Luan Pra bang

Following on from the retail thread.

I believe in trying to keep local high streets open. The trouble is that between high rates, low buying power , poor economies of scale and a lack of choice in each shop very few high street shops can compete. The slow shutdown of high streets leaves to a worsening spiral where soon only charity shops and hairdressers survive.
I am interested to know what local shops, if any people use and wether anyone actually makes a bit more effort to shop on the high street even though they could just go to the local supermarket and get everything they need.

CREWJ

I rarely venture into the local shops.

birchy2010

iTrader: (12)

Hardly ever as its a dive and half the shops are shut. Also i get bored of the dodging the charity muggers and groups of chavs everywhere.

classic Subaru Si

The only place I go to apart for the supermarket is the butchers. Its not about making more effort, its about quality and price - the local fruit and veg stall on the market is shocking, lasts a day if that. Supermarket veg lasts over a week.

Scooby Soon!

coming from a family of high street retailers that have now changed to online retailers, main problems are parking either too expensive or the council are desperate to give parking tickets. eg parking was 60p per hour in my town centre 12 months ago, at the end of last year it was 90p an hour and now its £1 an hour how can they get away with putting prices up that much so quickly?

Council rates for shops are ridiculous and landlords want too high rents.

kingofturds

iTrader: (1)

Apart from the nepalese resteurant in town I avoid it at all costs. Pushy charity muggers and people trying to drag you into the mobile phone shops make shopping in town a real misery.

Also if you plan on parking in the town for more than 2 hours, be prepared to shell out nearly £6

CREWJ

I remember when it was 20p an hour at home. Now they want 90p and they made the sport centre pay and display!

Luckily where I live now it's still free to park.

ALi-B

iTrader: (1)

Nope, have to pay to park. Even on a long stay thats littered with glass and 10mins walk away

Sod that!


Plus the shops are either crap, overpriced, or too busy at the tils.

Myles

iTrader: (40)

I use the local independent music shop, Rapture, in Witney. I take the hit of an extra couple of quid on a CD/album because it is a local company and the guys are very helpful.

The Zohan

+1

kingofturds

iTrader: (1)

Zohan also visits town for the local underground sex shop. It's the only place he can get his S&M razor embedded ******.

The Zohan

I borrow your mums membership and loyalty cards to get a discount you coont! How are you getting on with the pink rubber gimp outfit with built-in butt plug she you got for your birthday?

Coffin Dodger

Rarely ever these days. Occasional wander round if after some clothes or something along those lines. Maybe for Christmas shopping though try to do as much of that as possible on-line now.

I would like to have the time to do food shopping on the high street, i.e. good butchers, green grocers, deli, etc. but tends to be supermarket most of the time.

Even the place local to work which could be tempting for a spot of lunch etc. I just don't bother with, to get free parking is major hassle and the pay and display is a rip off.

Don't even go out drinking in town any more since I got married and the bambino arrived

Jamie

I think he likes you

SirFozzalot

There isn't a lot left in our local high street, other than a couple of takeaways, a couple of hairdressers, a chemist and a Tesco Express. So most of our shopping is done at the nearest big supermarket or at Lakeside Shopping Centre as it's only about 10 minutes away so that gets most of our business.

There are a couple of small DIY type stores locally but to be honest they either don't have what I need/want or its so expensive that I end up going to B&Q. I try to support local business but unfortunately they find it hard to compete.

Jamie

Zohan

Chip

Always go local for meat , veg etc. Parking is free and our local village is thriving , no empty shops at all.

Chip

rossyboy

iTrader: (8)

Free and easily available parking would make a massive difference. Why would I fight my way into town, pay for the privilege and buy something there that I can order cheaper on-line anyway?

Nearest I ever get to the city centre are the retail parks on the outskirts due to ease of access and free parking.

Councils tell you to get public transport to avoid parking problems. Why would I do that when it will take twice as long and cost more?!

kingofturds

iTrader: (1)

Our council decided to combat falling parking revenue by raising car parking charges. Sheer genius

EddScott

I grew up in Witney

I hear it's had alot of investment over recent years - big cinema and what not.



Parking in Haverforwest West Wales is quite cheap. 40p for the day or so? It's not alot.

Fortunately for us, as the OP points out, people make specific trips into town for a hair cut. Although the property next door is empty and a couple of the other shops are struggling. We'd actually like to buy the building - rather pay for a commercial mortgage than just rent to a landlord but would it really be much of an investment?

A group of retaillers have got together to try and get a reduction in the rates but I don't hold out much hope.

