Is the High Street doomed
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pinkmonkey
2.4 hour party person
The supermarkets took a huge chunk of market share off mid market stores like Debenhams, Peacocks and Bon Marche. It's the convenience, it's hard to beat. I was an employee designing for a big high street supplier when George (Asda) started, they headhunted most of their buying and merch team from M&S, I would design for both M&S and George. And the catalogues. And we supplied Mothercare too. We held some character licenses - Barbie was our main one. The only difference in M&S and George was their profit margin - I often tell the tale of when I went on holiday and forgot to lock some back to school samples (that had already been booked by M&S) in my desk drawer - because the sales reps would often scavenge our office for products to sell when we weren't around. Anyway the sales rep found the samples and sold this one item to George without telling me and it was then featured in both of their Back To School catalogues but in M&S it was a fiver more and so the buyer went absolutely postal at the salesman who flogged it to them and refused to beleive he'd sold it to them for the same price. They weren't even supposed to know we supplied George so it was a big deal and heads rolled. Primark again uses exactly the same factories but on a tiny profit margin compared to Debenhams, M&S etc, this is what I was saying earlier, we're cutting more and more fat off everything and there's nothing left.
pinkmonkey
2.4 hour party person
and the way the trade has changed, back then (80's & 90's) it was common for suppliers to bribe the M&S buyers with extravagent gifts and it got out of hand, they were buying them cars, someone even had an extension for their house bought for them. It got stopped as it got so out of hand,, but now, I can't imagine a supplier having the funds to behave like that, everything is so run down to the bone.
Doodler
You're quite nice when you smile
I know exactly what you mean about the more fashionable/branded clothes stores. It's worst when they're brightly lit and I see myself in one of the mirrors, just look like a recovering alcoholic. I darent approach any of the shop staff in case they start shouting 'You're not my father!' 'Next' is tolerable.
lazythursday
Averagely-Known Member
I've never been a huge fan of Next clothes, though you're right it's at least tolerable to browse. I guess this is all part of the inevitable descent to M&S that happens when you age, if it is still around in ten years.
Bahnhof Strasse
Met up with Hannah Courtoy a week next Tuesday
Next is a prime example of what pinkmonkey’s talking about; in the 80’s they were quality clothes, today they are just fast fashion pap that falls apart after five minutes.
cupid_stunt
Merry fecking Christmas.
Remember when Thomas Cook went under, and their shops were taken over by Hays Travel?
Well they have announced another round of closures, with 89 of their current 535 stores going, I suspect more will follow.
www.theargus.co.uk
Well they have announced another round of closures, with 89 of their current 535 stores going, I suspect more will follow.
Travel firm to close store after Covid pandemic takes toll on travel
A TRAVEL firm says it is closing a store in Worthing and considering the future of other branches across Sussex amid pressures caused by the Covid…
moochedit
I'm not feeding seagulls
Remember when Thomas Cook went under, and their shops were taken over by Hays Travel?
Well they have announced another round of closures, with 89 of their current 535 stores going, I suspect more will follow.
Travel firm to close store after Covid pandemic takes toll on travel
A TRAVEL firm says it is closing a store in Worthing and considering the future of other branches across Sussex amid pressures caused by the Covid…
Bad timing buying them in October 2019. Must be dodgy for all travel agents whether on or off line.
Bahnhof Strasse
Met up with Hannah Courtoy a week next Tuesday
Remember when Thomas Cook went under, and their shops were taken over by Hays Travel?
Well they have announced another round of closures, with 89 of their current 535 stores going, I suspect more will follow.
Travel firm to close store after Covid pandemic takes toll on travel
A TRAVEL firm says it is closing a store in Worthing and considering the future of other branches across Sussex amid pressures caused by the Covid…
Yeah, Hays are decent people, the whole travel industry is ruined and there won't be many survivors once people are able to get moving again.
pinkmonkey
2.4 hour party person
I can't bear either of them despite occassionally still designing for a supplier of theirs. Next is the most successful of the bunch but they're feeling the squeeze - they owned their own head office near Leicester, but think they put it up for sale in order for someone to buy it and rent it back to them. Yet more fat is cut off, know what I'm saying? If the trade keeps going at this rate we'll all be naked except for thongs and nipple tassles by 2040
Doodler
You're quite nice when you smile
A vintage aka secondhand clothes stall in the town market here was selling men's and women's overcoats pre lockdown, and quite a few of the men's ones had the Dunn & Co label. They were very well made, better than the most expensive coats in John Lewis. There are still one or two gentlemen's outfitters in town but their clothes look horrible, Telegraph readers' styles like red trousers and so on.
BristolEcho
Well-Known Member
Saw the Green family will still make about £50m from the recent collapses. None of this shit actually matters to people like that. A dent to ego maybe, but the risk to self financially is pretty much miniscule and they can suck it up, or make profit out of the failure. It's an absolute mess.
MickiQ
In My Defence I was left Unsupervised
Fetch me my fiddle Ma, I feel the urge to play a tune
Smokeandsteam
Working Class First
It appears that Stockton upon Tees town centre is literally doomed and will be replaced by a park:
www.theguardian.com
I wonder where civic and community life is supposed to thrive in places like this where the high street is destined to join pubs, community centres and the like which have atrophied? The Guardian’s report seems to gloss over the reality of councils and spatial planners embedding the Amazon model of commodification without a word....
Bulldoze the high street and build a giant park: is Stockton the future of Britain?
What do you do when M&S, Debenhams and New Look are all gone? Knock down the shopping centre and replace it with green space. Could the ‘visionary’ plan of Stockton-on-Tees spark a revolution?
