More high street shops closing

[Mups]

Loads of the  'Scope'  charity shops are having to close now because of costs and overheads.

And also, I see that Morrisons are closing 16 branches of their supermarkets today.
More WHSmith's are going,  along with 136 branches of Lloyds banks,  and Sainsbury's are closing all their in-store cafes!

Oh well,  look on the bright side -  at least it will make room for some more Vaping shops and Tattoo parlours!

[Scrumpy]

We lost our large M&S last year.. It was the main store in our shopping mall.. Because of this the shoppers became fewer and smaller shops are now closing..
Sainsbury's closed their instore cafe a few years back..
We have a Morrisons in my town along with an M&S food store..  I do hope they remain open.. Should they close the town will die..

[GrannyMac]

John Lewis closing was a blow here. Especially after Debenhams went.  I'm not a fan of indoor Malls, Meadowhall is near here and very popular, but I prefer outdoor shopping, unless the weather is really dire.   

[klondike]

My local town centre once housed a huge stalled market square that drew many to town in the 60's



The council seems to have delared war on that and have just spent a year with the area under reconstruction and all the stalls pushed way out so most of the regular stallhoders have moved on. After spending millions just a few stalls remain which attract few and the centre continues to decline with most of the big shops just memories now.

This is an aerial view of the £12.4m area redevelopment. I walked through it the other day and the area was virtually deserted apart from the obligatory drunks and other dossers. A big chunk is taken up by one of those water sprays every 5 or 10 yards. The previous small water feature was closed years back because of the risk of Legionnaires disease so I imagine this one may go the same way.

[Alex]

Same here, although Cheshire Oaks seems to thrive.

[Scrumpy]

Our market place has gone too..... It used to be wonderful .. many stalls... Cheeses from France .. Freshly cooked bread... and fresh fruit and veg..
The council are bloody stupid closing it down..It is a part of Reigate that lays bare and nothing can be built there..
The one in the next town has also gone.. stupid .. stupid..

Could it be that the people don't want them anymore.!!
Since Covid more customers  use home deliveries or take the car to shop in supermarkets..

[dextrous63]

It's great that towns and cities are allegedly trying to improve public transport and cycle lanes etc.

It's a pity that cyclists have nowhere secure to put their bikes while they shop or eat out (surely some of the numerous empty shop units could be brought into use for this).  It's also a pity that there's an increase in the number of mugging of bikers and their goods, since there's hasn't been a related increase in cctv and/or police monitoring of cycle lanes.

But most of all, it's a pity that having gone to the effort and expense of enabling people to travel to town centres, there are fewer and fewer shops and hence reasons to actually bother going.

[Scrumpy]

I agree.. We have a good bus service into our towns but very few passengers.. nothing to see when they get there..  Parking is expensive if we drive.. It would seem that the plan is to keep people/cars off the streets.. and do all our shopping online..
 We have a community centre nearby.. even that place is mostly empty.. It is a centre for all ages..