Is the High Street doomed

[Saints Alive]

Are you making your own pasta? Growing your own tomatoes? Rearing your own cows?
People value convenience.

I have an ongoing joke with my kids along these lines. My cooking skills are hopeless but both my kids are actually pretty good at cooking.
Anyway, every time I bought a lasagne from the supermarket, I would tell them that I grew and harvested the wheat to make the pasta, gathered the eggs, slaughtered the cows, harvested the tomatoes, etc, etc.
One of them is now doing food tech at GCSE and makes the family lasagne - but he doesn't make pasta from scratch or slaughter cattle or anything like that!

 

[moochedit]

I don't think burgers of any sort hold up well with delivery, whether McDs or some fancy artisanal place. Which is a shame.

The bike delivery of fast food has been a thing for a while now. I was volunteering at a stall back in 2016 opposite a Nandos before noon and the amount of delivery guys picking stuff up was quite something.

Yeah burgers always seem to arrive lukewarm when delivered regardless of who made them.

 

[Artaxerxes]

Didn’t realise planet organic was in the shit

 

[BristolEcho]

It’s nothing to be proud of.
People need to learn to cook ffs

I don't think people should be ashamed of not being able to cook either though, or not having the energy and brain space to do it.

I was really obsessed with cooking everything from scratch and loved it, but now the novelty has worn off I've really ran out of energy for it. It doesn't help that I mainly view food as a means to an end and try to eat healthy, but otherwise I'm not really fussed about how good it tastes.

It's actually quite a hard thing to organise and complete especially if you don't enjoy it and you're working either in terms of bringing up a family, or paid work, and then also juggling other responsibilities on top.

(Sorry just seen you've retraced the comment on scrolling back up)

We do get a take away every week but it's a bit of a treat as my partner has a chronic illness and so we literally don't go anywhere else at the moment together. She also can't drink or take any drugs.

Some of them are ridiculously expensive and we'd probably not have paid it in a restaurant, but we have more expendable capital at the moment and it's a treat as above. Deliveroo are definitely fuckers for charges and we always tip the driver so to adds up. Wherever we can we will order directly. I definitely think people will get takeaways during recessions as it's still cheaper than going out for food.

If we only got take away locally it would be pizza, kebab, and an amazing chip shop that never seems to be open.

 

[BristolEcho]

My boomer parents used to get a Chinese fairly regularly, but they used to drive and pick it up which is even worse for the environment compared to bikes. I don't think it's an age thing obviously Russ comment was very very silly.

 

[Orang Utan]

I can’t justify the expense of getting a ready meal or a takeaway more than once a month and I have a reasonable disposable income as I don’t have rent to pay, but everyone’s priorities are different. Some people won’t put the oven on just for one thing but they will spend a tenner on a takeaway or spend £££s a month on a car they rarely drive. One person’s extravagance is another’s necessity

 

[Numbers]

Yeah burgers always seem to arrive lukewarm when delivered regardless of who made them.

We're lucky cos McD's is 1 minute by bike from us, as is the Turkish, Pizza, KFC etc.
The food is always hot when it arrives.

 

[BristolEcho]

I can’t justify the expense of getting a ready meal or a takeaway more than once a month and I have a reasonable disposable income as I don’t have rent to pay, but everyone’s priorities are different. Some people won’t put the oven on just for one thing but they will spend a tenner on a takeaway or spend £££s a month on a car they rarely drive. One person’s extravagance is another’s necessity

I feel like saying "can't be bothered to put the oven on to cook one thing, but will spend a tenner on takeaway" is a bit snide to be honest and could come out of a Tory manifesto.

 

[Orang Utan]

I feel like saying "can't be bothered to put the oven on to cook one thing, but will spend a tenner on takeaway" is a bit snide to be honest and could come out of a Tory manifesto.

It might be if it was quoted out of context.

 

[BristolEcho]

I can’t justify the expense of getting a ready meal or a takeaway more than once a month and I have a reasonable disposable income as I don’t have rent to pay, but everyone’s priorities are different. Some people won’t put the oven on just for one thing but they will spend a tenner on a takeaway or spend £££s a month on a car they rarely drive. One person’s extravagance is another’s necessity

Doesn't read much better but maybe I'm missing the context. "Necessity"

 

[Orang Utan]

Doesn't read much better but maybe I'm missing the context. "Necessity"

I’m not sure how I can elaborate further
One person’s extravagance is another’s necessity. I’m trying to be reasonable and demonstrate how people have different perceptions of what is important to them and that these will cause disagreement.

 

[andysays]

I feel like saying "can't be bothered to put the oven on to cook one thing, but will spend a tenner on takeaway" is a bit snide to be honest and could come out of a Tory manifesto.

OU didn't say "can't be bothered..." he said won't put it on.

I know people who think (rightly or wrongly) it's wasteful to put the oven on for just one thing and who might, for instance, only want to cook a lasagna in the oven if they were also going to bake something afterwards.

Other people, me included, wouldn't bother with the lasagna but would use more or less the same ingredients to make something like spaghetti bolognese or penne ragu, but that's more because it saves time rather than saving on cooking costs

 

[weltweit]

If organisations want the high street to survive they could try to ensure that the prices punters pay online is the same as what they would pay in the high street.

This is the big bugbear for the high street, people go to the high street to try things on then go to the net to get a good price.

This isn't the first time this has happened, the problem has existed since the very start of the internet, and bricks and mortar shops have overheads that cost.