I wonder where civic and community life is supposed to thrive in places like this where the high street is destined to join pubs, community centres and the like which have atrophied? The Guardian’s report seems to gloss over the reality of councils and spatial planners embedding the Amazon model of commodification without a word....
ska invita
back on the other side
i agree on the general point about loss of community space and the economic infairness of online v bricks etc , however:It appears that Stockton upon Tees town centre is literally doomed and will be replaced by a park:
Bulldoze the high street and build a giant park: is Stockton the future of Britain?
What do you do when M&S, Debenhams and New Look are all gone? Knock down the shopping centre and replace it with green space. Could the ‘visionary’ plan of Stockton-on-Tees spark a revolution?
I wonder where civic and community life is supposed to thrive in places like this where the high street is destined to join pubs, community centres and the like which have atrophied? The Guardian’s report seems to gloss over the reality of councils and spatial planners embedding the Amazon model of commodification without a word....
it could work, would need to see the plans
despite the headline its not bulldozing the high street i think its bulldozing a shopping mall
there will still be shops in town.
"a consultation exercise found that 80% of respondents were in favour of demolishing Castlegate" - could be true, could be bollocks
open riverside space is more civic than a shitty shopping mall
there are opportunities in this ongoing crisis to turn town centres into nicer, more communal spaces
brogdale
Coming to terms with late onset Anarchism
Also glosses over the potential for other locations less well-placed with picturesque riversides etc. to replicate such a model and what impact the loss of rates might have on local authorities with the greatest demands on their core expenditures.It appears that Stockton upon Tees town centre is literally doomed and will be replaced by a park:
Bulldoze the high street and build a giant park: is Stockton the future of Britain?
What do you do when M&S, Debenhams and New Look are all gone? Knock down the shopping centre and replace it with green space. Could the ‘visionary’ plan of Stockton-on-Tees spark a revolution?
I wonder where civic and community life is supposed to thrive in places like this where the high street is destined to join pubs, community centres and the like which have atrophied? The Guardian’s report seems to gloss over the reality of councils and spatial planners embedding the Amazon model of commodification without a word....
lazythursday
Averagely-Known Member
It's a shopping centre, not the entire town centre. And I'd have thought you generally get more civic and community life within a park than inside the average shopping mall, many of which are notoriously opposed to any kind of civic life taking place inside.It appears that Stockton upon Tees town centre is literally doomed and will be replaced by a park:
Bulldoze the high street and build a giant park: is Stockton the future of Britain?
What do you do when M&S, Debenhams and New Look are all gone? Knock down the shopping centre and replace it with green space. Could the ‘visionary’ plan of Stockton-on-Tees spark a revolution?
I wonder where civic and community life is supposed to thrive in places like this where the high street is destined to join pubs, community centres and the like which have atrophied? The Guardian’s report seems to gloss over the reality of councils and spatial planners embedding the Amazon model of commodification without a word....
ska invita
back on the other side
underneath that piece is this from owen hatherley
www.theguardian.com
Covid has finished off the old high street, but we can replace it with something better | Owen Hatherley
Preston and Wrexham show that communities can find solutions that don’t require big property developers, says Owen Hatherley, culture editor at Tribune
Smokeandsteam
Working Class First
I don’t disagree with that. Most High Street’s look and feel bleak.
Doodler
You're quite nice when you smile
The part-pedestrianised shopping street close to where I live is where many people go to watch the parade of street life: other shoppers, buskers, beggars, charity canvassers, once in a blue moon religious or political proselytisers. Particularly for people who live alone there is a strong need just to see others going about daily life. It is both a commercial and a communal kind of place.
Would a park or some other green space fulfill the same functions? Some parks are busy and well loved, others are forlorn windswept places where people keep their distance from each other.
Would a park or some other green space fulfill the same functions? Some parks are busy and well loved, others are forlorn windswept places where people keep their distance from each other.
muscovyduck
Good IT skills and food hygiene competent
You've hit the nail on the head, some parks are good and some are shit. It's not random, it depends on how they're designed and how the wider area is too. Same as how some pedestrianised high streets are good and some are borderline post-apocalyptic.
lazythursday
Averagely-Known Member
I don't know Stockton specifically but there are few town centres in my opinion that couldn't be improved by more green space. And from the article it seems clear that the proposal is the removal of one moribund shopping centre, with another one close by - not the extinction of all street life.
hash tag
Books, not bombs
John Lewis, the shopping bellwether might be closing another 8 branches. Search John Lewis in the news and you will see there are lots of local news sites fearing that their local JL might be closing. Sad times for shops and their employees. John Lewis considering fresh store closures in response to Covid
brogdale
Coming to terms with late onset Anarchism
Dead to me since they shut the Waddon Ponds branch.
hash tag
Books, not bombs
Will be losing even more outlets and jobs by the look of it John Lewis posts £517m loss and warns of more store closures
ska invita
back on the other side
some "good" graphs here
"
More than 17,500 chain stores and other venues closed in Great Britain last year, according to new data.
That's an average rate of 48 closures a day.
.....the figures,... include hospitality and leisure venues, but not independent retailers "
Pandemic impact 'yet to be felt' on High Streets
An average of 48 outlets per day closed last year, but there may be worse to come.
www.bbc.co.uk
"
More than 17,500 chain stores and other venues closed in Great Britain last year, according to new data.
That's an average rate of 48 closures a day.
.....the figures,... include hospitality and leisure venues, but not independent retailers "
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