A slow, lingering death
The heart of the community?
I was in a small market town this morning. Much to my surprise, it boasted a full complement of coffee shop chains and so I headed off to my favourite. I was quite surprised at how quiet everything was, even though it was nearly 10AM and there are only 10 days till “Winterval”. The town looked reasonably prosperous, with even the local “Woollies” replaced with a decent-looking (and enormous!) “pound shop”. But while it was not eerily still, I was taken aback at how quiet it was.
I was chatting to the chap making the coffee about this and he said that with the departure of Woolworths from the town, there wasn’t really anywhere you could buy toys in the town. Consequently, most of the people had taken to doing their shopping in the nearest city. And while they were buying the toys, they would be buying everything else there as well.
I was a bit taken aback, but it did make sense.
It was curiously sad and pathetic to be in a place that was that still at this time of year. I fear that it will soon be a hollow shell, filled with boarded windows and graffiti on the walls.
I hope I’m wrong.
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1
December 15, 2009 at 16:07 -
Just as so many village “communities” have now atrophied with the loss of shops and services, it could be that the smaller and more vulnerable market towns could be losing their retailers and others and on their way down.
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2
December 15, 2009 at 16:09 -
Tesco’s are advertising bicycles on the telly at the moment. So now they sell bikes as well as all the toys, DVDs, CDs, peg-bags, children’s clothing, dishcloths, crockery, lawn-feed blah blah blah that Woolies used to sell. If I want to buy a music CD I now have to go to my nearest supermarket rather than to Woolies (or OLWORT ‘S as my local was known once some of the letters had fallen off the wall) and since I despise my nearest supermarket for every little it helped bring about the demise of Woolies, no-one will be getting a music CD from me this year.
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3
December 15, 2009 at 16:48 -
Thaddeus,
Sadly you won’t be wrong. My local town (spit) is full of empty shops….(I was hoping that was a paradigm but I don’t think it is..Help!!) The local council has attempted to hide the truth by having their windows papered over with joyous scenes which fool no one…not even the depressed young mothers and their absent fathers….last of all…me!! -
4
December 15, 2009 at 17:39 -
Tunbridge Wells (Iain Dale’s stomping ground) has been similar. The out of town “Retail Park” was very busy on both of the last two weekends, with nowhere to park for ages, queues at changing rooms & tills. But TW town centre was strangely half-empty. It cannot just be the lack of Woolies – there seems to have been a shift in people’s habits, which bodes ill for High Streets everywhere.
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5
December 15, 2009 at 18:16 -
Maybe it’s just towns in the south – all to an identikit formula of New Look, Boots, Jessops, H. Samuel, Carphone Warehouse etc. I know of several small towns in the North East boasting wide and elegant High Streets and not a chain-store anywhere to be seen but lined with independent boutiques, jewellers, cafes and restaurants, clothes shops selling Prada, D&G etc – and appearing to do a thriving trade.
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6
December 15, 2009 at 18:23 -
There are sound business reasons to do out of town retailing – cheaper business rates for a start. Starting from scratch with an open space means plenty of car parking and nice big shops. The reason high streets are choking is cost. In my town there has been a steady churn of ‘hobby shops’ run by people who have a bit of cash (inherited, downsized their home, extended their mortgage etc) and burn it up trying to earn an honest living.
This situation seems to have come about through planning authorities allowing big retail chains to set up shops here, there and everywhere. It has also not been helped by neverending fiddling with the tax regime and employment law that usually favours the big chains. Big businesses will usually be more efficient and better able to exploit their many advantages. This is in the interests of the consumer to some degree except it seems to be reducing choice as well as prices.
I went shopping in York at the weekend and was astonished at how few shoppers there were. Car parks are normallly heaving and the streets chockablock with zombie like people keen to splash a little cash. It wasn’t like this at all. One shop had already discounted their wrapping paper twice – first half price and then a bit more off.
I don’t think it is just due to out of town retail though. There just isn’t enough of that about to explain it. Battening down the hatches? Credit cards maxed? We can’t be buying that much on the internet. Something is up somewhere. The fiscal reckoning is upon us.
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7
December 15, 2009 at 19:21 -
Don’t worry folks, there will soon be a chain of ‘Ainsworth and Brown’ shops opening up in every town all across the country giving away huge wads of someone elses cash in exchange for your vote and you will also be able to purchase one of their raffle tickets, first prize a ride in a helicopter.
