What's the current situation on your local high street?
Posted by CluelesssDev@reddit | AskUK | View on Reddit | 32 comments
I just watched a BBC news video about convenience stores selling drugs, so I just wondered how everyone's local high street is doing? It was a great video which exposed what we all already expected to be happening.
My local high street has seen 6 new convenience/vape/american sweet shops open in the last 2 years. On top of that, 4 new barber shops. I rarely see a single customer in any of the shops/barbers. But i've often seen the owners turning up in bentleys/range rovers/labourghinis.
How's it going in your area? and why do the police turn a blind eye to this stuff? It's not exactly subtle...
Krakshotz@reddit
Doing ok to be honest. We just lost our The Original Factory Store a few weeks ago (formerly Woolworth’s and Wilko’s). Our branch of Santander us going next month, we’ve lost almost all our banks now (HSBC, Halifax, Yorkshire, Barclays. Last one standing is NatWest
There is one property at the other end of the High Street that has been empty for years and the Rymans next to it really needs to refurb the frontage as it’s disgusting and rotten.
We gained a Hotel Chocolat which was a rather unusual addition. And a dodgy “convenience store” that sells bongs and has them on display in the window
NoodleDoodlesocks@reddit
The actual pedestrian area looks like a slum with so many shops closed and in disrepair. The shopping areas either side of the pedestrian area with on street parking seems to be doing pretty well with locally owned businesses.
markvauxhall@reddit
Local highstreet is doing pretty well, but it has strongly refocussed to services - e.g. coffee, fitness, nail salons, etc. Honestly I think it's reasonable given that's what people actually spend their money on in the high street these days.
Only one vape shop.
cbawiththismalarky@reddit
Yep lovely, the council has just done a nice bit of redevelopment, added in some more benches
PurpleOctopus6789@reddit
Don't know. I live 5 mins walk from my high street, I haven't been there in like 6 months.
nothingnew09876@reddit
The shops in our towncentre open at 10am and close by 5pm at the latest.
I won't be able to shop at any of these premises untill I retire.
MarcusH26051@reddit
Great for restaurants bars and cafes , not so good if you need to buy clothes and things.
Wanita_1972@reddit
You’ll be in yarm then.
Routine_Ad1823@reddit
I feel like I'm quite lucky in that mine is always busy and we have a load of independents and nice cafes etc, as well as the usual chains.
I guess being quite a wealthy area helps.
Robtimus_prime89@reddit
For the local high street, we have a lot of vape shops - and there’s one part of it where there are around 6 different chicken shops in close proximity (3 or 4 of them are pretty much next to each other, with the others a few doors down or across the road)
In the actual town centre, there are quite a lot of empty units (they’ve put a couple of table tennis tables in some to make it look less empty). The whole place feels a bit run down - lifts and escalators not working, and some shutters have been broken for around 18 months now (the shop is still open - but you can’t use the downstairs entrance to get in or out)
Ok_Economist7901@reddit
Very poor, one of the lowest shop occupancy rates in the country, beggars and homeless on every corner. General feeling that after 7pm the zombies come out. This is a town of > 300k people. 15 years ago it was buzzing, great independent shops and the chain ones too, decent coffee shops, big M and S. That closed 2 years ago. Demographics have changed massively. For some reason we‘ve now got big and growing Nigerian and Somalian communities which has caused a lot of moaning on social media. Not sure why they’d come to this particular town tbh…
MisterWednesday6@reddit
Too many vape shops. They're an absolute eyesore.
good4rov@reddit
In south east commuter town and it’s dreadful unfortunately, very few chains let alone thriving independents.
I think the decline of the high street is one of the very major, visible reasons people think the country isn’t working as it should.
bhaskarosrs@reddit
Leicester city centre is fast food shops, discount shops, vape shops, charity shops, barbers
Itchy-Book402@reddit
And a few Chinese/Korean supermarkets. There are also two shopping centres just by the High Street. Honestly, I think Leicester city centre does very well.
bhaskarosrs@reddit
assergive beggars put people off going
fosse shopping park has free car parking and 0 assergive beggars
pickindim_kmet@reddit
Four open places. Chippy, pub, carpet shop and a community centre for a specific sect of people. It's always been bad but it's probably rock bottom now.
