The High Street

[Libbie]

I live in Bristol and we’ve just lost the only Marks and Spencer that we had in the city centre, it closed on Saturday after 70 years!

I blame the Councils for allowing all the out of town developments that have sprung up over the last 25 years, cheap rates, free parking etc.. they want people to use public transport and shop local but they need to remember that they helped to create the problem!

 

[zoominmoom]

Am I just old and not up to date with the latest fashions (at the grand old age of 29) or is the range of clothes available on the high street absolute shite compared to what was on offer only 10-15 years ago? I can't remember much before then so can't comment, but I remember being 14/15 with £5 to spend and wanting multiple items from basically every clothes shop I entered.

Contrast that with now. I can't remember the last time I actually saw something I liked in a physical shop. Online isn't much better, but at least it's easier to wade through the piles of crap to find something half decent. Everything is bad quality, ugly, in a gross colour/pattern, and my major gripe is everything seems to be cut for skinny teenagers with small boobs who don't need to wear a bra (and adult women who are lucky enough to still have that body shape!).

For the first time in my life I have money to spend (not loads, but far from my teenage days of relying on pocket money!) and there is NOTHING I want. Considering women who are in their late 20s/30s/40s probably make up a big whack of the potential spending power of this country I find it bizarre that nobody is making much of an effort to cater to this demographic. I don't want a strapless, neon crop-top and I don't want to cosplay as an Amish woman in a sack! Please can someone just make something nice! I swear if companies just picked 10 random women off the street, asked them what they wanted and stocked it, they'd do a damn sight better than they're currently doing.

 

[Yel]

Not as cheap as B&M.

They're usually out of town aren't they? Also their range seems very inconsistent with lots of dubious quality, more like a pound shop where lots of the stuff seems like it was saved from going to landfill.

They shouldn't have allowed so many of those out of town places to be built over the last couple of decades imo. They've helped do in the high street.

 

[Yel]

You'd think Wilko would be pretty safe, but no lots of stores closing starting from next month. A real shame as it's such a useful and reasonably priced store for when you want something there and then. Will we just be left with coffee shops soon enough?

 

[laughing]

Nails shops
Charity shops
Chicken shops

A London high street

 

[DCICassieStuart]

My local city centre is terrible now. In the past few years so many places have shut down. Debenhams, Topshop, Miss Selfridge, Anne Summers, Gap, The Body Shop, Argos, Accessorize, Monsoon, Claire's Accessories, and many more.
The only long term shops left now are Primark, Superdrug and Boots. The rest of the place is just pound shops, phone shops, vape shops, barbers and kebab takeaways

 

[thegirlscout]

This is based on my experiences of high streets where I live so may be different for others!
I think one issue with high streets is that there isn’t a reason to entice me out of my house to go shop there. A lot look run down, the buildings are ugly so there isn’t an aesthetic reason to visit.
They all seem to house bargain bin shops that move on in a few months or charity shops that are messy and just a dumping ground for rubbish.
There is always rubbish around, the council doesn’t seem to pick it up which just add to the run down-ness of it all.
In one town near me, there are quite a few foreign shops popping up which I personally like - you can always get decent sized chocolate bars at the Polish store! But for a fair few people, they feel like they aren’t welcome there because they aren’t Polish, Indian etc. It would be great if there was an international community festival where the shops joined together and showed the local community what they have on offer and break down some of these barriers. Where I used to live which is much more multicultural they always had something like this annually and it was a great success!

 

[Apple In My Pie]

I think the high street has been in such a decline over the years due to online shopping and bigger out of town retail parks… that the covid lockdowns just killed it off…

my local high street is bloody awful. Stinking dirty, wall-to-wall vape shops, travel agents, barbers, off-licenses, phone shops and takeaways. We have a market but I can see that going soon too as it’s only a certain/older age group that use it - my age group (early 20s) only use it to walk through or for the toilet.

 

[Warpaint]

I don't think start-up businesses would risk the high street if even the giants are falling these days. I doubt most Coffee shops do that well in city centres either - I've noticed they seem to be a lot busier in the surrounding villages or small towns.

But yeah as @thegirlscout said - my image of a high street is Bookies, charity shops, pound shops, greggs, Costa and the odd bank if you're lucky. And they're generally just scruffy. Chewing gum and cigarette ends.

 

[NeverEnough]

I don't think start-up businesses would risk the high street if even the giants are falling these days. I doubt most Coffee shops do that well in city centres either - I've noticed they seem to be a lot busier in the surrounding villages or small towns.

But yeah as @thegirlscout said - my image of a high street is Bookies, charity shops, pound shops, greggs, Costa and the odd bank if you're lucky. And they're generally just scruffy. Chewing gum and cigarette ends.

My town in the North East is a great place to be if you want to place a bet or if you have £1 to spend.

It doesn’t help that it’s basically just a 20 minute drive to the Metrocentre, with a free car park the size of Bolivia and more choice of restaurants and shops. But even here there are numerous empty units. Something unthinkable just 5 years ago. In truth online shopping is taking over the world. In 10 years time I foresee that Town and City centres will be mainly residential areas.

 

[coconochanel]

Not as cheap as B&M.