I do use some of the high street shops. Only use the out of towns for DIY stuff - although I find Wickes quality is poor. Don't bother with clothes out of town, we go to a little Fat Face shop in St David's mostly. Only really use Currys or Comet if really stuck for an item.
Our last TV was from a town centre Indy who had a great deal plus 5 year warranty from Panasonic that would be honoured - some online "warranties" wouldn't be honoured.

I do have an issue with the sandwich shops (other than greggs) - they are a complete rip off.

PaulC72

As i can get most things cheaper online delivered to my door i usually buy online.

dpb

yep,

I can still use my legs , and am not afraid to do so

Leslie

Although we do some shopping in supermarkets, we will also use local shops and I think it is important that they should keep going.

Les

Lisawrx

iTrader: (1)

Most of our shopping is done at the supermarket. I get some stuff from my work as it usually works out cheaper due to discount (toiletries, cleaning stuff, decorating and gardening stuff as I need it and if they have what I want). As I work in a town centre, I'll use the shops there at times but not very often as most of them are crap.

I rarely go into the City centre. Only if I really needed something I couldn't get elsewhere, but I usually make a trip over at Christmas. I don't really like to rely on online shopping too close to the day, and I like to look around for a bit inspiration.

I get a few bits and pieces at our local shops, mainly stuff I might have forgotten when doing our weekly shop, or have ran short of. The off license and takeaway usually get some repeat buisness though.

tony de wonderful

You are right about the chuggers, they really spoil walking through the local high street and city center in Manchester. They just put you on your guard basically, and act annoyingly.

Mostly I buy stuff from Tesco, if I need other stuff I tend to get it online.

Always getting the odd tools, things etc from Halfords, got a mini-rotary tool kit today.

ALi-B

iTrader: (1)

My town centre is totally the wrong way round, its councillors are so up their **** they can't see common sense.

What we have is FREE parking in the high street for 30mins. So what we get is a congested highstreet where nobody can park...ever, unless you are very lucky and willing to wait 15mins to do the whole circuit finding a space.

All this whilst the council owned multistorey is pay and display. Seriously, why would I park on there when I can park in high street for free?

Then we have the long stay car parks out of town, still council owned. You pay for teh whole day, how much? £2.50!!! Sod that, I'm not paying that to have my windows smashed ta. It used to be 30p per day 15 years ago Hence it is now always empty.


Common sense would be to charge to park in the high street for a max of 1 hour, with it being free for 10mins or drop-off. And £2 for any longer. Make the multistorey 20p per hour and make the long stay free for anyone stopping under 3 hours.

But no. That's too logical. Their loss though.

Turbohot

I like that.

Only occassionally, I shop on my local high street. That's because I work all over the place. Our usual Tesco is also quite a way from the local High Street, you see. Out local high street has WH Smith, New Look etc. which I don't frequent TBH. There are plenty of charity shops there too, which are actually worth a browse for a good old book or curio brick-a-brack. There is a great little second-hand bookshop as well, where I spend some serious money on old books. I went to our local hight street Boots today to get the new Armani Sport fragrance for my son's present. They even gave me a free Armani beach towel for him with it! Fantastic! I also went into the local greengrocer, and bought some fruits. Their cherries were the best cherries of the season I had bought. They tasted so much better than Tesco ones, and they were even cheaper!

About retail's current state, I think it is sad to see so many big stores going into administration, but some of them (if not all) are/were always a bit too over-priced, mind. They should have shut down long ago TBH. Reasonable ones may still continue, with the chance of "see with your naked eyes before you buy". I don't know.

To support local fair trade, I get milk from our village milk man, even when its a bit dearer. Same goes for the town butcher. Better quality too.

David Lock

We have recently moved from a small town in Sussex to a village in Wiltshire. My previous town shopping scene deteriorated over the years despite a huge number of extra homes being built close by. First af all they build a bypass and then started charging for parking with a private firm jumping on anyone who dared to leave their car for more than a few minutes. Now you can walk across an empty high street filled with empty shops. Of course people went to their local Tescos with much improved quality recently, free parking, wide choice and OK prices. Add to that the Internet and no rent for on-line businesses and the typical high street doesn't stand a snowball's.

Oddly enough in the village where I am now there is a thriving domestic appliance store with prices that compete well with the Internet and staff that are fantastic. We had a couple of guys in installing a host of cables, phone extensions and setting up TVs for £20/hour. And parking is free and you can actually park outside the shops which are devoid of yellow paint. I will certainly support these local shops as much as I can.

dl