The High Street is Dead and Shops should be Turned into Homes

[zoco]

Says Nick Boles in this article.

Don't know about you but there's still plenty of stuff I buy on the high street. Clothes, food (always use the local greengrocer & butcher) and even with some stuff I buy online I still like to be able to see it in the flesh before I stump up the cash.

Why isn't the same thing happening in places like France? I was in a little town in SW France recently where I used to have my childhood holidays and all the old family firms seem to be doing as brisk a trade as ever & they are surviving in the shadow of the big hypermarkets.

One thing that really annoys me, though, are exorbitant parking charges. Went into town the other day & needed to park for literally 10 minutes. The minimum charge? £5.40. It's no wonder people go to Tescos...

[Bacchus]

even with some stuff I buy online I still like to be able to see it in the flesh before I stump up the cash

Here's the problem

We use the highly expensive shop windows to view the goods, then buy them from a shed in cheapsville over the web

Not a sustainable model, as Jessops (to name but one) will tell you...

[vetran]

Parking
Rates
shop attitude
customer attitude.

Rubbish Parking should mean a reduce in business rates.

But the key thing that I think is different is the shop attitude to customers so few seem to think quality goods or service count any more. The customers likewise fail to see the need for quality.

In France people are willing to pay 20- 50% extra for taste. But most of the shops close at the same time which tends to be at about 7pm so those that work can use them.

In the UK they are charged 200-1000% extra for convenience and poorer quality.

I think farm shops and specialist shops do ok. but weeks old horse meat is just as cheap in Tesco 24*7.

[AtW]

Business rates are way too high.

We are paying business rates on employee parking, can you believe that? If our business was car park it would make sense to charge some business rates, but we pay a lot of business rates for office with a few free parking slots, yet the council thinks its entirely legitimate to charge business rate on that.

It's totally bonkers given that people who drive to work somewhere would be spending money locally on lunches and other stuff.

[minestrone]

The French have some kind of cap on shop rates.

I sued to work for a start up that used an unused corner shop as an office.

[BrilloPad]

The government allows out of town shopping centres you can park for free - and allows expensive town parking.

More lack of joined up thinking by the government.

[BrilloPad]

Maybe the shops should be turned into factories? We need to be making more stuff.

Prefrably with high import levys so there are customers.

[scooterscot]

If the products in the high street windows said 'Made in Britain' on them, things would be different. I'm certain of it.

High quality product + the label.

For as long as high streets are selling cheap imports from the other side of the world which can be easily bought on the internet, the high street is tumble weed.

The high street is to blame 100% for not changing and adapting to the conditions.

[OwlHoot]

One thing that really annoys me, though, are exorbitant parking charges. Went into town the other day & needed to park for literally 10 minutes. The minimum charge? £5.40. It's no wonder people go to Tescos...

That's nothing - At the weekend I had a £30 fine for parking in a _free_ car park in Lewisham.

Well, it was free parking for the first half an hour, and I was copped ten minutes after parking. But what I failed to notice was a sign at the entrance saying that on arrival one had to collect a token from the machine and leave it in view under the windscreen. Makes sense I suppose, otherwise how would anyone know when the free half an hour had started?

[doodab]

We are a nation of cheapskates in love with cheap, preferably free, tulipe. We know the price of everything and the value of nothing Quality is a secondary concern.