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8
December 15, 2009 at 19:24 -
On my visit last week to England I made a specific trip to Tesco Colchester to get a BMX bike for son no. 1 at 1/3 of the cost it is here in Italy. What a depressing, soul-sucking experience it was. Still, I have £ 12o left in my pocket that I wouldn’t otherwise have, which is their main (and pretty much only) suit.
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9
December 15, 2009 at 19:53 -
I live in Ilfracombe on the beautiful North Devon Coast. Our High Street is also empty, as everyone is either shopping at Tesco (we only got one last year) or in Barnstaple. We did a head count of empty (or closing down) shops last week and there are now more than 50% of our High Street shops, either closed or closing. When asked, most owners did NOT cite Tesco as the problem – the main problem was the fact that the business rates (due to an historical mishap 15 years ago when the Town Clerk ran off with the ENTIRE Town Council precept for the year – we had a “one off ” massive increase that somehow never went away) are higher on our High Street than they are in Mayfair. Our business rates are, on average, around 3 times the amount of rent. To give an example – one shop, with a turnover of around £100K pays around £7K in rent and over £20K in business rates – which more or less wipes out any profit and certainly takes no account of seasonal variations. In addition, this year, they have all been targeted by the fire service and have had to pay for new alarm systems and staff “training” – costing anything up to £10K. So, with depleted income from the Tesco Effect, there is probably not a single shop that, after council tax and fire service red tape this year, that will make a profit. There is a council tax rebate available to new businesses in the first year but (and this IS clever), they HAVE to pay up front and then see if they can claim it back (this process is so slow that almost everyone who has held back payment awaiting the rebate has been visited by the bailiffs this year – demanding money that the council KNOW will not be owing).
So – we have over 50% of the High Street empty (although, under new rules – even if you close your shop, they will STILL demand business rates until someone else takes it over) and those left are mostly charity shops (who are exempt from business rates).
We could survive Tesco by offering a different range of goods and good old fashioned “service” but, sadly, the council is responsible for almost every closure we have had this year – some shops that have been there over 100 years – and don’t get me going on the pubs!!!! -
10
December 15, 2009 at 21:03 -
Where is the Ministry for Communities and Culture in all this?
Same place as the Ministry of Truth, I’d imagine.Brings a whole new meaning to the term ‘Sold Out’, does it not?
YM x
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11
December 15, 2009 at 21:46 -
Ah, so Tesco don’t buy up bits of land outside the existing town centre and somehow manage to secure planning for a nice super-outlet which is built in the middle of empty fields, only then to be in-filled with nice new housing, thus expanding the town and further emptying the dear old (possibly Georgian) town centre? And is this developed land ever found to be owned by …. Tesco? Hmm?
Nah. Surely not. You’d never find that happening, any more than you would find mortgage and banking leaflets set out for perusal while you sling your shopping onto the conveyor belt at the Tesco checkouts.
Nah, Glo, you’re just a cynic.
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12
December 15, 2009 at 23:44 -
I’m afraid small town centres have priced themselves out of the market: if you look at parking, for instance, most small town centres charge a lot for parking for even the shortest of visits.
So people stay away and go to the out of town retail parks where parking is free.
My local shopping centre is enlightened enough to have a large free car park (I believe owned by the shops) and its always busy.
Compare that with on-street and council parking which costs anywhere from £1 to £1.60 an hour.
The shopping centres that are thriving either have cheap parking, or a large enough variety of shops to attract shoppers into doing a one-stop shop.
I see in the next town from us (that has no free parking), that things are not looking so rosy and quite a lot of shops have closed down in the past year. -
13
December 17, 2009 at 14:38 -
Delphius1 is pretty much spot-on.
In my local town, they’ve whacked up the town centre parking charges (£1 per hour now), reduced the speed limits on all the approach roads to 30 (they were all 40 a few years ago), installed dozens of new sets of traffic lights, loads of speed bumps, and closed the High Street to everything except buses and old dears with blue badges mootering along at 10mph.
So naturally enough, nobody bothers. Instead they just park at Tesco’s on the outskirts – it’s open 24 hours and has everything you’ll ever need.
Funny thing is, the same local authority jobsworths who put in all the obstructions are now writing to the local paper bewailing the death of the High Street…
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