VillaChris Posted December 13, 2011 Share Posted December 13, 2011 It is a good thing for me. Online is cheaper, and gives me more time to do things I enjoy ie NOT shopping. Although there are somethings that I wouldnt buy online eg Suit, Shirts, Trousers etc Yeah same for me. Most of the xmas presents I'm getting for friends and family are books and DVDs and I'm getting them off Amazon rather than going to Waterstones and HMV. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TrentVilla Posted December 13, 2011 Moderator Share Posted December 13, 2011 erdington high street .....one half decent now a row of pound shops Erdington was full of £1 shops and people shopping in their slippers 20 years ago when I was a kid. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Meath_Villan Posted December 13, 2011 Share Posted December 13, 2011 it was around 20 years ago I was living there went back last year to have a look at the old house etc and the place is a ghost town Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mjmooney Posted December 13, 2011 VT Supporter Share Posted December 13, 2011 Posted this on Facebook earlier. Bradford city centre shopping in a nutshell: an empty shop with a picture of a full shop stuck to it, and a poster begging someone to rent it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kidlewis Posted December 13, 2011 Share Posted December 13, 2011 quite simply the quality independent and specialist stores will win the high street back as the likes of River Island HMV, either go bust or move more online. Stratford-upon-Avon whilst in quite possibly the most afluent area outside the south east of the country proves this. You have a Christmas shop selling decorations and gifts 364 days of the year. A tobacconist specialising in cigars, flavoured tobacco and pipes. independent sweet shop, leather good shops etc etc. Some of Stratford inevitably filled with pound shops, Burtons, Costa etc. FORTUNATELY these out of town retail parks will move many of the larger stores away from the high street enabling many stores to come back which were once there, but forced out due to very high rents. Now councils will be begging the high street to be filled and hopefully people can fill them with quality stores once more full of specialist shops to cater for the many. The benefit with online isn't the price to be honest, it's the ease of comparing products, then the price of the product you want, then you get discount and voucher codes added to that, you end up getting the best VALUE FOR MONEY. People seem to think it's ALWAYS cheaper online, but it really isn't, not with some things. The benefit of the independent and boutique stores is they cater for the MANY in one product. I will be dammed if ANY large high street vendor can cater for the amount and range of sweets in the one in Stratford. No way. the same goes for the leather shop when looking for gloves, jackets, the same goes for wanting a nice cigar at Christmas. All of the above the independent stores smash the back doors off the likes of Tesco and online, because they are products you need to see, try in person, either need very good knowledge of the products or need to speak to someone who knows the products very well. If I want a cigar I am not going online or to speak to some geek behind the newsagent stand in Morrisons. If I want some lovely Rubharb and custards, it's not going to be in a buy 1 get 1 free in Tescos If I want a CD well, it's Itunes I am afraid and HMV is a bit ****. all in all, my message is that the stores that benefit from the high street placement will survive no problem and fill the gap, because what they sell and their knowledge outweighs online and price. some stores cannot move with modern times and will fail. e.g. FOP, HMV will fall to the new age of digital media. Clothing stores will reduce to the core retail parks and have large outlets as well. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
peterms Posted December 13, 2011 Share Posted December 13, 2011 Posted this on Facebook earlier. Bradford city centre shopping in a nutshell: an empty shop with a picture of a full shop stuck to it, and a poster begging someone to rent it. The care lavished on the finish of the street surface suggests the council didn't see it coming. The adverts and letting signs suggest the private sector did no better. In the photo, the contrast between the inviting (fake) frontage and the utter lack of interest of the couple walking by is excellent. Heritage Streets Phase 1 ‘Investing in the public realm’ The creation of high quality public realm is a central principle of the City Centre Masterplan produced by Alsop in 2003. The document explains that 'investing in the public realm' has a core role to play in changing 'people's perception of living, working and playing in the City Centre' and thus 'changing the City's fortunes' The City Centre Design Guide takes this approach further and describes a strategy for improving the public realm in the city centre. High quality streets A Streetscape Design Manual has also been developed for the city centre to show how the vision of the regeneration plans should be applied to the city's streets. The manual aims to create high quality streets that are pleasurable places to be in, provide a setting for the fine buildings of the city, attract new visitors to the city centre and increase residents' sense of pride in Bradford. Well-designed high quality public realm can improve feelings of physical well-being, reduce crime and the fear of crime. It provides spaces for people to meet and