The last corner shop closed down a couple of years ago, I was actually walking by when the police were putting the owner into the back of the police car. I don't think it opened again after that.
bownyboy@reddit
A Turkish barbers just opened in our village complete with the dazzling LED light up signs. Now I’m 🤔
sailorstew@reddit
You know I went to my high street with my wife and baby a few weekends ago, I thought it would be dead but actually quite a lot of people everywhere. There's some empty shops but still a lot of people in and out, parking was a nightmare. Just wish the rents would come down and some independents took Iver the vacant spots. There's a few Turkish barbers phone shops and vape etc but still a lot of your normal retailers as well. (H&M, Boots, Dunelm, M&S etc)
GaryJM@reddit
My local high street is doing amazingly well. According to the local paper, there are 94 shops and 90 of them are occupied. 70% of the businesses are independent ones.
NannyOggLancre@reddit
Mine has similar occupancy and size. It’s a suburban London high street and has a handful of chains, little supermarkets and plenty of independent shops and cafes. It isn’t posh,and it is towards the functional end of the market and I use it regularly for the post office top up shops, haircuts, cards, pharmacy, ethnic supermarket, greengrocers etc. it has about 3 “dodgy” shops (ie vape shop, quiet barber, offy with no customers) which is low vs other high streets.
What makes it work is the “anchors” - post office, small Aldi, a nursery, a huge independent pharmacy (plus 2 chains), the library and tube station. All of these keep the footfall high, which brings in more businesses. The health centre is just behind the high street and also brings in some footfall.
However, with high energy costs, wages and taxes, I think that fewer people will take a risk opening new high street businesses going forward, so im not optimistic in the long term….
buginarugsnug@reddit
Ours is actually doing really well. We have two independent greengrocers, two independent butchers, a number of independent restaurants and coffee shops, one chain coffee shop, two local chain bakeries and one national chain bakery. We do have the usual amount of charity shops but no vape stores yet, one phone repair shop recently opened. There's also quite a few hairdressers and beauty places but only two barber shops.
Small market town in the North East.
lovesorangesoda636@reddit
Not bad actually... local butcher, fishmonger, greengrocer. Multiple coffee shops including chains and local ones. Clothing shops, a furniture shop, Boots & Superdrug, kids clothes, bars & restaurants, charity shops, excellent bookshop... and that's a small town attached to a city.
The city centre isn't as good. Lots of places have closed or downsized, vape/american sweet shops on every street, almost no local shops so its just all chains. There's not a lot of reason to go to the city centre tbh.
BowlerImmediate7005@reddit
did it say which had the best cocaine for sale.? and postcode? asking for a friend
Itsstillyourturn@reddit
Big bust round the corner from me a couple of weeks agohttps://www.bristolpost.co.uk/news/bristol-news/gallery/drugs-vapes-booze-seized-three-10879981
650 bags of weed and a garage of illegal vapes and booze, no arrests and the shops were open the same afternoon.
Trying to think of a scenario where I get caught with 650 individual bags of weed and don't get arrested.
DoctorWhofan789eywim@reddit
Barbers. Charity shops. Cex. More barbers. Chippy.
Paull7@reddit
Apart from the vape shops, Turkish barbers & the walking dead, not much.
BeatsAndBeer@reddit
Same. Fake “organic food” mini markets which happen to sell vapes that are empty all the time but can pay their rent.
dbltax@reddit
There's been a bit of redevelopment in recent years, but alongside a bunch of new chains there's still loads of independent shops that have been here for decades, local eateries and a fuckload of charity shops (9 at last count.)
cgknight1@reddit
Nothing of the sort - my high street is not big enough for 10 shops let alone what you are suggesting!
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