Re: Changes on the High Street
 

Grim prediction indeed.

Re: Changes on the High Street
 

To be blunt, it was always on the cards due to the huge rise in online shopping and major distribution outlets like Amazon.

This current situation has simply sped up the process, technological and engineering advancements have always had an impact on the way we do things.

Give it another 20 years and everyone might be getting all their nutritional and medicinal requirements from tubes of 'gloop' . . . and wearing clothes made from a new material containing microbes that absorb CO2 and turn it into Carbon & Oxygen :D

Re: Changes on the High Street
 

Exactly as this was just the final straw that broke the camels back.

Re: Changes on the High Street
 

Shops have to value add to survive. They need to keep prices competitive (come on-line the shipping costs can outweigh price benefit) but the real plus is service.

I want to try on clothes and especially shoes before I buy maybe excepting Tshirts, coats and looser items but return costs can be high.

In archery shops often have indoor ranges so you can try out equipment, get advice so you get the right stuff, get stuff tuned and setup. It's part of the service and prices maybe a little higher to account for it.

Maybe we will get back to smaller, local, specialist shopping. I'd love to have butchers, grocers, cheesemongers etc back but supermarkets seem to be some of the better survivors.

Re: Changes on the High Street
 

I like to 'see, feel, try' things before I purchase them, and am therefore not a lover of online shopping.

The wife & daughter are enthralled by it though . . . even though they probably return half of what they order.

Isn't progress wonderful :D

Re: Changes on the High Street
 

Yes l certainly remember all those type of specialist shops like quite a few members l suspect as well when l was a nipper.

My parents used to send me down there several times a week with a list and strict orders.:D

Re: Changes on the High Street
 

Re: Changes on the High Street
 

Im no expert on John Lewis but I can tell you they took a similar decision in Glasgow and opted to be the prime tenant of the Buchanan Galleries development which is a city centre mall, ignoring the nearby, out-of-town development at Braehead. Both developments opened in 1999.

Re: Changes on the High Street
 

Re: Changes on the High Street
 

Meanwhile in Watford they opted to move in to the Harlequin Centre when it opened in 1990 (now known as Intu Watford). This centre is adjacent to the High Street. They opted to keep the store’s traditional name (Trewins) although that has since changed. In Liverpool, they moved down to the new Liverpool One development in 2008 which has effectively moved the high street’s centre of gravity closer to Albert Dock. John Lewis is on a prime site right at the bottom of the development, which almost puts it outside what you would call the “high street” in Liverpool, but where it is located it is right in the way of everyone who walks between Albert Dock and the shops.

If anything can be inferred from this it’s that they’re not averse to sitting inside a mall development but where they do so they still prefer to be close to city/town centre footfall rather than next to a big out-of-town car park.

Re: Changes on the High Street
 

It's unlikely that a restaurant could survive on take-aways only.

Re: Changes on the High Street
 

Those companies are also private equity-owned. So they have limited wriggle room due to having to pay a high level of debt off, and are not entitled to government support.

Re: Changes on the High Street
 

Re: Changes on the High Street
 

The wise investors rebalanced into other real estate four plus years ago into warehousing and offices.
The asset class which people are thinking about now is offices. Wil less or more be needed in the short and medium terms?

Re: Changes on the High Street
 

There is a major change in the way we do things happening right now. The coronavirus emergency measures have expedited this process as people have embraced working at home and online shopping.

What will replace the offices and shops is the big debate. I think shopping centres will be replaced by leisure facilities, more estate agents, travel shops and fast food outlets, restaurants, bars, craft places, tech showcase and retail shops, mobile phone shops and gift shops. Bakeries, butchers, sweet shops, etc may make a comeback on the high street. The bigger supermarkets will continue to gravitate to out-of town facilities, leaving the smaller 'express' services in town centres and in housing estates.

As for those office blocks - I guess that really does depend on whether company bosses want to revert back to their previous way of working. They must see that they can reduce their overheads if working from home became the norm.

What the emergency measures have drawn attention to are the possibilities for the future. The question really is, do people like what they see?