 

[Kim Mild]

The metro centre is not what it used to be. House of Fraser has closed and that was a huge unit.

It used to be unique, like a destination for people to visit and it had the little quirky village and the Mediterranean bit .

And it used to have it's own indoor theme park

 

[thegirlscout]

I live in Bristol and we’ve just lost the only Marks and Spencer that we had in the city centre, it closed on Saturday after 70 years!

I blame the Councils for allowing all the out of town developments that have sprung up over the last 25 years, cheap rates, free parking etc.. they want people to use public transport and shop local but they need to remember that they helped to create the problem!

Also in some rural areas public transport is non existent or so bad it’s hardly worth it - no wonder people are turning to alternatives when it’s a mission to pop into the high street.

 

[RR20]

Am I just old and not up to date with the latest fashions (at the grand old age of 29) or is the range of clothes available on the high street absolute shite compared to what was on offer only 10-15 years ago? I can't remember much before then so can't comment, but I remember being 14/15 with £5 to spend and wanting multiple items from basically every clothes shop I entered.

Contrast that with now. I can't remember the last time I actually saw something I liked in a physical shop. Online isn't much better, but at least it's easier to wade through the piles of crap to find something half decent. Everything is bad quality, ugly, in a gross colour/pattern, and my major gripe is everything seems to be cut for skinny teenagers with small boobs who don't need to wear a bra (and adult women who are lucky enough to still have that body shape!).

For the first time in my life I have money to spend (not loads, but far from my teenage days of relying on pocket money!) and there is NOTHING I want. Considering women who are in their late 20s/30s/40s probably make up a big whack of the potential spending power of this country I find it bizarre that nobody is making much of an effort to cater to this demographic. I don't want a strapless, neon crop-top and I don't want to cosplay as an Amish woman in a sack! Please can someone just make something nice! I swear if companies just picked 10 random women off the street, asked them what they wanted and stocked it, they'd do a damn sight better than they're currently doing.

Totally agree with this. I'm also 29 and feel exactly the same I used to want so many clothes from the high street in my teens but today there is very little I like as most clothes are cropped which I don't like and I'm not a fan of Y2K fashion. I also don't like the puffy sleeve trend which is popular at the minute or the poor quality fabrics most high street clothes are made from now.

 

[Captainmouse]

They're usually out of town aren't they? Also their range seems very inconsistent with lots of dubious quality, more like a pound shop where lots of the stuff seems like it was saved from going to landfill.

They shouldn't have allowed so many of those out of town places to be built over the last couple of decades imo. They've helped do in the high street.

The problem with the high street is parking, the out of town places have free parking, high streets do not.

 

[Nwest]

I don't think start-up businesses would risk the high street if even the giants are falling these days. I doubt most Coffee shops do that well in city centres either - I've noticed they seem to be a lot busier in the surrounding villages or small towns.

But yeah as @thegirlscout said - my image of a high street is Bookies, charity shops, pound shops, greggs, Costa and the odd bank if you're lucky. And they're generally just scruffy. Chewing gum and cigarette ends.

Crazy to think growing up I hardly saw a coffee shop.

 

[georgiecait]

If you walk down Oxford street there are about 10+ candy shops.

Omg yes I noticed this, all the way up to Selfridges. They are massive and have music to rival a club! I don't get it.

 

[BigMavis]

I think towns/high Street will just be offices and coffee shops soon. People go out of town to big retail parks don't they? They do here anyway. We're left with a few nice boutiques but chains have closed. Even my nearest city has seen a huge decline in highstreet footfall.

 

[Sibz]

Am I just old and not up to date with the latest fashions (at the grand old age of 29) or is the range of clothes available on the high street absolute shite compared to what was on offer only 10-15 years ago? I can't remember much before then so can't comment, but I remember being 14/15 with £5 to spend and wanting multiple items from basically every clothes shop I entered.

Contrast that with now. I can't remember the last time I actually saw something I liked in a physical shop. Online isn't much better, but at least it's easier to wade through the piles of crap to find something half decent. Everything is bad quality, ugly, in a gross colour/pattern, and my major gripe is everything seems to be cut for skinny teenagers with small boobs who don't need to wear a bra (and adult women who are lucky enough to still have that body shape!).

For the first time in my life I have money to spend (not loads, but far from my teenage days of relying on pocket money!) and there is NOTHING I want. Considering women who are in their late 20s/30s/40s probably make up a big whack of the potential spending power of this country I find it bizarre that nobody is making much of an effort to cater to this demographic. I don't want a strapless, neon crop-top and I don't want to cosplay as an Amish woman in a sack! Please can someone just make something nice! I swear if companies just picked 10 random women off the street, asked them what they wanted and stocked it, they'd do a damn sight better than they're currently doing.

Most clothes atm are one extreme or the other, they're either tarty, overly revealing, uncomfortable, tight, or they're really frumpy, baggy, with an ugly pattern and shapeless. Most women just want something inbetween - something that shows off your shape but also classy and comfy, I don't get why that's hard for companies to design

 

[Melian]

My local town centre is just full of charity shops, vape shops and coffee shops.

It's not cheap to park (it's within walking distance for me) either, no wonder people prefer to buy online.