More bad news I know, I can’t help thinking that retail seemed to be struggling in general anyway, especially the high street so Covid has just sped it all up. Weren’t many commentators saying we’d reached peak ‘stuff’ anyway?
The death of the town centre. Online prices been cheaper obviously but will be bumped way above normal retail to cover all the returns that will happen due to people not being happy with what they got because they didn’t check the items out.
It could eventually turn around in years to come with more independent shops, cafe’s, restaurants popping up out of demand. Just shit that it has to die before it gets better.
Great link, that was really interesting.
With the sales decline, I don’t know what they are expecting. A lot of people are either furloughed, or have lost their jobs. Even people still working are probably unsure on job security, so choosing to save a bit more cash for a rainy day.
Some places should’ve died years ago, on the rare occasion I’ve been into a Debenhams or Burton menswear I’m shocked that they make enough money.
Had a retail client tell me that this was what was going to happen anyway, just that Covid has brought it all forward five years.
Yeah, definitely.
Yeah, I’ve heard that, this article summed that up fairly well:
After COVID-19, nothing will be the same. The previous sentence is bullsh*t. On the contrary, things will never be more the same, just accelerated.
I don’t agree with that 100% but it’s a good point regarding stuff that would’ve died eventually anyway.
In 2016 watford the Intu group were about to pull out of the shopping centre extension but they would have broke contract and the council had to pay out and extra £17m to help finish it. Part of the new extension was to have a new Debenhams. The day they both opened their forecasts were massive debt and pretty much doubled every 6 months since . Intu I think are £1.2b in the red and Debenhams are £500m in debt with many store closures.
People in watford were/are angry the shops are closing whilst shopping online after seeing the items they want in the shops.
At the end of the day it’s the Amazon phrase . The shops left in the high street
Are what amazon can’t do.
And this was before covid.
One thing that many people forget is that shopping centres usually age badly. Every city has one which should be knocked down and replaced, either with a high street or a park, but that’s unlikely to happen.
Out of town retail parks, motorways, massive carparks, etc. have all contributed to the decline of the high street. Rising tides lift all boats - pedestrianising more town centres, installing segregated bike lanes, make cities less hostile to pedestrians will get people visiting more and spending more locally. Simplistic approach, but hopefully you know what I’m getting at.
1 Like
Absolutely, the retail parks have been a massive thorn in their side but they too are now in the same boat.
The other problem with my town are that people also complain about paying £3/4 to park in the town whilst sitting in a Costa blowing £10/15 on a round of over priced coffee and cake .
No one in watford wants to put their hands up and say “yes we are contributing to the decline , we’ll stay off the website and head into town”
They’ll blame parking whilst clicking on an online bargain.
1 Like
Seems as though some job losses may happen sooner rather than later, this is another chain I’m surprised remained as big as it did for that long however.
Frankie & Benny’s were dead before, they were shutting places, it was all over for them anyway. Bella Italia put nails in their coffin years ago.
It’s odd, it looks like the 02 academy in Newcastle is starting to have gigs again? That can’t be right can it?
And Chiquittos. Only eaten there once, and it was so bad (food and service) that we left without paying. Only time we’ve ever done that!
1 Like
Yeah very similar vibe with them.
The local F&B here has been the worst ran place for a long time, but for some reason, the name still rings decent, on past glory I guess.
I only really shop at the same 4 high street shops, so personally high street closures generally don’t bother me. However, what does always play on my mind is how they affect my hometown, even though I no longer live their I still want to see it succeed.
Literally every shop there is an at risk shop - Burtons, Next, Monsoon, Claire’s, Bella Italia. The closure of BHS had a huge affect and if M&S ever decided to scale back the town centre would be fucked.
It won’t be. Might be trying to sell tickets for shows that’ll end up rescheduled though.
1 Like
I’ve noticed that the supermarkets have been noticeably quieter on my last two big food shops, do people feel they’ve been spending too much on food lately or are people already cutting back over fears of losing their jobs?
Also, I’ve also seen some massive queues for takeaway beer outside some pubs this weekend, it really doesn’t look like too much fun to me. It’s one of the main drawbacks of festivals.
I think the novelty of a ‘takeaway cocktail’ will wear off pretty soon. Great to support your local, but a carton of cocktail kind of defeats the point.
Totally agree there, the same goes for beer as well, these people are buying pints in plastic ‘glasses’ when they could go to any shop and buy beer in a glass bottle for half the price.
