

Another time a delivery labelled for a house up the road was left behind my gate post.

Banks, that’s another world!

My wife who hates cash machines and such like went into her bank (in our local town) to pay in a cheque. She walks up to the solitary remaining cashier as usual and is told “sorry we are not allowed to do that now you must use the machine”! Wife was not at all happy.

Somehow I think they are trying to force everyone into online banking.

Rant over!

Edited By V8Eng on 06/12/2018 21:46:41

Edited By V8Eng on 06/12/2018 21:49:16

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