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The high street
on this morning news is a piece about Mary Portas who has been telling the government how to revitalise the high street. I wonder if anyone in government actually cares.
Chains like Tesco have come in and dominated the food markets, losing many of the little shops that made up the high street once, i can't see how this is supposed to work.
Chains like Tesco have come in and dominated the food markets, losing many of the little shops that made up the high street once, i can't see how this is supposed to work.
Answers
two car parks near our high street. The council is about to build houses over one of them. The other one is Sainsbury's. So that choice will be easily made.
But shopping patterns have changed. My mother used to stroll to the shops for any small purchase. People nowadays do a week's shopping at once, which means taking the car, which means carparks - which for...
But shopping patterns have changed. My mother used to stroll to the shops for any small purchase. People nowadays do a week's shopping at once, which means taking the car, which means carparks - which for...
09:49 Fri 30th Mar 2012
I will not use a multi storey car park if I can help it, and such car parks are not attractive to parents with buggies or the disabled. I don't feel safe in them and they usually charge.
Lugging shopping from the high street to the multi storey with young children in tow, whilst pushing a buggy is nowhere near as convenient as using the big supermarket, especially in bad weather.
Then we have the big malls, where the weather doesn't matter, the parking is free and the toilets are beautifully clean, usually.
The days of wifey walking to the local high street two or three times a week for a bit of food shopping are long gone.
Lugging shopping from the high street to the multi storey with young children in tow, whilst pushing a buggy is nowhere near as convenient as using the big supermarket, especially in bad weather.
Then we have the big malls, where the weather doesn't matter, the parking is free and the toilets are beautifully clean, usually.
The days of wifey walking to the local high street two or three times a week for a bit of food shopping are long gone.
two car parks near our high street. The council is about to build houses over one of them. The other one is Sainsbury's. So that choice will be easily made.
But shopping patterns have changed. My mother used to stroll to the shops for any small purchase. People nowadays do a week's shopping at once, which means taking the car, which means carparks - which for us means Sainsbury's.
But shopping patterns have changed. My mother used to stroll to the shops for any small purchase. People nowadays do a week's shopping at once, which means taking the car, which means carparks - which for us means Sainsbury's.
My local High Street is probably unusual in that the opening of a Tesco Extra store at one end actually revitalised it, albeit to a small degree.
Before they came the High Street was dead on its feet. It contained hairdressers, estate agents, restaurants, coffee shops and, of course, charity shops. People had to sod about with pennies and halfpennies to park for twenty minutes in the street. Be unlucky enough to meet somebody you knew and spend ten minutes too long over your coffee (all that was worth having during the day) and it cost you eighty quid. But nowhere one could do any “shopping”. My former barber had to close three years ago. He had the equivalent of half a shop with three chairs. The council undertook a “rent review” and wanted four hundred notes a week rent and another five-fifty “Business Rates” (for which he didn’t even get his dustbin emptied). He had to do a lot of £10 haircuts to pay the council £950 a week. He closed and the shop remains empty to this day.
Tesco whacked in their planning application, intending to build on a virtually unused multi-story car park. Out from the woodwork came the whingers: “death knell for the High Street”; “small shops will die”; “small traders face extinction” etc. etc. None of them seemed to have noticed that the High Street had been dead for at least five years, nobody went there to shop because there were no shops worth visiting. To get their permission it cost Tesco £2.5m as they had to pay to repave and resurface the entire High Street. But now they’re open things are looking up a tiny bit. Drivers can park for three hours for free and many people park up in Tesco’s and wander along the High Street to spend a few bob. But the main hurdle for anybody thinking of opening up a retail business in our High Street is the ridiculous rents and Rates demanded by the local council. Most normal sized shops attract a demand for more than a grand a week and the stupid council, bound by “market levels” would sooner see premises empty than do a deal. Ms Portas has her work cut out if she wants to turn round a High Street like ours. Tesco’s and Sainsbury’s are not the problem. The local council is.
Before they came the High Street was dead on its feet. It contained hairdressers, estate agents, restaurants, coffee shops and, of course, charity shops. People had to sod about with pennies and halfpennies to park for twenty minutes in the street. Be unlucky enough to meet somebody you knew and spend ten minutes too long over your coffee (all that was worth having during the day) and it cost you eighty quid. But nowhere one could do any “shopping”. My former barber had to close three years ago. He had the equivalent of half a shop with three chairs. The council undertook a “rent review” and wanted four hundred notes a week rent and another five-fifty “Business Rates” (for which he didn’t even get his dustbin emptied). He had to do a lot of £10 haircuts to pay the council £950 a week. He closed and the shop remains empty to this day.
Tesco whacked in their planning application, intending to build on a virtually unused multi-story car park. Out from the woodwork came the whingers: “death knell for the High Street”; “small shops will die”; “small traders face extinction” etc. etc. None of them seemed to have noticed that the High Street had been dead for at least five years, nobody went there to shop because there were no shops worth visiting. To get their permission it cost Tesco £2.5m as they had to pay to repave and resurface the entire High Street. But now they’re open things are looking up a tiny bit. Drivers can park for three hours for free and many people park up in Tesco’s and wander along the High Street to spend a few bob. But the main hurdle for anybody thinking of opening up a retail business in our High Street is the ridiculous rents and Rates demanded by the local council. Most normal sized shops attract a demand for more than a grand a week and the stupid council, bound by “market levels” would sooner see premises empty than do a deal. Ms Portas has her work cut out if she wants to turn round a High Street like ours. Tesco’s and Sainsbury’s are not the problem. The local council is.
Ms Portas is on a hiding to nothing. Some years ago i met up with a friend for a coffee, we ended up in Hampstead, an affluent area in many parts.
However wandering up one long street i counted 14 charity shops, and many other units empty, this is the problem. Once you let in one charity shop who get better rates for the use of these units, then a whole host come marching in. That proves a death knell for many others. Our area has the following, one large well known high end supermarket, never ending very expensive convenience stores, coffee, sandwich bars, two diy stores, and now that Robert Dyas have opened, that has almost put paid to those. A number of restaurants. Where once we had two butchers, two greengrocers, the best fish mongers in London, alongside the best bakers, i could go on but you can marry this story right across the country. Indeed it is the fault in many ways of the people, who choose the multinationals. However if the local councils weren't so trigger happy and gave permission at every turn to build ever more tescos, sainsburys, and so forth then perhaps our high streets wouldn't have gone to the wall. High rents, rates which these shops couldn't sustain, caused the death knell and i can't see an injection of money, a pittance at any rate, will help get the high street back on it's feet
However wandering up one long street i counted 14 charity shops, and many other units empty, this is the problem. Once you let in one charity shop who get better rates for the use of these units, then a whole host come marching in. That proves a death knell for many others. Our area has the following, one large well known high end supermarket, never ending very expensive convenience stores, coffee, sandwich bars, two diy stores, and now that Robert Dyas have opened, that has almost put paid to those. A number of restaurants. Where once we had two butchers, two greengrocers, the best fish mongers in London, alongside the best bakers, i could go on but you can marry this story right across the country. Indeed it is the fault in many ways of the people, who choose the multinationals. However if the local councils weren't so trigger happy and gave permission at every turn to build ever more tescos, sainsburys, and so forth then perhaps our high streets wouldn't have gone to the wall. High rents, rates which these shops couldn't sustain, caused the death knell and i can't see an injection of money, a pittance at any rate, will help get the high street back on it's feet
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