So many shops closing, so much online shopping

I have had to resort to online sometimes.
Garden centres, which seem to be more cafés and gifts these days than anything remotely to do with gardening, have several shops, or franchises attached. goodness knows how they got planning permission so at Dobies you can buy clothes, shoes, kitchenware and there's even a branch of waitrose.
It's very popular with the elderly. Under cover with a vast free carpark.

Septimia

Shopping habits have certainly changed.

What we need is to turn the upper floors of the shopping districts into nice homes and have bars, restaurants and independent retailers on the ground floor. These then open e.g. afternoons and evenings (noon - 10pm?) when the people living above have time to patronise them.

Yes this is exactly what’s needed.

If this is a shop of the future, I don’t think it’s going to tempt me into town! www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cdryvnzl4zeo Jenners used to be an absolute emporium of goodies, there was always something that caught one’s eye. My oldest dd now wears some of the clothes I purchased there, back in the 80’s.

I miss a good shopping trip, with lunch or coffee & cake. Going into town for something specific is often a waste of time nowadays and by the time you add in parking, it’s expensive. Recently, I wanted wedding confetti. I couldn’t find anywhere in town that sold it so came home and ordered it from the Big River company being discussed on another thread. It came the next day, just the job.

We’ve still got a quality clothes shop, and any number of outdoor shops where you can buy the best in boots and jackets etc. we also have a specialist shoe shop for awkward feet, a baker, and two butchers. I know we’re lucky, but a combination of local people who still use the town, and tourism is maintaining services, for now at least. It’s not a big town either, less than 10,000 people. All the surrounding towns are similar too. I think if you live in a rural community it’s so important to have a thriving centre.

My point was, really, that some people want to buy locally irrespective of the fact that something more suitable may be available online (or that it will take a second trip into town).

The shops that thrive are the ones selling cheap clothing - shops like Primark and Poundland. To buy good quality clothes, supermarkets apart, you have to go online

She has been to a specialist shop but they don't have the styles she likes in stock in the size she really needs.
She always seems to need one width wider in the styles she prefers.
The ones that fit her in the shop she "wouldn't be seen dead in".
They can order in but she won't do it.
They tell her what she needs but she always decides the ones she tries in the shop "will do for now".

She is extraordinarily single minded.
I've pointed out that if the ones ordered in don't suit the shop will deal with it. She won't do it.

She won't let me buy the SAME shoe in a wider fit online either because she doesn't want me to have to return it.
🤷‍♀️

Obviously it will most likely be just right!

NotSpaghetti

My mother-in-law won't buy shoes online. She has oedema abd her local wide-fit shoe shop doesn't carry her size. She won't order in to the shop (in case it's still wrong) and she won't let me order online.
It drives me nuts

If she has oedema, then buying on line is just not the right thing to do. She needs to go to specialist shop.

We have some nice indie shops here and footfall is greatly helped by having a decent and free central car park, with clean toilets. New shops can and do open up from time to time but none of the big names and we don`t have betting shops nor nail bars

Only a very small proportion of people are unable to travel to the shops though Barleyfields. It’s a choice for the majority. Towns will die if people don’t use them. I don’t think not being able to get everything you need there is a reason to stop going there to buy the things you can still get myself, but every local community will make those choices, and it will be down to them if their towns die. Much harder for cities with lots of chains closing down.

We can’t if we’re unable to travel to the shops Claremont, or if, as in my nearest town, you absolutely cannot buy everything you need.

My mother-in-law won't buy shoes online. She has oedema abd her local wide-fit shoe shop doesn't carry her size. She won't order in to the shop (in case it's still wrong) and she won't let me order online.
It drives me nuts

Barleyfields

Presumably, Claremont, you are able to visit shops which sell everything you require. Many of us are not, and rely on online shopping.

Yes, mostly. And honestly, these days I try to buy less and less. We actually 'require' very little these days and yes I can get it locally.

But it is a vicious circle, and we all can influence what happens next with our town centres.

So many times I've been into the city centre - Edinburgh- only to discover that even the few shops still functioning have very low stock and they suggest I go online!

I drowned sorrows at a coffee shop, of which there are many, and get on a bus home. 😟

It is just the same in the town near me - no Debeenhams, BHS, Woolworths, Wilko, to name but a few. I hate shopping online and absolutely refuse to buy clothes and shoes from anywhere but a proper shop!
Even fabric shops are on the decline and an order I placed recently for a customer's garment was such poor quality I couldn't use it.

watermeadow

It’s a vicious circle. As more shops close it becomes impossible to buy most things locally so you have to order on line, and as more people shop on line more shops close.
I live in a pretty little market town which used to get a lot of tourists but they liked the independent shops, not chain stores. Sky-high business rates and rents have driven out the independents.

I think that is something the government could do with councils to reduce the burden on shopkeepers. Control of both rent and rates would reinvigorate a lot of towns - although Claremont is right, they will die if we don’t use them.

Presumably, Claremont, you are able to visit shops which sell everything you require. Many of us are not, and rely on online shopping.

It’s a vicious circle. As more shops close it becomes impossible to buy most things locally so you have to order on line, and as more people shop on line more shops close.
I live in a pretty little market town which used to get a lot of tourists but they liked the independent shops, not chain stores. Sky-high business rates and rents have driven out the independents.

We will have the towns we deserve. If we switch to buying on line- more and more shops will close. No town can survive on coffee shops (mostly run by large foreign firms like Starbucks, that pay little to no tax here), and charity shops. Then towns will just disappear and we will all live behind screens.

VERY sad.

A council in our area have rejuvenated a row of empty shops. Let them out for a tiny rent to try and get things moving in the right direction. It seems to be working at the moment

Like SilverBrook, I tend to order on line when I can't find it after looking locally.

My DH likes a particular herbal tea, we get certain dog treats that help neutralize the acidity of her urine so she won't ruin the lawn, etc.

An online order about twice a month for small things. I like to try on clothing and feel it before purchase, so I usually wait unit I am at a larger city (a few times a year) with a list.

I tried to check if an item was actually in my not very "local" M&S three weeks ago.
They couldn't (or wouldn't) tell me.
I waited ages - maybe 20 mins in the phone queue.

I did without.

I needed to buy a Phillips Hue lightbulb, price is approx £50.
I checked on line and John Lewis were showing 5 of the lightbulbs in stock at the Brent Cross branch, which is a half hour drive for me. They were a similar price to Amazon. Off I trot to John Lewis, as I really do prefer physical shopping. Use it or lose it I’m constantly told. Needless to say, a wasted trip for me, as JL didn’t have ANY in stock, never mind 5. It took ages to find a shop assistant to help me, and I was told I could order the item online, and that somebody hadn’t updated the stock levels. Not my first negative experience of this type at a shop. It’s almost as if they deliberately discourage physical shoppers, and want to push us all into shopping online.

I much prefer to shop in person. I also want to support local shops or in the end the big stores will have everything and then when we have no choice they will put up the costs and we will not be able to do anything but pay their prices. So I buy as much as possible from local market , which gives me choice as I live alone and do not want 6 or 8 whatever but want variety. Then I always go to local chemist and pay cash as much as possible . If we do this then we will sill have choice.

Here in Brighton we have all the little independent shops in the North and South Laines that still seem to be thriving.. Debenhams has closed down but is being transformed into an Ikea..
There are a few shops that have closed down but on the whole the streets are still thronged with people.. and you have to go past many to get from the Station to the beach so I expect quite a few visitors are using them..