Vocal Voices

Are to go
Even there flagship ones in London Cardiff and elsewhere we soon won't have a high street
I see they are keeping there stores in shopping centres tho

The days of the high street are coming to an end. Just about everywhere now has an internet presence, including the HS giants. They are killing their own shops.

Lots of concessions in their shops, so all those lose their jobs too.

It's such a shame for the staff, we'e losing the ones in Birmingham and Wolverhampton. They were really great stores when they were Rackhams (Birmingham) and Beatties (Wolverhampton) but they've both looked on the verge of closing for a few years now, since the takeover, as many departments have closed including the haberdashery in Birmingham which was always busy with customers.

Hard to know what will happen to the empty buildings now. Birmingham already has John Lewis, Selfridges, Harvey Nicks and Debenhams.

Amazed the store in Sutton Coldfield survived the cull, to be honest. It is located in the Gracechurch Shopping Centre and it is the only major store there (M&S is rather small and 50% food hall; BHS closed a few years back) and maybe that is why it survived, following on from saundra's post.

Back in the 1960's, Birmingham had two huge department stores on a bustling Corporation Street, Rackhams, as Jo mentioned, which became HoF, and Lewis's (nothing to do with John Lewis, it was a purely independent store). Corporation Street in 2019 is just going to be a dead shell; and empty HoF with a huge Poundworld opposite, and where Lewis's was, a rather down-market JD Wetherspoons. I guess everything will be now centered on the Bull Ring.

I think one of the problems with HoF is the fact that a lot of it is concessions / franchisees. It simply doesn't have a "brand presence". Certainly the Sutton Coldfield one didn't have much of a footfall when we were up there, and apart from the Café Zest for morning coffee (and that was a bit hit-and-miss at times), we rarely ventured into it. For any sort of clothes shopping, it was a 10 mile drive to the massive M&S at Ventura Park, Tamworth.

Another chain in trouble, which has stores in Gillingham and Sturminster Newton, is TOFS (The Original Factory Shop). It's said there will be store closures, but precise details are yet available.

We used to have a Beatties Jo, then it became House of Fraser, now its a Primark

It seems certain that all these store closures are one of the downsides of the introduction and the growth of Internet shopping.

To quote an old saying, "You aint seen nothing yet!"

Di, my first thought was for the staff too! I worked in the Swindon store for a whi!e, in a Shoe Studio concession - Swindon is on the list Cavendish House, the Cheltenham HoF seems to be safe - for now, anyway

Yes, a lot of people will be out of work.

It's the same all over. Wakefield isn't what it was. Leeds is OK though - bustlling even. Many places aren't though. Before all this blew up one of MrsC's old college friends said if House of Fraser shut there would be nothing left in Middlesborough and sure enough it is to close. So is the Darlington branch.

I suppose some problems can create an opportunity; if the High Street dies convert the empty shops into flats or houses, or is that too simple?

Ossie, that end of town will be pretty dead won't it. Thinking back to when there used to be Rackhams, Lewis's and the large Virgin Megastore up there it was bustling.

(Those who've been to the Old Joint Stock will know whereabouts we're talking about, if you stand outside the pub and with the Cathedral in front of you HoF is in the far right corner. That's 'the back of Rackhams', which is a local insult/phrase as apparently that was once a red light area so its not unusual to ask where someone, a female, is and be told that you'll find her around the back of Rackhams )

Ossie again, High St is looking a bit tidier these days and the work is progressing on the old Pavilions shopping centre as it's being transformed into a HUGE Primark, but then that's going to leave another large empty shop around the corner on New St when Primark moves out of that. The old BHS is now another H&M. The major change on High St is WH Smith. That's now downsized, they've closed the High St part of the store and you now access via what was the back entrance on Union St. Not sure if the upstairs is still open as it's not somewhere I shop very often.

Cromwell, that could be a solution couldn't it.