RRP has no teeth as has been proven in court in the past, but perhaps were RRP to return, the high street might have a chance.

 

[pesh]

Equally, there are shops that just want to go bust, HMV being a prime example, I was in the Bromley one recently and there were albums I wanted that were available from several bricks and mortar shops via Discogs for up to £10 less including delivery.

 

[pbsmooth]

HMV who have just announced plans to reopen Oxford St shop and a load more new sites...!

 

[what]

change of habits for many people. some are simply going out less and would rather get a takeaway, I'd imagine - especially if you can get it from the same place. same as food shopping, clothes shopping, cinema...
I read something about the upturn in people making coffee at home and buying beans is also hitting takeaway coffee places - when Costa shuts, you know the high street is fucked.

Costa just closed on my local high street and is being replaced by an independant greek bakers. My high street is diverse and thriving, 2 pubs, kebab shop, chicken shop, off licence, butchers, bakers, greengrocers/deli, cornershop convinience store, off licence, florist, couple of pizza places 2/3 cafes, a number of restaurants, 2 pubs and a bar dry cleaners etc etc. Now costa gone only one chain left. Its on the border of Camden and Islington 2 of the london boroughs with car onwership in only 1 in 3 households. Guess that means people walk to their local shops and use them and presumably dont want chains, the indepenedent cafes do well, Costas was always empty.

 

[pbsmooth]

Sounds expensive. These parts of central London are probably not typical!

 

[Brainaddict]

Sounds expensive. These parts of central London are probably not typical!

True, but it highlights that if people have a bit more money they like to shop at local specialist shops. Maybe if the Tories ended their program of deliberately impoverishing most of the population then more people would be able to afford small shops and the high streets might revive a bit. But what do I know? I'm not a Tory genius who thinks that lower wages will make for a stronger economy.

 

[pbsmooth]

I'd like that to be true and it could well be, certainly lots of talk of more people spending time/money locally post-covid and with changes to how we work. but how many people would still rather just go to 'the big Tesco' etc instead? as you say, at the minute impossible to know as everyone is looking to save money so even for someone who likes shopping locally and at independent places - like me - I need to do most of my shopping at Aldi/Sainsburys now just to afford it.

 

[hash tag]

Chesham appears to have a great little high street, complete with a post office at least 2 banks, 2 bookshops and a great model shop. I didn't notice any bookmakers nor any clothes shops. The only one was M & Co which had recently closed and one of the few empty units. It's also pedestrianised. Looked good to me.

 

[hash tag]

See the high street as was. A great museum.
"There's a melancholy there that the high street as it was doesn't exist in the way it did,"

1960s high street recreated at Black Country Living Museum

The Black Country Living Museum has recreated a 1960s high street, complete with former shops.

www.bbc.co.uk

 

[stavros]

Our old Debenhams is becoming a Range.

 

[_Russ_]

My boomer parents used to get a Chinese fairly regularly, but they used to drive and pick it up which is even worse for the environment compared to bikes. I don't think it's an age thing obviously Russ comment was very very silly.

Silly?, your posts only reinforce my view

 

[domestos]

I fear for Morleys. Despite gentrification I'm not sure the small designer label partitioning up of the floor space is going to work in Brixton

 

[BristolEcho]

Silly?, your posts only reinforce my view

I had to go back and see what I'd actually responded to it was that long ago. Your post was full of inane shit about "millennials" Very very silly.

"Our old Debenhams is becoming a Range."

Don't know why it won't quote Stravos properly - our massive one in Bristol is being demolished apparently.

 

[cupid_stunt]

"Our old Debenhams is becoming a Range."

Don't know why it won't quote Stravos properly - our massive one in Bristol is being demolished apparently.

Ours has planning permission in to retain retail on the ground floor, shared offices space above, and flats above that, which is all good IMO, as we need all of that.

As an added bonus, the developers are a small local firm, owned by two guys with roots in the Worthing area.

I had to go back and see what I'd actually responded to it was that long ago. Your post was full of inane shit about "millennials" Very very silly.

TBF, most of his posts are.

 

[mx wcfc]

Ours is apparently to become three separate restaurants.
(It's owned by Surrey County Council, apparently)

 

[hash tag]

very sad, very local news

 

[BigMoaner]

I fear for Morleys. Despite gentrification I'm not sure the small designer label partitioning up of the floor space is going to work in Brixton

amazed that it's still going tbh. also amazed that folk the disposable to shop there.

 

[skyscraper101]

Virgin Money. 39 sites being closed and 260 jobs lost.

Virgin Money to shut almost a third of UK branches - is your local bank affected?

A union urges a rethink as the lender argues the branches affected are no longer handling enough transactions to justify their existence.

news.sky.com

The 39 sites affected are as follows:

• Belfast
• Chelmsford
• Enfield
• Hexham
• London Haymarket
• St Albans
• Bournemouth
• Cheltenham
• Exeter
• Irvine
• Milton Keynes
• Swindon
• Brighton
• Chester
• Fort William
• Kendall
• Newton Stewart
• Turrif
• Bristol
• Croydon
• Golders Green
• Kensington
• Norwich
• Wolverhampton
• Bromley
• Derby
• Gosforth Centre
• Kingston
• Oxford
• Cambridge
• Durham
• Guildford
• Liverpool
• Reading
• Cardiff
• Ellon
• Harrow
• Lochgilphead