Vocal Voices

INTU the owner of many large shopping centres looks to be going into administration. And then there is the constant degrading of the High Street. There are lots of excuses and explanations mainly about online, parking charges, rent, business taxes and so on, but one thing is missing: our attitude..

Austerity pulled the handbrake on the spending of many of us, and Covid has simply stopped us from going shopping: full stop. However, I am getting the impression that many of us have woken up to the fact that a lot of what we did buy was unnecessary. We went shopping because it was in our blood and that was targeted by clever advertisers kidding us that going shopping was a 'family day out', something to look forward to.

More and more of us now appear to be looking at better ways of spending our time off. Maybe a walk in the country is the way to go or, yes, even a trip to the coast - that could be the saving of some seaside towns - and there are plenty of historical sites to be having a go at, but maybe not till Covid is over.

We'll probably get back 'to normal' eventually, but in the meantime we could really enjoy ourselves.

I think you are right about the shopping experience WM. Today we went past the local retail park to see how much queuing there was. Surprisingly there were no queues at M&S, Next, or Boots. I decided I would go into M&S to have a look round. I walked round once and came out again. It wasn't busy at all but there was a queue to go into the food hall. I wont be going back in a hurry as I have been using my local M&S Simply Food for my once a week shop and there have never been more than 3 or 4 in people in front of me and I have always manage to get what I wanted.

We are now only going food shopping.
Have started to go through or wardrobes. This includes holiday shorts T shirts and caps.
Mrs. e has losy weightso will also be giving dresses and skirts to a local charity shop.

I wouldn't have said that a lot of what we used to buy before Covid was "unnecessary" as such, because we've always been a bit careful with money, but where we would spend is on food treats and meals out. I can't see that we'll be resuming the latter anytime soon, probably not until all the current rules and regulations surrounding pubs, cafes and restaurants are lifted.

We've never really been the sort of folk to buzz into the nearest town or city and "do the shops", TBH, so our habits are really unchanged. We're no great loss to the High Street because we wouldn't be spending a lot of time there anyway.

Amazon is a trillion $ company at the demise of the high Street.

Where austerity hit the high Street is people with less money searched for cheaper ways to shop. Alibaba, Aliexpress and Bangood have boomed. When you can buy 10 jumpers or shirts for the price of 1 from the UK, it is worth taking a punt. If they turn out to be even half as good as the high Street, then you will continue to shop there.

The high Street dragged their heels with an online presence and suffered the consequence.

Covid was just the coup de grace for many of them.