interact and softens the urban fabric through the introduction of street trees and landscaping. It can also have a positive impact on the economic vitality of town and city centres. This public realm improvement scheme focuses upon Bank Street, Hustlergate and Tyrrel Street in the heart of the City Centre Conservation Area. The design approach is based upon de-cluttering, rationalisation of street furniture and high quality natural surfacing materials. Environmental sustainability is a key consideration, with the re-use of existing Yorkstone paving in the footways and the renovation of existing lighting columns. The scheme is within an existing ‘shared space’ pedestrian zone, where no kerb exists between the footway and the carriageway. This enables pedestrians to use the full width of the street but also raises issues for blind and partially sited people who often use a kerb to aid navigation. The Council have worked closely with Access and Mobility officers, the Planning and Highways Access Forum, local user groups and Guide Dogs for the Blind to develop an approach to ‘shared space’ which creates a safe space for people with visual impairments. New Traffic Regulation Orders are also being introduced to rationalise city-wide pedestrian zone times along with the installation of automatic bollards to control traffic entering the streets, making the streets more people-friendly. Materials The materials palette for the scheme aims to be a contemporary yet timeless mix of components to compliment the predominantly Victorian architecture. A European feel is being introduced into paving details to compliment the European details featured on many of the buildings. New, high quality seating and litter bins will also be introduced to compliment the existing lighting columns and finger post. Street trees are also included both for amenity value and to soften the urban landscape. The design will incorporate suitable infrastructure for outdoor events such as street markets. (Love the ref to "partially sited" people, btw. People who are only to some degree in a place?) Summer is fading: The leaves fall in ones and twos From trees bordering The new recreation ground. In the hollows of afternoons Young mothers assemble At swing and sandpit Setting free their children. Behind them, at intervals, Stand husbands in skilled trades, An estateful of washing, And the albums, lettered Our Wedding, lying Near the television: Before them, the wind Is ruining their courting-places That are still courting-places (But the lovers are all in school), And their children, so intent on Finding more unripe acorns, Expect to be taken home. Their beauty has thickened. Something is pushing them To the side of their own lives. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
villa4europe Posted December 14, 2011 Share Posted December 14, 2011 you have far more rights if you shop online, for example if something you bought in a shop doesnt fit they arent obliged to refund you, if you buy it online they are (within 7 days) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
irreverentad Posted December 14, 2011 Share Posted December 14, 2011 Posted this on Facebook earlier. Bradford city centre shopping in a nutshell: an empty shop with a picture of a full shop stuck to it, and a poster begging someone to rent it. mjmooney, is the Yates' still open in the town centre? I worked there for 4 years while at Uni......happy days! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mjmooney Posted December 14, 2011 VT Supporter Share Posted December 14, 2011 mjmooney, is the Yates' still open in the town centre? I worked there for 4 years while at Uni......happy days!Not sure. But I'm just off into town, so I'll tell you this afternoon. EDIT: Shit, forgot to check! :oops: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
A.J.Rimmer Posted December 14, 2011 Share Posted December 14, 2011 Landlords are one of the biggest problems small businesses face, demanding ridiculous sums for basically nothing. Remove the rentier, and there is far more chance of small independents thriving. You never quite grasped the concept of 'supply and demand', did you Peterms? Of course we could let local government run the shops as well... then, like I have, we could all witness old ladies queuing in the snow at night because the annual delivery of loo rolls has just taken place. Long live equal misery for all, Comrades! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kidlewis Posted December 14, 2011 Share Posted December 14, 2011 Also some high street stores do actually help "online". one example is clothes stores. You can go in, try the clothes on make sure they fit, then go online and buy them via a cashback site and discount code and get it a lot cheaper. they will still make a nice profit and if that store wasn't there for you to try them on you wouldn't have bought it online. I do that for most clothes and shoes now. what they need to do to show the TRUE trend of offline to online is: if you go into a store and try on the item of clothing, you go home and buy it online and enter the store code you visited. The incentive to do this will be free delivery on your product OR a voucher of £5 off or something they can afford in their margins for you to spend in that particular store. that way you can track a lot more offline to online sales. Again with holiday stores if you get a quote in a store and take that reference and input it online (thomson example) then that reference is tracked back to that store. If you book that holiday then you know which stores generated the lead. Some things will never replace a physical shop, just cannot happen. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Amsterdam_Neil_D Posted December 14, 2011 Share Posted December 14, 2011 It 's easier to list the things that are best purchased in person on the high street I suppose: jewellery for that special occasion is one and the health type stuff (Glasses / contacts / chemist et) Can't think of much else really. The shops have acted as a cartel and ripped everyone off for a generation IMO, I can't say I am shedding any tears for them now. The one thing they never wanted (competition) is now global. The only way I would go now is a Limo pick up and drop off with the whole shop closed only for me, what's the point otherwise (That's basically what the internet offers) ? No matter what the parking costs or the products, the high streets are I presume still full of idiots getting in the way, prams and such like bubbling over with pound shop tat adn the people who stop right in front of you, the list of cons for the high street is endless.. Do I need to go back to that... Its neck and next which will die first newspaper on paper or high street shops. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kidlewis Posted December 14, 2011 Share Posted December 14, 2011 high street shops will never die. as my earlier example of Stratford highlights. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mjmooney Posted December 14, 2011 VT Supporter Share Posted December 14, 2011 mjmooney, is the Yates' still open in the town centre? I worked there for 4 years while at Uni......happy days!Right, I had a look on my way home, and... No. Closed down. "To Let" sign up. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
irreverentad Posted December 15, 2011 Share Posted December 15, 2011 Cheers for doing that mj mooney. Thats a shame. Some really good laughs. I am beginning to feel old! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mjmooney Posted December 15, 2011 VT Supporter Share Posted December 15, 2011 Cheers for doing that mj mooney. Thats a shame. Some really good laughs. I am beginning to feel old!Were you at Bradford Uni, then? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bickster Posted December 15, 2011 Moderator Share Posted December 15, 2011 If Yate's are closing down, it has to be a sign of progress surely? **** awful chain of pubs Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
irreverentad Posted December 15, 2011 Share Posted December 15, 2011 Cheers for doing that mj mooney. Thats a shame. Some really good laughs. I am beginning to feel old!Were you at Bradford Uni, then? Yup. I was there from 2000-2003 but stayed there until 2004 waiting for the ex to finish Uni. Lived in some dives up Great Horton Road. Funny place Bradford. It always felt like it was on a knife edge where everything was about to kick off. There seemed to be so much tension. I was in Yates during the 2001 riots when the windows got smashed in. The City centre is horrible but some of the surrounding areas are stunning! Where abouts in the Centre do you work? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
omariqy Posted December 15, 2011 Share Posted December 15, 2011 Rare semi serious post from me... I live in Hackney on Chatsworth Road. I've been part of the traders and residents association for a while. We're pretty lucky that all the shops on the street are independent; no chains at all. A year ago we restarted the market and it's been a great success. Mary Said: Fundamentally I believe that our high streets are uniquely placed to deliver something new. I believe that our high streets can be lively, dynamic, exciting and social places that give a sense of belonging and trust to a community. A sense of belonging which, as the recent riots clearly demonstrated, has been eroded and in some instances eradicated. I also fundamentally believe that once we invest in and create social capital in the heart of our communities, the economic capital will follow. It's basically a really pleasant place to visit now. Rather than going to the mall for a coffee, people stay in the community, which strengthens it as we get to know each other, and also the money stays in the community too. Re free parking every situation is different: eg our street is a busy road and a bus route. Nearly all the parking is metered. What would help us would be for there to be more short stay (eg 20 mins) free spots so that the people driving through could stop off and pick up bits of groceries, a newspaper or a takeaway. Our association is putting together a neighbourhood plan to try to manage regeneration the way the community want, rather than the way the Council thinks we want, or a developer wants. It's been used as a good example case study in the Portas report... The report is very good; acknowledges many small businesses are badly run or haven't adapted their business model. Plenty of good work going on in Hackney. I do a lot of work with the Hackney Parochial Charities and hear many good stories. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AshVilla Posted December 15, 2011 Share Posted December 15, 2011 If Yate's are closing down, it has to be a sign of progress surely? **** awful chain of pubs Yates are always fun to walk past, Seeing students and chavs off their faces throwing up their £2.99 burger and a pint meal all over themselves i think you will struggle to find a better place to pick up a dirty ho from as well Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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