Re: Changes on the High Street
 

You might find that some of the Aldi and Lidl produce is as good as Waitrose if not better.;)

Re: Changes on the High Street
 

Re: Changes on the High Street
 

Mmm, see you could pay more tax, better the NHS than Otters Deli.. ;)

Re: Changes on the High Street
 

Loved Rutland when I was posted there (2 x training courses @ RAF North Luffenham (near Edith Weston), with side jaunts to Bletchley Park) - Oakham and Stamford had some cracking pubs.

Got to visit it when I was a civvy in the 80s, as one of my brothers-in-law lived in Harringworth - the local pub had lovely pints of Pedigree and Ruddles County, and there were often "lock ins" for the locals (and their guests) as it was in the middle of nowhere, so unlikely that passing plod would interrupt.

Re: Changes on the High Street
 

A lot of Aldi and Lidl produce is the same as Waitrose.

In that it's literally the same food with different stickers, from the same warehouses.

Re: Changes on the High Street
 

Indeed Waitrose just sell it at a premium price.

Re: Changes on the High Street
 

Shopping centre owner Intu expected to go into administration.

https://www.theguardian.com/business...administration

Re: Changes on the High Street
 

Not sure it's that simple - they may be produced in the same factory, but often to different specifications.

Found this on another site

Re: Changes on the High Street
 

:Yes: Where I work, we make our own product, and also many supermarket branded products. The 'main' ingredient is the same, but other specs vary according to customer (supermarket) requirements.

Re: Changes on the High Street
 

Not quite the high street but a sign of the times when shopping malls are going broke as well.

Re: Changes on the High Street
 

£4.5bn of debt was always going to bite them on the bum eventually. Malls have an advantage over the high street in that they have parking and are usually covered, so they’re still a day out even when the weather’s awful (not a small consideration for the likes of Braehead on a winter day in Glasgow). But some analysts are saying that the growth of online shopping, that would have affected even profitable malls perhaps 5 years from now, has accelerated due to Covid19.

Some of Intu’s portfolio is good and will survive - I can’t see any reason for the likes of Braehead, Trafford or Lakeside malls to be broken up for scrap. I don’t know enough about the others though.

Re: Changes on the High Street
 

Re: Changes on the High Street
 

Ah yes I was forgetting Watford - formerly known as the Harlequin Centre back when I lived in that neck of the woods. There’s a John Lewis in the Watford site and as you say, it’s attached to the high street. It’ll be fine.

Re: Changes on the High Street
 

Most seem pretty good sites to me https://www.intugroup.co.uk/en/our-centres/

There was a commentator on Radio 4 earlier - she made the point that indoor sites which were at a premium in the past to high street locations (think British weather) are reversed now, due to higher Covid-19 risks.

Based on the quality of the sites, I reckon the administrators won't have a problem shifting most of them, albeit at a hefty discount from what they were worth back in March. I can see longer-term investors like the Duke of Westminster's Grosvenor Estates being interested.

Re: Changes on the High Street
 

Not quite the High St., but I visited a well-know DIY store a couple of days ago. No queue to get in, but a 40 minute queue to get out! And near the checkouts were piles of stuff that people had dumped before walking out. It was at that point in the store that a small sign declared "card sales only".