Death of the High Street

Osklen said:
Just set myself up presumably the parking perx card is just the card in your phone wallet (which is linked to your registered card)?

does it work with only participating retailers? If so doesn’t look like there are many signed up yet.
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An actual card came in post which I think you use to pay for parking once it gets rewards on it.
 


I think there’s an opportunity for very local shopping areas to benefit. I live in a very small town where pretty much everyone can walk into the centre. It’s developed over the last ten years or so from a place of antique shops and hairdressers to a good mix of independent shops with plenty of cafes, bars and restaurants. Sometimes (in pre Covid times) we’d just pop into town for no reason other than for a potter around and browse some shops and to grab a cuppa or a pint.

A load of the independent places have benefitted from social media as well, being able to drive attention and awareness pretty much for free.

And of course there will be more working from home in the future with the chance of lunchtime visits and perhaps even the odd morning or afternoon doing your work in a cafe or something.

Going to the bigger shopping centre in a nearby town is done occasionally for a specific reason and can be irritating.

So places like Sea Road, rather than city centres might be the ones to benefit longer term.
 
Gelan said:
I'm a hopeful individual, but I have no idea if this lesson will be heeded. Those that "want" and want now and cheap, will not think in a universal way, or have any regard over what their greed will bring eg: A smaller planet with less resources and more viruses, child labour, more lockdowns that will ultmately kill millions in the third world. In the West we see ourselves as fair whilst consuming at a rate that is both stomach churning and immoral. Covid is the enemy? No...it's us! Covid has rules to balance society and ultimately save it, we have none regarding the bringing about of our own demise.
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I hope you’re right, I really do, but I think ‘hopefully’ is the key word in both of your posts. As much as reshoring and shopping local is needed, I just think we’re too much of a capitalist society to ever realise it. Sadly, I think it’ll take something far worse than a pandemic to shift public opinion.
 
Meathead said:
I hope you’re right, I really do, but I think ‘hopefully’ is the key word in both of your posts. As much as reshoring and shopping local is needed, I just think we’re too much of a capitalist society to ever realise it. Sadly, I think it’ll take something far worse than a pandemic to shift public opinion.
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Well we actually know what is far worse...the next virus, but too many live for now, but in the worse possible way.
 
avacado said:

Park FREE on your local High Street | ParkingPerx

www.parkingperx.com

I’ve my card all ready set up. Just need to get out shopping.
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I'm not one who usually cares about it but that scheme sounds like a right back door route of tracking where people are going around city centres.

Would be much easier to go for the Teesside way and just offer 2 free hours parking without fannying around believe it's been funded by the Tees Valley Combined Authority. Shame NECA couldn't do the same up here as there's a few places that would benefit from it massively; Durham, Sunderland and South Shields in particular.
 
I get theres complications but i’ve said before now is the time the idea of the high street has to change, not just shops and money making but giving people and families an experience to add to their day not just wander slowly round the same shops !


imagine mini golf/virtual golf on the high street ( they’ve just opened one in Washington ) a good arcade for the bairns, proper market stalls not just for a few days

But imagine taking the kids for a daft bit of mini golf, bite to eat n a pint then walk over the new walkway in a few years to watch the match !

be so much better than the current experience which is next to nothing !

Yeah Primark will always be there, Greggs at the bottom too but the rest of it should be fair game to do a massive amount with !

if its done right, it could show the way for other similar centres or high streets the way to survive moving forward post covid ( which has just sped up the death of the high street !
 
monkeytassle said:
I'm actually contrariant to this. I think local town centres will rebuild and thrive. It's the leveraged dreary shite in out of town commercial centres that will take the hit. Rubbish, leveraged chains like pets at home and Laura Ashley. Smaller retailers will fill the gap especially if people wfh more. Nip to the local cafe and pop into the butcher or pet shop. The main barrier is high rents and parking charges. Online retail clearly an issue so the composition of towns/villages will change. White goods retailers for example will die.

Stuff like hairdressers, funeral directors, nail bars, coffee shops, grocers, Butcher's, florists, restaurants etc ought to do very well
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I hope local estate pubs become a thing again.
 

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